Breaking news overnight out of the UK:
LONDON — A British High Court ruled Friday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States to face charges of violating the Espionage Act.
The 50-year-old Australian will remain in London’s Belmarsh prison, where he has been held since April 2019 after the Ecuadoran Embassy revoked his political asylum.
Assange’s lawyers probably will file a final appeal to the British Supreme Court, which could either reject hearing the case or take it — if the highest court sees in the appeal a point of law “of general public importance.” That process could take weeks or months.
The U.S. charges are for espionage related to the publication of files and documents in 2010. The U.S. won the extradition appeal by agreeing to certain conditions if Assange is brought to the U.S. to stand trial, including the following, according to CNN:
Assange would not be made the subject of “special administrative measures”; nor would he be held at a maximum security prison before or after trial. In addition, the US would “consent” to an application by Assange to be transferred to Australia to service his sentence (if convicted); and while in custody in the US, Assange would receive “appropriate clinical and psychological treatment.”
Assange’s lawyers claim he would be at high risk of suicide in a U.S. prison because he’d be subject to harsh treatment. I’m not sure what charges he’s being held on in the UK. Is it still for evading charges in Sweden, which have since been dropped?
I don’t know and don’t care enough to look it up, but one way or another, Assange has been locked up for years. When dragged out of the Ecuadoran embassy looking like a disheveled garden gnome, he certainly gave the impression of being unhinged.
Anyhoo, IIRC, the present U.S. charges were leveled by the Trump admin after the Obama admin had declined to pursue them on the grounds that the case could subject publishers to espionage charges. IMO, Obama made the right decision.
Do we really want to import this rat on the taxpayer dime? I’d rather see an indictment for colluding with Russia to rig the 2016 U.S. election if sufficient evidence exists for a charge.
Open thread.
Baud
I saw the title and feared this post was going to be about me.
Chief Oshkosh
Open Thread?
tfg nearly killed the outlaw jersey whale. Good times.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/where-things-stand-december-9-2021-trump-infected-chris-christie-with-covid/sharetoken/daKXxPUvpZoN
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: It is all about you because everything is all about you. How else will you win in 2022 and 2024?
Welcome back.
OzarkHillbilly
Important caveat:
From the Guardian.
As to whether we get him or not, I really don’t care one way or the other.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: We have a choice?
debbie
@Baud:
Welcome back!
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Glad to see you back in the Jackaltariat.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
@SiubhanDuinne:
@debbie:
Thanks!
@OzarkHillbilly:
I thought anyone could be voted off the
islandblog.debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Isn’t this one of those “good riddance to bad rubbish” moments?
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: Interesting. I assume “future” in that context means after the extradition, not after the alleged 2010 crimes. The Obama admin’s hesitancy about charging Assange for the 2010 leaks was understandable, though you can make a reasonable argument that he went far beyond the role of a publisher in egging Manning on. But Assange was a direct actor in the 2016 election meddling.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Interesting that those international collection programs got shut down courtesy of Assange’s whingeing – programs which would have been useful in identifying American co-conspirators with ramped up social manipulation of the US populace. Then once the manipulation was evident, his co-conspirators magnified it.
He did immense damage. I’d prefer him to be in the ground along with his buddy Greenwald.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Yeah Baud!
Good to see you ???
rikyrah
As far as Assange…
?????
West of the Rockies
@debbie:
Good riddance to Baud rubbish!
Oh, wait…
Jay
Is there a fast track path to just jailing him in Oz?
Belmarsh to Oz with no foot on US soil?
Welcome back Baud, good vacay?
Your Presidential Campaign has lagged in your absence.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yeah but they keep coming back. Take me for example.
@Betty Cracker: I took it as “As long as he behaves himself while incarcerated.” which is the deal for all prisoners. It begs the question of, what constitutes good behavior for him?
JPL
@Baud: Hi!
West of the Rockies
@OzarkHillbilly:
Tri-monthly bathing?
different-church-lady
@Baud: Baud can check out any time he likes, but he can never leave.
Jay
@West of the Rockies:
no cat collecting?
gene108
@Baud:
Welcome back.
germy
Last week I was shopping in an Aldi store. Very early, I was the first customer. After checkout, the automatic door letting me out wouldn’t work. Cashier had forgotten to activate it.
