Blog Betty (Thomas Friedman is a Great Man was an online novel): Domo arigato, Ms. Robotto?

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS SPOKE WITH THESE REPORTERS -- MUST CREDIT BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S BIG MIX -- ABOUT THE STATE OF THE INTERNET. WHAT FOLLOWS IS AN UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT.

V.P. HARRIS: WELL THANK YOU FOR FINALLY GETTING AROUND TO INTERVIEWING ME. YOU KNOW PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN ISN'T THE ONLY ONE WORKING IN THIS WHITE HOUSE. AND I AM A LIVING, BREATHING PERSON. I AM NOT A ROBOT. I HAVE NOT BEEN PROGRAMMED WITH A STREAM OF PAT RESPONSES. I AM NOT A ROBOT. IF SOMEONE TELLS YOU I AM A ROBOT, THEY ARE WRONG. I AM NOT A ROBOT. I AM A LIVING, BREATHING PERSON. I AM NOT A ROBOT.

US: YES, VICE PRESIDENT, WE WANTED TO SPEAK TO YOU ABOUT SPOKE ABOUT THE EMPOWERMENT THE INTERNET CAN PROVIDE.

VP: AT THE CEO SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS, YES. I ATTENDED AND SPOKE. AS A PERSON, NOT AS A ROBOT. I AM NOT A ROBOT.

US: YOU USED AN EXAMPLE OF HOW A WOMAN IN HONDURAS, RURAL HONDURAS, COULD BE EMPOWERED. IT CAN EMPOWER AND IT CAN HARM. LAST WEEK, THE WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCED A NEW TASK FORCE THAT WOULD BE EXAMINING "CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ONLINE HARASSMENT, MASS SHOOTINGS AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND MEMBERS OF THE LGBT COMMUNITY."

VP: CORRECT AND I AM HEADING THAT TASK FORCE. IT IS AN IMPORTANT JOB AND WOULD NOT BE HANDED OVER TO A ROBOT. WHY DO YOU ASK?

US: IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE MAKING THE INTERNET SAFER -- A TASK WE THINK IS IMPOSSIBLE AND WILL ULTIMATELY DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD -- WHY DON'T YOU BAN REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA. LIKE SCOTT PIG RITTER. THREE TIMES ARRESTED, CONVICTED AND SENT TO PRISON AND NOW A REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER. HE ATTEMPTED TO HOOK UP WITH UNDERAGE GIRLS AND HE UTITLIZED THE INTERNET FOR THAT. BUT NOW, NOT ONLY DO PEOPLE LIKE JIMMY DORE BRING HIM ON HIS SHOW, HE ALSO JUST STARTED HIS OWN SHOW ON YOUTUBE. AT THE VERY LEAST, SHOULDN'T HIS APPEARANCES AND YOUTUBE CHANNEL AND TWITTER FEED COME WITH A WARNING THAT HE IS A REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER.

VP: WELL. AGAIN, THIS IS ABOUT THE FACT THAT YOUR VOICE, YOUR EXPERIENCCE, YOUR TRUTH, CANNOT BE SUPPRESSED AND IT MUST BE HEARD, RIGHT? I -- AT SOME POINT -- YOU KNOW -- WE ARE GOING TO THE BORDER. WE'VE BEEN TO THE BORDER. SO THIS WHOLE -- THIS WHOLE -- THIS WHOLE THING ABOUT THE BORDER. WE'VE BEEN TO THE BORDER. WE'VE BEEN TO THE BORDER.

US: HUH?

VP: UKRAINE IS A COUNTRY IN EUROPE. IT EXISTS NEXT TO ANOTHER COUNTRY CALLED RUSSIA. RUSSIA IS A BIGGER COUNTRY. RUSSIA IS A POWERFUL COUNTRY. RUSSIA DECIDED TO INVADE AQ SMALLER COUNTRY CALLE DUKRAINE. SO BASICALLY THAT'S WRONG.

US: OKAY, UH, WHAT ABOUT THE SCOTT RITTER ISSUE?

VP: WHEN WE TALK ABOUT OUR CHILDREN -- I KNOW FOR THIS GROUP, WE ALL BELIEVE THAT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT THE CHILDREN OF THE COMMUNITY, THEY ARE A CHILDREN OF THE COMMUNITY.

US: VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS, ARE YOU OKAY?

VP: YES AND I AM NOT A ROBOT. I AM A LIVING, BREATHING HUMAN BEING. I AM NOT A ROBOT. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE WHEN IT COMES TO THE CLIMATE CRISIS, WHICH IS WHY WE WILL WORK TOGETHER AND CONTINUE TO WORK TOGETHER TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES, TO TACKLE THESE CHALLENGES, AND TO WORK TOGETHER AS WE CONTINUE TO WORK, OPERATING FROM THE NEW NORMS, RULES AND AGREEMENTS THAT WE WILL CONVENT TO WORK TOGETHER ON TO GALVANIZE GLOBAL ACTION. WITH THAT, I THANK YOU ALL. THIS IS A MATTER OF URGEN PRIORITY FOR ALL OF US, AND I KNOW WE WILL WORK ON THIS TOGETHER.

