COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Note to Snowden: Don't fall for it. Everybody is a suspect,



Edward Snowden Calls EU Vote to Offer Him Protection From Extradition a ‘Game-Changer’

Posted on Oct 29, 2015


 TRUTHDIG

@Snowden / Twitter

After some 28 months of being holed up in Moscow, Edward Snowden has caught the mother of all breaks. In a change of fortune that the former NSA contractor turned whistleblower hailed as “extraordinary,” the European Parliament voted Thursday to call on EU countries to prevent Snowden from being extradited to the U.S. should he land on member states’ terrain.

The Guardian brought word of the EU’s gesture and Snowden’s later response:

Edward Snowden on Thursday hailed as “extraordinary” and a “game-changer” a vote in the European parliament calling on member states to prevent his extradition to the US.

The parliament voted 285-281 to pass a largely symbolic measure, a resolution that called on European Union member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistleblower and international human rights defender”.

[...] “This is not a blow against the US government, but an open hand extended by friends,” Snowden tweeted. “It is a chance to move forward.”


The US government did not, however, seem to see it that way.

“Our position has not changed,” Ned Price, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement emailed to the Guardian. “Mr Snowden is accused of leaking classified information and faces felony charges here in the United States. As such, he should be returned to the US as soon as possible, where he will be accorded full due process.”

Chances are, the U.S. government isn’t going to change its stance on Snowden’s status any time soon. But meanwhile, he’ll potentially have more ability to move about freely.

—Posted by Kasia Anderson

23 comments:

  1. Deuce ☂Thu Oct 29, 03:45:00 PM EDT
    Help us out.

    Name one thing that Israel has done for US security since 1962 for $100 billion.

    According to Obama and the UN global climate change is the biggest threat to national security there is....

    Israel has pioneered drip irrigation that has helped feed millions and provide food and water security to the masses.

    Couple that with medical and science advances?

    i'd say Israel has pulled way above their fighting weight in helping the USA in their security.

    Of course we could talk, drones, computers, integrated circuits, advance materials and nanotechnology...

    Up yours deuce.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      You haven't described an ally, you've just described a sub-contractor like Boeing, GE, or Mitsubishi.

      .

      Delete
    2. Wow now that's a rebuttal Quirk.

      Did you think long to come up with such a lame retort?

      Delete
  2. I mean really, at the end of the day, at the very end of the year long day, what can one really do with an Old Gentleman like Rufus ?

    You really can't jail the old bastard.

    Probation ?

    Some sort of community service perhaps ?

    Let's leave it up Quirk.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd like to ask how it is that a nation of over 300 million is asking anything from a nation of 6 million, or so, much of whose energy is going to defending themselves, and us, from a horde that has Deuce up it's sights ?

    If one is a member of the Western Family of Nations, am I going to demand my young nephew to defend myself ?

    Something is wrong here.

    Deuce is asking a wrong question.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      No, it's your befuddled mind that is wrong. You forget how this latest brouhaha started. You and your bro are here daily trying to convince anyone and his brother that Israel is the best friend, the best ally the US has. And when you are asked prove it, you tell us about their commercial and intellectual prowess, how much 'stuff' they are selling to us and the world.

      You're nutz.

      .

      Delete
    2. I have made my case below, Mr Quirk.

      Delete
  4. The real answer to the Big Deuce Question about why we should support Israel is because they are friends.

    I have never met an Israeli yet who threatened to kill me, or mine.

    They do not mistreat women.

    This is a big issue to:

    my wife

    my daughter

    my Niece

    and myself too

    I don't like that crap

    They do not behead Christians

    They do not threaten me or my nation with extermination, as do the Iranians

    I like 'em

    Great at technology, and first rate farmers too.

    They are an outpost of the kind of life style I like, in a sea of moslems.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And something like 70% of thinking REAL Americans agree with me.

      So does Dr. Ben Carson

      Ben Carson for President

      Delete
    2. Quirk is, obviously, an exception.

      An old retro-Polish Catholic, is all I can figure.............

      Delete
    3. I really can't stand

      retro Poles

      Delete
    4. .

      And yet, in your fantasies, you dream of taking your 'niece' to Portugal instead of to Israel. Why is that?

      .

      Delete
    5. ?

      What the fuck.

      I would like to have a nice Christmas with my Niece right here at home, but she is far away..

      She is in Germany currently.

      Working on brain research.

      Which you could use.

      I am paying off her hospital bill here from when she was brutalized and raped so she has no debts on her record. She is concerned about debts on her record if she chooses to come back to USA, or Canada.

      She is concerned about the her possible Visa problems.

      I have hired a lawyer from Coeur d 'Alene working on it.

      The bill is not so much, less that 5 k.

      She if job seeking.

      She is upwardly mobile, like the Israelis.

      She is Hindu, not moslem.

      She is not Catholic.

      She has never threatened me.

      I love her.

      She is 'part of my family' now.

      You got a problem ?



      Delete
    6. She has 'never done anything' for me.

      I mean, not really, not financially.

      Yet I love her.

      She is first class.

      She has never threatened me, nor my family, nor my nation.

      You got a problem with this, Quart ?

      You want her phone number ?

      I am not giving it, nor would she take the call.

      Delete
    7. We have had, you asshole, some really first class One World Hugs and Kisses.

      Which you may NOT partake of......

      Delete
  5. Bob: "I am paying off her hospital bill here from when she was brutalized and raped..."

    Here in the good ole USA. USA! USA! USA!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just checking in....did I get an answer yet from the drip, drip, drip Mensa Moneygram wing?

    No,nothing?

    For the record, the first irrigation was invented by the Egyptians about 8000 years ago.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Like all human inventions, they evolve incrementally. The Romans built aqueducts. The first large scale drip irrigation originated in Germany in the mid 1800s. The big innovation on drip irrigation arrived with plastic pipe. An Australian, Hannis Hill gets that credit. Further innovation occurred in Israel in the 1950s.

      If that is your claim why Israel is our greatest ally, things are worse than I thought.

      Keep trying.

      Delete
    2. You can selectively criticize anything I put up...

      But the reality is?

      Israel does. You bitch. Your pals the Palestinians? Murder.

      Delete
    3. For the record you are an occupier of native American lands...

      Delete
  7. Highlights

    Inflation is not building based on the Fed's favorite reading, the core PCE price index which inched a lower-than-expected 0.1 percent higher in September with the year-on-year rate steady and flat at only plus 1.3 percent. These results will not lift the odds for a December hike at the next FOMC.

    Income and spending data also came in below expectations, at plus 0.1 percent each vs expectations for plus 0.2 percent each. Income got no boost from wages & salaries in September which were unchanged following, however, strong gains of 0.5 percent in the two prior months that underscore this morning's employment cost index which shows pressure in the third quarter. Spending in September was pulled down by a 1.2 percent plunge in nondurable goods that likely reflects the low price of fuel. Spending on durable goods, driven by vehicles, rose a strong 0.8 percent with spending on services up a solid 0.4 percent.

    Other details include a 0.1 percent decline for the total PCE price index, again an effect likely based on fuel. Here the year-on-year rate is barely over zero at plus 0.2 percent. The savings rate continues to edge higher, up 1 tenth to 4.8 percent in a gain that hints at strength for future consumer spending.

    Third-quarter consumer activity slowed in September, pointing to lack of momentum for October consumer data. Still, the consumer is in charge in the U.S. economy and, given low unemployment, the outlooks for holiday spending and fourth-quarter acceleration are favorable.

    Personal Income and Outlays

    ReplyDelete