I joked “It’s like the roach motel.” And then I realized she was too young to remember those pest commercials, and so probably thought I was babbling an insult.
Geminid
Assange took his grudge against Secretary of State Clinton out on the U.S . Now he’ll likely get ten years of prison time. Toxic masculine arrogance? Commentators have noted that Sweden would not have extradited Assange to the U.S. if he had simply returned to that country and stood trial for his sexual assaults. He’d have been out years ago.
AxelFoley
@different-church-lady: Welcome to the Hotel Coleifornia?
raven
@Baud: sup dude
germy
germy
Steeplejack (phone)
I am here and reading, in case rekoob shows up.
Good morning, all. ?
germy
I’m on team Hochul.
And AG James is a powerful advocate for her constituents. My wife had a problem with a big box store a few months ago. Treated terribly by the corporation. She wrote a letter to James. Wasn’t sure what to expect. And then she received an email and phone call from the company, apologizing and refunding.
Baud
@rikyrah: Hey you
@JPL: ?
@gene108: Thanks!
@raven: Wassup!
gene108
I bent a wheel a few weeks back. First time this ever happened to me. I went into deep diving research on all the ways to solve it. I decided on a refurbished OEM wheel. I emailed local auto repair shops with detailed information about what happened and eagerly wanting to schedule some kind of appointment. I wanted to be super sure I could get this done.
My universal reply, as of us yesterday was “call us when you get the wheel”. I expect it next Wednesday, per UPS ground shipping.
Do these auto repair shops not understand how much I discovered when deciding on buying a refurbished wheel? I learned about aftermarket wheels, offset, back spacing, and learned new words like camber and coil overs. I learned about aftermarket wheel companies, replica OEM wheels, that OEM wheels can be expensive, and online stores that sell those wheels, like TireRack, ECS Tuning, etc. I learned there’s a whole entire large industry selling parts to mostly 20-something to 30-something men to tune their cars to make more power over the stock model they bought.
A whole new world opened up to me, and the auto repair shops just say “call us when you get the wheel”.
Very anti-climatic.
Edit: I had so much knowledge to share with them. ?
LiminalOwl
@Geminid: Thank you! I was hoping someone besides me remembered that Assange committed sexual assault as well as treason
@AxelFoley: LOL!
WereBear
@Chief Oshkosh: I’ll take poetic justice, thanks. But I’m not fussy, either.
Spanky
@Baud: So when can we expect your On the Road submission to get to Watergirl?
Betty
@germy: One of the sad things about getting older, so many young folks don’t get your joke.
Spanky
@gene108: There’s still a chance! You can stand behind the tech while he’s working on your car, expounding on all you have learned. He’ll like that a lot, I’m sure, and no doubt you’ll get a price break.
Baud
@Spanky:
When I finally stop being a lazy ass sonofabitch.
germy
Here’s a hero:
PST
@gene108:
That’s why no one invites me to parties anymore.
Jay
@Spanky:
lmao
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I see another loophole because I am a devious bastard lawyer:
If Assange is/were to become incompetent, he could be sent to a forensic psychiatric unit until he returned to competency to continue criminal proceedings. This would not in any case be a “sentence,” so we wouldn’t have to transfer him to Australia. The CIA could continue to play “how many lights do you see”* with him for years.
*Star Trek Next Generation reference.
Immanentize
@Baud: You were missed!
Welcome back.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@gene108: They’re probably talking about you and rolling their eyes.
@Baud: Glad you’re back. We missed you
germy
It’s like that time Fred Allen did that bit with Jack Benny: “Why aren’t they laughing”
Betty Cracker
@germy: Perfect response from Hochul.
Baud
@Immanentize:
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Thanks!
Ken
I’m somewhat amused that while Assange’s lawyers delay him being sentenced to prison, he is waiting in prison.
BTW does anyone know if Assange still has money? I’m curious who is paying his lawyers.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Welcome back, Baud!
Eolirin
@LiminalOwl: I didn’t think Assange was American? He didn’t commit treason. Can’t have. Espionage, sure.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Thanks!
danielx
Via LGM: profile of a musician I greatly admired. Hilarious and tragic.
Lowell George in Eight and a Half Songs
Ken
Won’t he need to get the material declassified first, and a release from the head of the CIA?