SUDDENLY, THERE WAS A WHIRRING AND A BUZZING. WITH A JOLT AND A JERK, VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS TURNED TO THE SIDE AND WITH A BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP BACKED UP BEFORE SUDDENLY WHIZZING AND WHIRLING OFF TOWARDS THE OVAL.

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

The persecution of Julian Assange continues. Oscar Grenfell (WSWS) reports:

On Friday, British Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that she has approved WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States. Assange’s family, including his wife, Stella Moris, immediately declared that they would fight the decision, including through a further British legal appeal.

If Assange is extradited, he faces 18 charges under the Espionage Act and 175 years imprisonment for publishing what the American government and the British courts acknowledge was true information exposing US foreign policy.

When it comes to Ukraine, the US and its allies continuously claim that they are defending democracy against Russian “authoritarianism.” On the basis of these assertions, the Biden administration has funneled tens of billions of dollars in weaponry to the Ukrainian government, in what has become a US-NATO proxy war against Russia.

In the Asia-Pacific, Washington and its allies similarly assert that they are defending “freedom” in opposition to Chinese “autocracy.”

The persecution of Assange exposes all of these statements as complete lies used to justify a program of aggressive militarism and war.

In the heart of Britain, Assange, a journalist, is imprisoned in a maximum-security prison without charge, while the US seeks his extradition for exposing its war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange’s legal and democratic rights have been continuously attacked. There is clear evidence that the US oversaw a massive spying operation against Assange, while he was a political refugee in Ecuador London’s embassy. This included illegal surveillance of his privileged communications with lawyers.

Last September, Yahoo! News reported that in 2017, the Trump administration and the CIA discussed kidnapping or assassinating Assange in London. The article was based on the statements of 30 former US officials.

Outgoing United Nations Rapporteur Nils Melzer has repeatedly branded the US and British treatment of Assange as torture. Hundreds of doctors have demanded Assange’s freedom and warned of his deteriorating health.

Despite all of this, the Biden administration has continued the prosecution and the British courts have facilitated it. The contradiction between the supposed US-led campaign for “freedom” in Ukraine, and its determination to lock Assange away, is a staggering display of imperialist hypocrisy.

This persecution of Julian is about silencing the press. Monday April 5, 2010, WIKILEAKS released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. That is when the persecution begins. It was an intimidation carried out by multiple presidents starting with Barack Obama, continuing with Donald Trump and now the baton for killing the press has been handed off to Joe Biden. This has had the effect of scaring off many traditional news outlets. They once partnered with Julian to report and now they act as though they've never heard of him. Saving their own asses? They may think that. If they do, they're dead wrong. An attack on Julian is an attack on all. And if the attack on Julian is not loudly and publicly rebuked, you can be sure that next up will be THE WASHINGTON POST or THE MIAMI HERALD or some other institution -- despite the US Constitution -- the same one that's being ignored in this attack on Julian.

Kevin Gosztola (SHADOWPROOF) explains that Patel and the Home Office made the decision that press freedom is "an act capable of 'far more serious damage' than traditional espionage." Max Blumenthal Tweeted:

Mainstream US reporters could have led a drum beat for freeing Assange but most kept silent or defamed him as a digital terrorist and/or Russian asset. The US msm has thus colluded in one the worst assaults on a free press of our time and share responsibility for his extradition.

12:00 PM · Jun 17, 2022

Glenn Greenwald (SUBSTACK) notes, "An extremely unusual unanimity among press freedom and civil liberties groups was formed in early 2021 to urge the Biden administration to cease its prosecution of Assange, but Biden officials — despite spending the Trump years masquerading as press freedom advocates — ignored them (an interview conducted last week with Stella Assange by my husband, the Brazilian Congressman David Miranda, on Brazil's Press Freedom Day, regarding the latest developments and toll this has taken on the Assange family, can be seen here)." Saturday, Oscar Grenfell (WSWS) reported:

Meanwhile, El Pais reported last week that Britain is obstructing the Spanish National High Court from examining other allegations of illegal spying on Assange’s legal team.

Taken together, the various abuses to which Assange has been subjected, and the protracted character of his persecution, brand it as one of the political crimes of the century.

Speaking at yesterday’s press conference, Assange’s wife Stella Moris said the British legal process was being “used to prolong Julian’s suffering.” Britain, she said, “should not be engaging in persecution on behalf of a foreign power that is out for revenge… that foreign power committed crimes which Julian put into the sunlight.”

Moris vowed, “we’re going to fight this,” including through a final appeal within the British set-up. Robinson explained that this would focus on the political nature of the prosecution, its contravention of the British-US extradition treaty and the various abuses, including the CIA plots against Assange.

Together with Moris and WikiLeaks, press groups, journalists’ associations and international rights groups warned that Patel’s decision represents a frontal onslaught on core rights that will be deployed against others.

American whistleblower, Edward Snowden, who exposed mass NSA spying, tweeted: “Hard to believe, but it looks real. Every serious press freedom group in the world has protested this. It is an appalling symbol of how far the British and American governments’ commitment to human rights has declined.”

Well-known Australian investigative journalist John Pilger posted: “Home Secretary Priti Patel has approved the extradition of Julian #Assange to an American hellhole. A new appeal will now challenge the political rottenness of British ‘justice.’ Either we raise our voices as never before, or our silence colludes in the death of an heroic man.”