Not sure how it is a reason except that, now in this post coup regime, our national quota for assholes has been exceeded.

Why shouldn't he avoid extradition? Would you willingly hand yourself over knowing full well that you'll being spending a lifetime in solitary confinement? Just for being a journalist.

Apply that standard to Trump

@1of5

Trump pisses people off too. But for very different reasons.

@RoboGraham yes, reasons for the results are as important as the results.

@1of5

Indeed. Reasons are important.

Of course Tucker likes Assange, he leaked hacked email server to Russia. He helped elect Donald Trump. They deserve each other.

@barjoe

He did much more than just that.

@Zoltans_Queen Your hero. Not mine.

@barjoe

He will be a hero remembered by future generations for sacrificing himself to expose the evils of the American empire.

@Zoltans_Queen I doubt if he will be remembered at all. Evils of the American Empire? I don't know about you, but I'm proud to be a American. What country do you call home?

@barjoe

I'm an American who is aware enough to understand that we are engaging in illegal wars of aggression, stealing the resources of the countries we occupy, subverting the democratically elected governments of nations around the world and have been for decades, funding terrorists and a genocide in Yemen, and raining death upon civilians from the sky.

I'm sure Assange will continued to be seen as a villain here, but in most of the rest of the world, he is already a hero for exposing the war crimes of the American military machine.

@Zoltans_Queen United States doesn't have troops in Yemen. The fact that Sarah Palin and Tucker Carlson want to pardon him tells me he should rot in prison. Let him go to Moscow. That's where he belongs.

@barjoe

We are selling weapons to our horrible ally, the Saudi's and they are using them in Yemen.

What a simplistic binary way of thinking. Sarah Palin and Tucker Carlson also think George Washington was a great American hero, so does that mean we should disavow him?

I'm sure Julian would be much better off in Moscow, but right now, he is in solitary confinement, which is torture, in a max security UK prison for the crime of embarrassing US war criminals.

@barjoe

For what crime does he deserve to rot?

@RoboGraham He doesn't deserve a quid pro quo pardon from Trump. He worked with Roger Stone and the Russians to help in the election of Donald Trump. I don't care what happens to him, but he's not a hero to me. He's a hero to Tulsi Gabbard, Tucker Carlson, Sarah Palin, Putin and Rand Paul. He doesn't have to rot, he can just sit there.

@barjoe

It's really not his fault that some of the information he released was damaging to the former first lady.
He exposed American corruption and war crimes. It effected both sides.

He doesn't have to be your hero, but if you think he deserves to have his freedom taken away even though he didn't commit any crimes, you need to re-examine your morality.

@RoboGraham Chelsea Manning got sent to prison, while he hung out in Ecuador. Blame them, they're the ones who gave him up. Blame the Brits, they're the ones holding him. That being said, I don't feel any sympathy for him. I guess I'm immoral. Oh well.

@barjoe

What?

He wouldn't have had to spend 7 years of his life in an embassy and he wouldn't currently be in a UK prison if not for the USA using all of our influence to go after him.

Chelsea Manning is a whistle blower who had to give her information to him because, in our system, going through the proper channels is the best way to get sent to military prison without any of your information ever seeing the light of day.

@RoboGraham Corporal Manning got a pardon from Obama. Assange is a treacherous bastard. If he's a hero to you, congratulations. I have no sympathy for him.

@barjoe

Exposing war crimes is a heroic thing to do. Especially when the price is so high.

You've made it clear that you have no sympathy. You can think of a treacherous, that's fine. But he doesn't belong in a cage. Can you admit that?

@RoboGraham Nope. You can't convince me.

@barjoe

So you believe in forcing people to spend their lives in cages when they have not broken any laws?

That is evil

@RoboGraham

Some people choose emotions over reason. This guy is very clarity emotionally invested in the idea that Assange is a bad guy and therefore deserves to die in prison. He's never going to care about the facts, and he certainly doesn't care about morality.

I wouldn't waste any more time trying to get through to a head that hard if I were you.

@RoboGraham He committed espionage against the United States. I don't want him in a cage, I think he should be in prison, for espionage. He's the evil one, not me. He coerced a vulnerable lower level military in Bradley Manning who was the scapegoat. He dealt with criminals like Roger Stone, he funneled hacked info of private citizen to threaten our democracy. But I am the immoral one.

@barjoe

Prison is a cage.

If manning was the scapegoat, why is she free but Julian is in prison?

He made incriminating information available to all private citizens. He exposed atrocities.

In order to build a thriving democracy, we need a well informed public. Assange informed the people about the terrible things that our military has been doing with our tax money. That is very valuable information. Call that espionage if you wish. I'd call it the right thing to do.

His actions don't threaten democracy, they make it stronger by informing us of our government's unaccountable brutality.

@Zoltans_Queen His "actions" led do the presidency of Donald Trump. Manning got pardoned by Obama. At that time Assange was in asylum in Ecuador making deals with Russian operatives and the likes of Roger Stone. Since then circumstances have changed. He wasn't on the pardon list. If he had been it wouldn't have bothered me but he isn't a hero. Quite the contrary.

@barjoe

What proof do you have of deals with Russians?

I think you give him way too much credit. He alone caused the Trump presidency? I thought the Russians caused that?

Are you able to think outside of the blue team vs red team dichotomy?

@RoboGraham ummmm, what? I pay no attention to that kind of valueless labeling.

@AnneWimsey

LOL

@RoboGraham From my perspective I see no real dichotomy. I see a purple 'Punch & Judy Show' performed before lots of underdeveloped heads full of mush.

@Silver1wun

I see it it that way too. But many others do look at it through the lens of the dichotomy.

@RoboGraham Their frame of reference and comfort zone conveniently converge under the tent. My often repeated view is that as long as systems of thought adhere to reality, they are tolerant and more securely 'anchored'. The further a thought process is from reality, the more cruelty and intolerance are required to maintain them.

This is evident in the functioning of fanatic fringes of both the Left and Right. Punch and Judy also set a great example. They ought to be the mascots for the military-industrial, corporatist establishment.

Assange exposed the evil of the American empire. It took a great deal of courage to do that. He sacrificed his freedom, and possibly his life for that cause. That is extremely heroic.

Jimmy is definitely an ass. Sometimes it takes an ass who yells too much to get people to pay attention to important issues.

An ass is appropriately the mascot of the Democrat Party. Children cover their ears and close their eyes when they are discomforted by reality. Sourcing matters not, Left OR Right.

@Zoltans_Queen uuummm, he was "sheltering" in the Ecuadorian Embassy to avoid extradition for raping a 12-year old. Heroic my ass!