Wait — am I remembering one of the stories we made up, to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative?
Immanentize
The return of Baud is the good news. So is the imminent rendering (the technical term) for Assange.
The bad news of the moment for me is that my 91 y.o. Mom fell and broke her hip. She’s in upstate NY and half hip replacement is this afternoon. COVID protocols at the hospital mean I (and no one else) cannot visit her there. Then it is off to in-patient (impatient?) rehab. Should I just ship her to Sighthound Lodge for hurting loved ones?
Eolirin
@Ken: I think it’s ultimately more important to them that there’s never a public trial about wikileaks than that Assange is ever out of prison.
gene108
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
An eye roll, most definitely. I’m not sure the emails were exciting enough to talk about.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Oh no. Good wishes for your mom.
Soprano2
@Immanentize: Oh man I’m sorry, that’s tough. Best wishes for a successful surgery for your mom and a good recovery.
I’m glad they’re going to extradite Assange to the U.S. He needs to answer for his crimes. He helped subject the whole country to 4 years of TFG because he had a grudge against Hillary. Also, he seems to have gotten away with some kind of sexual assault.
lowtechcyclist
I’ve been a fan of enough cult favorites over the years, from Firesign Theatre to Firefly, that I’m used to people my age not getting my jokes. So it’s nothing out of the ordinary for me when the kids don’t.
satby
@Baud: Hope you had a good trip. Good to see you back.
Steeplejack (phone)
@PST:
Glad I caught you! Wanted to thank you for the recommendation on the Aftershokz OpenMove headset. I took a chance when the price suddenly dropped to $60, and I love it. Even bought one for a friend who does long podcast walks every day and is constantly fuming about her succession of crappy earbuds. She loves it too. Very easy to set up, very comfortable, and she can hear the ambient noise around her.
Ken
@Eolirin: Who do you mean by “them”? His lawyers? Unless Assange has told them “I don’t want a trial, leave me in prison without one”, they wouldn’t be representing his interests.
Which gets back to my question, who is paying them? Whose interests are they representing?
(Hmm, I’m sounding a tad paranoid. You don’t suppose Assange is contagious, and over the internet? (There I go again….))
Westyny
I mostly lurk, but I’m joining the WBB(aud) chorus . . . A day without Baud is like a day without orange juice, or something. . .
topclimber
@Baud: Old habits die hard.
Immanentize
@Westyny: My Dinner with Andre?
Wally Shaw loved his simple daily glass of orange juice.
p.a.
Welcome back baud!
Baud
@satby: Thanks!
Baud
@p.a.:
@Westyny:
Thanks!
eclare
@germy: Not all heroes wear capes
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: May her recovery be smooth and uneventful.
eclare
@Betty Cracker: I’ve been impressed by Hochul
WaterGirl
@Baud: Oh, Baud, so good to see you! ?
Geminid
Federal prosecutors will have a good bit of leverage over Assange. I wonder if they can get him to spill the beans on coordination with Russia in the Clinton campaign leaks. He may have second hand knowledge of trump campaign involvement. Although anything Assange said would be suspect.
Tony Gerace
I confess that I have not been following the Assange drama closely all these years. He seems to me to be a guy who did some good stuff for a while, and then came unhinged. Personally I cannot forgive him for helping to get Trump elected in 2016
WaterGirl
@Baud: On the first of never, then?
germy
It really is quite something.
eclare
@Baud: Good to see you!
WaterGirl
@Spanky: I used to live with a carpenter. He would say something like “the job is $50, it’s $100 if you want to help.”
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: Oh no. Will you be able to visit her in rehab? Wishing a quick recovery for her and much support for you.
Ramalama
@germy: Nice Marcy Wheeler quote there. I follow her but don’t grok half of the stuff she writes, it’s so dense sometimes. Plus, I have my own density to contend with.
narya
Welcome back, Baud! Imm, here’s hoping your mom recovers quickly and well. Random Blech for OH. DAW, did you like Scalzi’s church? And cross your fingers for me today, too: heading to see an oncologist. My worry level is about 1.5 on a scale of 10 (my other doc is very careful), and I don’t actually expect to get much information today, and I’m not overwhelmingly worried that there’s something majorly wrong, but still.
Also: shoutout to WG for wrangling the Schiff read/Juice events!
