Assange Victory May Be Last Gasp

Mar 26, 2024

Israel, Hamas Defy UN Resolution, Sanity

The UN Security Council on Monday issued a legally binding order that Israel stop bombing Gaza and that Hamas release its hostages. As a result, for the first time since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, the two sides this morning have agreed on something: To ignore the UN.

Hamas last night said it will not free the remaining 100 or so hostages, because it wants a lengthier cease-fire, a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, Israel’s release of accused Palestinian militants, and also a pony.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning blamed the UN for Hamas’s refusal, saying that the Security Council resolution stiffened Hamas’s resolve. Netanyahu also said he’ll be joining Hamas in defying the UN, and that Israel will continue with its plans to (a) not cease firing and (b) expand its ground offensive in Rafah, where half of Gaza is now sheltering in the remaining shelters.

And Netanyahu launched new diplomatic assaults against the U.S., ratcheting up the rhetorical conflict to new heights. That’s because the U.S. allowed the UN resolution to pass by abstaining and without insisting that a cease-fire be conditioned on a hostage release.

U.S. officials said they didn’t vote for the resolution because it lacked a condemnation of Hamas, but defended letting it pass because it does tie a hostage release to a cease-fire by demanding both. Which, not good enough for Netanyahu.

So Israel canceled a high-level visit to Washington, but Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant was already in Washington and is expected to hold his scheduled meeting today with his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin. Make peace, fellas.

Assange Wins Extradition Battle, Still May Lose War

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange this morning won the right to extend his fight against extradition at least a little bit longer, but the ultimate outcome doesn’t look good.

Assange is before the U.K.’s High Court — his last legal resort there — and the court this morning refused to sign off on his immediate extradition to the U.S. to face charges of telling too much truth. But…the court said that Assange won’t be entitled to a full hearing to appeal that extradition if the U.S. promises (a) not to kill Assange and (b) not to deny his First Amendment rights.

The early reporting on this morning’s ruling is a little bit vague so it’s not yet clear to me whether the First Amendment rights the High Court wants assurances about relate to Assange’s right to speak publicly while he’s held by the U.S. or to his rights to publish the stuff he published, including, for instance, that infamous video of the U.S. military killing civilians in Iraq.

The U.S. government now has three weeks to file those assurances with the U.K. court. There will then be a hearing in May to assess those assurances for signs of bullshit.

Honestly, it doesn’t look good for Assange. Those are easy assurances for the U.S. to make. But while Assange’s legal route to freedom appears to be shrinking, there is at least some good news regarding his health — which is said to have suffered considerably during his captivity in the U.K.

The U.S. in 2022 agreed — in response to U.K. concerns about suicide risks — to let Assange serve out any potential sentence in his home country of Australia.

GOP Attorney General Sues Media Matters

The right wing is going after long-standing progressive watchdog Media Matters in a bid to help out a lone, beleaguered underdog who has more money than anyone in the world.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey yesterday sued Media Matters, effectively asking a court to force the progressive group to turn over internal information about its donors. Look who hates dark money now!

The fight is over Media Matters last year reporting that X, née Twitter, placed ads next to “pro-Nazi” Tweets. Never mind that “X” is literally just a swastika with its hands behind its back.

Anyway, X CEO and future ex-X Ceo Elon Musk complained and whine and sued like an alpha male who loves free speech. Musk alleged that Media Matters manipulated his algorithm to pressure advertisers to drop X. Which, to me, sounds like an admission — if your algorithm can be “manipulated” to produce a result…then that result is possible, non? Besides, if Musk admits he’s got pro-Nazi tweets on X…well, why wouldn’t ads show up next to them?

Point is, now Bailey is helping Musk out and/or trying to squeeze Media Matters using Musk’s suit as a predicate. Bailey’s suit asks the court to enforce his demand last year for information. This information:

Having reported on a number of nonprofits, I’m actually inclined to support a return to ye olde days of donor disclosure. But until that shining future comes to pass, seeking to force a full reveal of all donors from an entire state isn’t just a fishing expedition, it will very likely serve to intimidate future donors into not donating. Y’know, manipulating the algorithm.

FWIW, I read yesterday’s lawsuit and it’s hilariously terrible. There’s virtually nothing factual in there to support Musk’s or Bailey’s claims that Media Matters lied to donors to fund a deceptive campaign against Musk or his advertisers. I don’t mean the claims of fact are false, I mean I couldn’t find them.

Oh and I almost forgot: Musk’s other attempt to punish people for revealing what Twitter does smashed into a legal brick wall the other day like a driver who naively thought their Tesla was actually self-driving.

Musk sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate for countering his digital hate and scaring away advertisers with its facts and information about Twitter. A judge yesterday tossed Musk’s suit, calling it “unabashedly and vociferously” about one thing only: Punishing the center for its exercise of free speech. Which Musk loves.

Putin Acknowledges ISIS Role in Massacre

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday grudgingly acknowledged that the weekend attack that killed at least 139 people in Moscow was not personally carried out by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Putin cited “radical Islamists,” after ISIS took credit for the attack.

Seven people have been arrested, none of them Zelensky.

However, Putin is still suggesting that Ukraine ordered the attack. As if Putin’s relations with Islamic terrorists were hunky-dory until he invaded Ukraine.

