What is wonderful is when personal freedom is experienced in the United States. What is horrible is when that country does a “Soviet-style” turnabout and imprisons you for free speech. This is the story with Julian Assange, whose Wikileaks site has been a vital player in calling out abuses of power within the United States – its government and otherwise politically powerful.
From what Glenn Greenwald reports here on Tucker Carlson Tonight, it seems that Mr. Assange ought to be awarded a meda of gratitude, rather than put away for 175 years.
But, Mr. Assange upset the powerful. He embarassed Hillary Rodham Clinton (and didn’t die, at least not yet), and he embarassed President Barack Obama (and didn’t die, at least not yet). He exposed the massive surveillance (“spying”) system the American intelligence agencies have developed for spying at will on American citizens (so much for the right to be left alone!)
Mr. Greenwald goes on to note that President Trump has praised the work of WikiLeaks in the past, suggesting that the President might be interested in granting a pardon to Mr. Assange. However, the message from the intel community, as backed by Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer is that the intelligence community has come to believe it is above the law, a government unto itself, and Greenwald suggests that Trump might be being set up by that community for a showdown.
How many showdowns would this make? We had Russiagate for three years, we had the Compleat Fake Impeachment last year, and we have had others to fill in the spaces. President Trump has thrown off every one of these so far.
Why is that?
One reason is because the President does not tell lies or make agreements with shadowy people to cover things up. This gives him a lot of freedom to simply say what he thinks. So far, this has worked to slowly build support among the Republicans and even a Democrat or two at times, and it has slowly formed a group around the President who, while not personally like him, can rely on his strength to develop some of their own. Examples include Senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, even Marco Rubio to some extent; Lindsey Graham (who I still do not trust but has spoken forcefully in support of the President many times now), and of course, Attorney General William Barr and others.
It would be presumptuous to assume that Trump’s relative purity would make him unable to be taken down by slander. It is certainly possible. The American people are fickle and often easily fooled by the press. However, three and a half years of Trump has convinced many Americans NOT to trust the media anymore and some of the more wild allegations of recent days, plus the riots and the dishonest reporting around them, seem to be accelerating distrust in the mainstream media.
The intel community may possibly find itself isolated by the citizenry of America. That community relies on a certain amount of trust in order to be as powerful as it is. Push things too far and… anything could happen.