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: I have it on good authority that Steep’s Bro’ Man would happily take her in for recovery.
(Not intended as a factual statement.)
So sorry to hear about your mom. The fun never ends at your house, Imm. :-(
mrmoshpotato
@Chief Oshkosh:
I read that as “whales” and thought you were talking about some weird sports team.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@narya: I can’t believe Scalzi bought a church. It’s a beautiful building though. It would be lovely to come to work there.
Best of luck to you at the oncologist’s today. It’s good to get things checked out.
O. Felix Culpa
@germy: That’s…disturbing.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Good to see you too. I see you’ve been doing some amazing things with this blog while I was away. Really impressive.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy:
Here’s hoping.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Hahaha!
germy
@O. Felix Culpa:
Apparently the groom is a nazi. I never heard of him.
Baud
@eclare:
@narya:
Thanks.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: He seriously undercharged.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I am that I am.
japa21
@OzarkHillbilly: Speaking of recoveries, how is yours progressing?
zhena gogolia
@Baud: HIIII!!!!!!
OzarkHillbilly
@narya: Fingers crossed.
Kalakal
@germy: I bet the divorce will be amazing. And in news that will surprise no-one he’s a neo-Nazi
https://mobile.twitter.com/rrroooiiirrr/status/1468821229742301188/photo/1
Old Dan and Little Ann
@mrmoshpotato: The Hartford Whalers were an NHL Hockey Team until moving and becoming the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997. Is that what you were thinking? ; )
OzarkHillbilly
@japa21: They say it’s all good, but I know they lie.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Greetings and salutations to you too.
Kalakal
@Immanentize: may she recover fast and well
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ain’t no fixin’ Ozark.
cope
@lowtechcyclist: Try making a Stan Freberg reference and see how it goes over.
WereBear
@germy: I am a Tish James fan.
mrmoshpotato
@Old Dan and Little Ann: No. Just misread it as plural and thought Dump had tried to kill an entire sports team.
Also, Go Whales!
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I’m perfect just the way I am. And humble too. Have I told you lately how humble I am? Very humble.
cope
@OzarkHillbilly: I have been meaning to ask if you have seen “The Rescue” and, if so, what you thought about it. I watched it the other day and found it gripping.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Thank you!
You could submit pics to OTR under a different nym, so you can still enjoy your privacy and we get to see “someone’s” trip.
But I suppose you would need to enlist someone to re-write your descriptions so your wit and levity wouldn’t shine through and give you away.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: Hope your mom recovers fast and fully.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s not what he actually charged – that was his messaging to make his point before taking a job. :-)
But I’m sure you knew that!
Baud
@WaterGirl:
All my pics are selfies and this is still a family blog.
Kalakal
@Betty: About 15 years ago prince Charles was on a rant about modern architecture and made a joke on the lines of “town planners have done more damage to English cities than the luftwaffe ever did”. A friend repeated it at his work, saying he thought it was funny and all the junior minions dutifully laughed. As he left the office he heard a whisper “what’s the luftwaffe?”.
When he told us we all suddenly felt very old
SiubhanDuinne
@cope:
Today the pits … Tomorrow the wrinkles!
WereBear
We are planning a bit more festivity than last year, which I hope will be a personal low for sometime to come, but still, staying home continues to be the most sensible thing, especially in an upstate winter.
When I want to cheer myself up, I image 1918 and wondering if I would have had enough books…
eclare
@Kalakal: Head meet desk…
OzarkHillbilly
@cope: No, not yet. Probably be a while, if ever, as we don’t have TV, or streaming, or whatever other newfangled home entertainment venue you big city folks have access to.
SiubhanDuinne
@Immanentize:
I’m so sorry to hear that, Imm. All good wishes to your mom for a speedy recovery. I hope you’ll get to see her soon.
cope
@SiubhanDuinne: You win!
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: But he only doubled the price? I always tripled it, at least.
Omnes Omnibus
Texas abortion law decision to drop this morning.
tybee
@Ken:
so he’s bald? so she/he misspelled their nym?
cope
@OzarkHillbilly: Got it although maybe soon you can rent the video at Blockbu…never mind.
WereBear
@Omnes Omnibus: I knew there was a reason I was riven with suspense before I even fully woke up.