And Ukraine isn’t entirely off the hook here when it comes to bullshit, either. Just as Putin had zero evidence for implicating Ukraine, Ukraine offered zero evidence for suggesting the attack was a false flag, staged by Putin to help Putin politically. As if a strongman autocrat somehow benefits politically from failing to prevent an attack that the U.S. warned him about.

On the other hand, at least Putin didn’t invade Iraq.

Truth Social Begins Trading Valued at $6.8 Billion

D4FRFP1 Donald Trump’s ironically named anti-truth, antisocial online platform Truth Social began its new life as a publicly traded company yesterday. And to its credit, one of the very first things it did was offer a very clear example of a very important truth: Wall Street is bullish on bullshit.

In theory, Wall Street is supposed to represent the pinnacle of the free market, in which capital flows where merit dictates, and the free market’s collective brilliance guides the Invisible Hand to etch a company’s true, real-time value on Bloomberg terminals around the world.

And so, in its infinite wisdom, Wall Street opened trading yesterday valuing Truth Social at $6.8 billion. That’s despite the Trump-owned company facing a few headwinds. Such as:

Taking in only $3.4 million in revenue during the first nine months of 2023,
Losing $49 million in the same period,
Having to shell out $37.7 on interest payments, and
Being a Trump-owned company.

Its own legally required regulatory filing — and, again, I can’t stress this enough, this is coming from a Trump company — warns that Truth Social will lose money “for the foreseeable future.” That’s a long time! That’s how lawyers say “forever”!

And if that’s what a Trump company is willing to say, imagine how bad they actually think they company is? It’s fair to assume they expect it to lose money for the unforeseeable future. Like, they know they can’t even count on bailouts from an investor group led by retired Admiral James T. Kirk…

The point here is that the company’s value is derived from the misguided confidence of deluded MAGA investors. Which just gives us an extreme case of what I routinely bang on about here — Wall Street isn’t a gauge of individual company value, it’s a barometer of Wall Street bro fee-fees.

As a side note, a lot of folks have flagged the windfall from going public as a lifeline for Trump to pay off his legal bills and/or fines. But regulatory provisions prevent him from touching that money until after it’s too late. And, hilariously, by that time there’s a very real chance its alleged value will have evaporated faster than an open bottle of Trump Wine.

Trump Wins a Legal Victory

A federal appeals court yesterday handed Trump a rare legal victory…only it wasn’t the Trump who really needs one.

Instead, it was Donald Trump, Jr., who got a lawsuit against him tossed out. During the 2018 West Virginia Senate election, Trump referred to one of the candidates as a “felon.”

In fact, that candidate, notorious former coal CEO Don Blankenship, was not a felon, but the court ruled yesterday that Blankenship didn’t prove that Trump got the facts wrong with actual malice. Getting the facts wrong with colossal stupidity is still a viable legal defense in this great nation, folks!

For the record, Blankenship was found guilty of a crime and did serve a year in prison for conspiring to violate safety standards ahead of a mine explosion that killed 29 people. But that’s only a misdemeanor in this great nation.

A Quick McDaniel Post-Mortem

Yesterday’s fusillade of on-air MSNBC objections to NBC’s retention of former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel was a laudable display of integrity and may in some cases have involved mustering personal courage. Not just of on-air commentators, but, potentially, of behind-the-scenes writers and producers who might have real reason to be concerned about their futures within the company.

So, kudos all around.

However, because I wake up as a wet blanket and go to bed as a wet blanket, I do want to push back on one narrative going around. While I’m sure the past few days haven’t exactly been fun in the NBC/MSNBC C suites, it’s possible that the coverage is overstating things.

What I mean by that is that public tension, or perceived tension, between the two networks actually helps both of them. In the moment it might not be fun, but the public display of conflict serves to cement images that both of them want.

NBC very much wants to distance itself from MSNBC. And at least some of the folks at MSNBC would like to at least differentiate themselves from NBC.

This hasn’t always been allowed. In the past, great efforts were made to prevent public signs of disunion. Which, I argued at the time, hurt both entities.

Whatever we’re seeing on-air now, unless we get word of some retroactive punishment, is at least tacitly tolerated. Hell, it may even serve as a safety valve. “We get it, you disagree, you should say so on-air.”

But for all the sturm und drang, it’s worth noting that, at least while I’m writing this, McDaniel is still there.

TCB

UNSCHEDULED ME I’m not exactly sure when it’s gonna drop, but yesterday I was interviewed by longtime evangelical and author and professor Warren Throckmorton. I’ve relied on his work more than a few times in my own reporting on The Family, the group behind the National Prayer Breakfast and it was an honor to be asked to speak with him.

You should be able to find the interview, once it’s up, here. And you can learn more about Warren and his book pushing back on Christian nationalist lies about America’s history at GettingJeffersonRight.com.

Oh, and I did my weekly The Fucking News segment with Nicole Sandler on her show last night. You can find that here.

You can find me on Twitter and Facebook. And I’m even on Bluesky and Mastodon. Because ya never know.

Go get ‘em, kids…!

D4FRFP = Disgraced, quadicted, fraudster, rapist, former President.