Ramalama
@Kalakal: I clicked all the way down, and found this book review of the lovebird, aka, the DIY historian:
I am weary of the latest (on-going) news of anti-vax conservatives getting killed by Covid. This news felt good to read.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
That tweet appears to be speculating.
ETA: although Friday decisions are unusual.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Immanentize:
I can hardly recommend the spartan amenities of Sighthound Lodge, the somewhat run-down hunting cabin on the back reaches of the estate, to a recuperating matron. But she would no doubt be welcome at the main hall.
In any case, I hope your mother has a speedy, pain-free recovery.
Kalakal
@OzarkHillbilly: Super 8, that’s the way to go, you can get sound and everything
zhena gogolia
@Baud: You’ve missed the whole saga of Steeplejack’s balls.
satby
@Immanentize: I’m so sorry Imm! They can do amazing things with older people and hip fractures these days, so all the best wishes for her recovery.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I’ll wait for the movie.
zhena gogolia
@Kalakal: I have embarrassed myself making jokes about: Dragnet‘s “The names have been changed to protect the innocent”; Jimmy Carter’s Playboy interview where he admitted he had lusted in his heart; and many more. The one thing my students knew down cold, even better than I did, was the plot of the Twilight Zone episode where Burgess Meredith survives a nuclear attack. They have strange little pockets of knowledge.
zhena gogolia
@Kalakal: My husband and I are (belatedly) watching The Crown, so just the name Prince Charles sends shivers down my spine. That scoundrel!
Kalakal
@Ramalama: Thanks for that, I love terrible reviews. Favourite bit
Guffaw
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia:
Balloon Juice After Dark starts early today!
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
I feel exposed.
Almost Retired
Welcome back, Baud. None of us know where you went, but I think we all have our own speculative projections. I think you took one of those tours of the ‘stans. Camels were involved.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Rotating tag?
Kalakal
@zhena gogolia: Despite having absolutely no time for the British monarchy I do have a certain sympathy for them I would hate to be them. A heck of a lot of people who become famous crack up under the pressure of constant media attention. But while pop/film stars etc actually choose to be famous the poor sods in the Royal family are under the microscope from the second they are born. They are the stars of the Truman show except they actually know it’s a show and can’t quit. I’d hate it
I never gave a stuff about the Charles and Di thing but the poisonous media circus around them gave me hives. Manipulative weasels on all sides
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
We have heard that you are humble, and we are glad for you!
Regarding Assange and his many misdeeds — has everyone forgotten about Reality Winner, who lingers in prison because his outfit didn’t bother to obscure the origin of the documents she provided to them? I hope not. He is responsible for every bit of her troubles.
Tony Jay
UK rants – Part XXXII
The worst part is the wait for it to be over, as the actress said to the bishop.
It’s getting steadily worse for the UK’s worst Prime Minister since the last one (and the one before that) now that They Who Sit In Judgement Above The World have given his Reign of Errrr the old thumbs down and released the slavering hounds of our ‘Free and Independent Press’ from their careerist bonds. Scandals are closing in from all sides, leakers are leaking, cowed minions are discovering it’s safe to stand up and rediscover vertebrate-culture, and he’s discovering that one of the major downsides of surrounding yourself with people stupid enough to work for someone like you is that, when you really need them, the people who work for you are stupid, and I’m talking fucking stupid.
Case in point? The latest ‘clarification’ to ooze shamelessly from the mouth of a loyal knobhead dropped out of Paul Scully, the Business Minister, who is such a complete non-entity that I have nothing insulting to say about him other than he’s a Tory Minister appointed by Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (ouch, that burns – Ed). Pushed in front of the morning cameras looking like an Albanian mob snitch who has just realised that Keyser Soze owns people in Witness Protection, Scully’s explanation for why he refused to call the December 18th Christmas Party a ‘Party’ was, and I am not making this up, that ‘Party’ suggests “balloons and poppers and these kind of things”.
Now, I won’t deny that this reply pleases me in all the right ways. Firstly, even the BBC’s pompadoured android Charlie Stayt was rendered briefly speechless, which is a 110% improvement on his usual output, secondly even I’m aware that “balloons and poppers” can be taken as slang shorthand for nitrous oxide and amyl nitrate, so that’s just a lovely bit of background colour you’ve thrown on the Tory party scene there, Paul, and thirdly, the term he prefers, “gathering”, is the one I often like using, because I think I’m correct in saying that “illegal gathering” is what everyone involved in this drug-fuelled orgy of tinsel-wrapped teabagging should be charged with attending when and if the Police pull their heads out of their arses and sniff the prevailing winds.
The reason Scully was dragged out of his all-night Stavros Flatley lookalike marathon to embarrass himself on TV was because Johnson’s Director of Communications, Jack Doyle, couldn’t make it, and the reason this former Daily Mail hack couldn’t make it was because he’s been outed as having given an opening speech at the December 18th party/gathering, which is just glorious, because for the last week Doyle’s job as Director of Communications has been to orchestrate, script and manage the entire “There was no Party and no rules were broken” campaign, the shreds of which are currently blowing over the garden fence into Number 11 Downing St and clogging the filters on Rishi Sunak’s Japanese style Koi Carp Pool of Contemplation.
Oh, fucking savour why dontcha?
Obviously, there are no grounds whatsoever for assuming that Johnson’s Director of Communications might possibly have told his boss that he’d been at the Party at any point during the week Johnson himself was telling the world that there had been no Party. Despite being in a job that involves spending most of his day in Johnson’s presence and talking about what to say to the Press and TV Media about the issues of the day, Doyle is obviously just a low-ranking functionary, a glorified tea-boy, with his rank and title a misleading holdover from the bad old days of Labour Government. The fact that the December 18th ‘gathering’ was apparently a Communications Team event likewise does not in any way support the stubborn rumours that certain friendly journalists, mainly those still working at the rags from which Doyle has likely recruited his team of proven Wormtongues, were also in the building and enjoying the “balloons and poppers” festivities with their temporarily seconded chums and have since been doing their damnedest to bury their involvement.
I hope that’s clear. Any problems, the Government has a multi-billion pound contract with U R My Mate Inc to provide rose-coloured ocular PPE for just these circumstances. They may take six months to arrive and turn out to be mouldy potatoes, but it’s the profit that counts.
And anyway, the Tory Chief Whip, Mark Spencer, a man who permanently wears the look of someone who has shat in your mini-éclair and is just waiting for you to take a bite, has also done the rounds at his local Nottinghamshire radio station to inform us that the Party was, in fact, only ‘a meeting’, that nobody was drinking alcohol, that it’s entirely plausible that our brave and hard-working Prime Minister would never have known there was anyone having ‘a meeting’ in his house because it’s apparently a sprawling Gormenghastian pile of “hundreds and hundreds” of rooms, a bit like an evil T.A.R.D.I.S. or Ireland’s largest lingerie section, where people can wander for weeks on end without finding the exits, a toilet, or even a single, solitary culpable member of Government. And, not content with that pile of fermented bovine excrement, Marco No-No pressed on to claim that the video which clearly shows Allegra Stratton (resigned) and various members of Johnson’s team (not resigned) discussing what lies to tell about the December 18th Party in fact clearly shows the exact opposite and proves, if you squint hard and put your head right up there next to the clingfilmed hamster, that Stratton and Co were, in fact, discussing how there was no Party and so no case to answer. And this from the man with the unenviable job of convincing Tory backbench MPs to swallow the Kool Aid and defend the Roly-Poly Rotter.
Good luck with that, fuckwit.
But the other side of the Rommelesque pincer-movement chewing up Johnson’s remaining time with his hand in the till comes from the long-simmering issue of who, exactly, paid for the exceptionally naff redecoration of the Prime Ministerial accommodations last year, and whether or not the World’s Biggest Bullshitter lied about it. Very briefly, it boils down to a Tory Party donor paying the bill, then not paying the bill, then someone else entirely (who Johnson claims was him, but certainly not using his money) paying the bill, all while Johnson claims he had no idea that he hadn’t paid for the work and that, in fact, the man he spoke to about how the work got paid for had actually paid it for him. The things that people get up to around l’Roi Globular without keeping him in the loop. Honestly, how is an honest man supposed to keep track of where his penis is when all of these underlings insist on sucking it in relay style?
Right now, the nation’s Tory whisperers are on tippy-toe tenterhooks over whether Johnson’s Standards Adviser (He’s got a fu#%&ng what, now? – Ed), the Baroquely named Lord Geidt (rhymes with… well.. what do you think?) is going to resign because Johnson flat out lied to him about what he knew and when he knew it back when Geidt cleared him of all wrongdoing. It’s a bit like waiting to see if Lucius Malfoy gets up the courage to welly Voldemort in the space where his knackers should be, in that the breaking point of tension isn’t whether Geidt thinks he lied (of course he thinks he lied, it’s Johnson) but whether Geidt thinks he, personally, will be safe and rewarded for basically putting an Establishment stamp on the notion that Flobalob might not be the honest man of integrity and rectitude Conservatives traditionally elevate to be their leader (snark shields at 30% and falling, Captain! – Ed).
If he does that, even the BBC’s highly paid lavisher of slobbery pleasure on the Johnsonian pecker (Kuenssberg, Laura – Agent of T.O.R.Y.) has said he has to resign. Granted, she’ll likely throw herself onto the bonfire of his vanity screaming “Take me with you, my husky hero!”, but once Johnson’s fitness for office has been questioned by someone who actually matters, well, that’s all folks.
This took me a couple of hours to note down while doing other stuff at work, so it’s probably out of date now. Trying to report on Tory malfeasance is like trying to video The Flash having a wank, you’ve got to be Quicksilver to do it and then it just gets weird.
As for Assange, go on, have him. We took Flobalob off you guys, didn’t we
ETA – Hi Baud!
ETA2 – Hi Steeplejack’s balls!
PST
@Steeplejack (phone): Glad you like the OpenMoves. I thought of you the other day when I saw an ad for a new AfterShokz model that includes a little boom mic that is said to be highly directional. I don’t need that myself, but someone who was talking a lot on the phone in a noisy environment might like it. I’m happy with the built-in mics and no one I talk to is complaining.
James E Powell
@Immanentize:
Is that a proposal for a ten episode Netflix series?
OzarkHillbilly
@cope: Yep. Maybe someday we will get fiber optic installed in the pipes that got layed in front of my property back in 2010.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. gasp… wheeze…. Sometimes I just crack me up.
cope
@OzarkHillbilly: Maybe, if you’re fully immunized, you can tweak the Gates chip to send videos directly to yout brain.
Betty Cracker
@J R in WV: Reality Winner has thankfully been released from prison, but while Assange is responsible for Chelsea Manning’s stint in the hoosgow, we can’t really blame him for Winner, who was immediately scooped up when the Intercept bungled the release of the leaked documents.
PS: Winner did a 60 Minutes interview a while back. I hope she does more as 60 Minutes let a lot of important questions go unanswered.
Kalakal
@Tony Jay: Stop press. They’ve just cancelled this years swine fest so that’s alright then
BBC News – Downing Street Christmas party cancelled amid fury over 2020 event
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59606793.
PST
@mrmoshpotato:
We should pause a moment to pay our respects to the Chicago Whales, who were the original team in Wrigley Field. (Oops. I see you were already on top of that one.)
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: The actor who plays him is really terrific.
Immanentize
@James E Powell: I will write it if you will produce it! It could be a great series in part because the storyline of the US using psychiatric hospitals as a type of Gulag for a Russian agent run by the former head of the Soviet KGB, well — It just sizzles, no?
Tony Jay
@Kalakal:
But they still won’t advise anyone else to cancel theirs.
“Don’t look to us for advice, you’re on you own!”
Steeplejack (phone)
@Baud:
Don’t hold your breath!
schrodingers_cat
U.S. SUPREME COURT ALLOWS ABORTION PROVIDERS TO PROCEED WITH CHALLENGE TO SIX-WEEK ABORTION BAN IN TEXAS
OzarkHillbilly
@cope: I thought that was only the Pfizer vax. I got J&J and Moderna and have noticed no upgrade in my hardware.
Kalakal
In line with Tony’s comments on Tory incompetence Brexit remains the gift that keeps on taking. In “bad news for Biden” the UK is threatening to bring the US economy to its knees via a tariff war
Proclaiming the benefits of Brexit and going it alone
BBC News – UK warns US of retaliation over steel tariffs
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59597310
Baud
@Steeplejack (phone):
What if I turn my head and cough?
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: @Baud: @Almost Retired:
Any thoughts on the SCOTUS rulings in the next thread?
Mike in NC
I care even less about this worthless asshole than I care about what’s going on with Jarvanka.
Steeplejack (phone)
@PST:
I, too, saw the boom model but didn’t think I would need it. And it turns out I don’t. I am perfectly satisfied with the microphone on the OpenMove. I think I’ve even talked to my friend on one of her walks and couldn’t tell. Heretofore those calls were static-plagued with occasional audio gaps.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Baud:
That’s one of the few things that isn’t currently painful for me.
patroclus
So to have a party in the U.K. means that you have to have “balloons and poppers.” (i.e., nitrous oxide and amyl nitrate)??? Otherwise, it’s just a “gathering”? There’s an arguably insulting trope about the Brits that I’ve sometimes heard (in the U.S.) about everyone single one of them being gay – this revelation doesn’t do much to disprove that.
UncleEbeneezer
@Tony Gerace: This. I have an ACLU friend who is all FreeAssange! and always wants to get into the legal details with me and I had to tell him flat out
“I don’t give a fuck. That asshole spent all of 2016 using his platform to bash Hillary and make excuses for Trump. Then we find out he was directly texting Roger fucking Stone and Trump Jr. to coordinate the drop of hacked documents (provided by GRU/Guccifer) to most effectively hurt Hillary right when the Grab-Her-By-The-P…story broke and should have dominated the news. Then once Trump was in office Assange’s passion for hacking and releasing for the sake of public transparency suddenly stopped. All that fucking corruption of the Trump administration had to be dug up by Farenholdt/WaPo and other investigative journalists. Probably the most corrupt administration in history and yet Assange couldn’t use his skills to uncover a single thing! The dude is/always was a narcissistic piece of shit who had a grudge against Hillary, Obama and Dems and acted accordingly. He is one of the biggest reasons we got Trump and are now in this fucking mess. In the eternal words of the late EFGoldman ‘Fuck ’em’.”
I can care about civil liberties and govt transparency without spending my time defending that piece of shit.
Steeplejack (phone)
@patroclus:
Sometimes a balloon is just a balloon. And a popper can also be a “party popper”—a toy that explodes with a bang when you pull on it.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Yes. Now when I see a picture of the actual Charles, I think he’s an impostor.
Layer8Problem
@Betty Cracker: He did a nice job as Lawrence Durrell in The Durrells too.
Ramalama
@Kalakal: Hard to choose just one!
Layer8Problem
@Tony Jay: (as I said yesterday): Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!
prostratedragon
@gene108: But at least you had us!8D
Gravenstone
@gene108: I did that once when I was a kid. Bought a cast aside wheel for $5 from the gas station down the block, along with a cheap used tire. Tire mounted, balanced and installed for <$20. Life was much simpler then.
Gravenstone
@Betty: A few of us were having this discussion yesterday at lunch. One of us harkened back to the classic “Grey Poupon” commercial, and we realized that many others present would be too young to recognize the context.
Searcher
This may be a dead thread, but does anyone have any guesses why the Trump admin brought charges? Still angry about the Bush-era leaks? Wanted to lock him down so he wouldn’t roll on them for Russia? Just general “because I’m a scorpion”?
Tony Jay
@patroclus:
Surely the question should be, under what repetitive circumstances did Americans come to think that all the Brits they met were gay?
Certainly gives “Oversexed, overpaid and over here” a new slant.
Tony Jay
@Layer8Problem:
I felt a lot better afterwards.
MrKite
@mrmoshpotato: It wasn’t until you wrote it out like that, that I saw the reference was to “The Outlaw Josey Wales”. Damn, I’m slow today.
Captain C
@mrmoshpotato: He did manage to run an entire football league into the ground, largely through his own hubris.
UncleEbeneezer
Here’s an interesting article on the Assange conspiracy case though the author is not a lawyer.
Kayla Rudbek
@Dorothy A. Winsor: how come I have to come over here to BJ to find out that Scalzi bought a church? Oh, because Twitter absolutely sucks now and it’s too hard to read anything over there. Else I probably would have seen the news from Ursula Vernon, Charlie Stross, or Scalzi himself.
J R in WV
@Kayla Rudbek:
Whatever.Scalzi,com, or something close to that. I’m over there every day. Some days are better than others… just like here.