4 ms·

Politics make strange bedfellows. That said, I think that ideologically, all of these men are absolutely on the same page... of persons who will never in their

by skidoo 12y ago

Politics make strange bedfellows. That said, I think that ideologically, all of these men are absolutely on the same page... of persons who will never in their lifetimes be invited to any White House gala. And good for them.

jacquesm 12y ago
> That said, I think that ideologically, all of these men are absolutely on the same page... I don't think even they would agree to that. KDC is a serial criminal/fraudster with a ton of convictions to his name that will pursue a buck no matter what he has to do for it. Glenn Greenwald is a journalist who will not be pushed or pressured into behaving as governments believe he should, who has taught a superb lesson in ethics to a large swath of the journalistic profession. He's this generations Woodward or Bernstein, take your pick. Julian Assange is a person that I respect on a professional level for what he's done with WikiLeaks but who quite probably has some flaws and possibly something to answer for in his private life. They couldn't be more different.
- thaumaturgy 12y ago
  I think that's a little unfair to KDC; at the very least, it is no more a complete picture of the man than "John Doe is a felon" is of anyone else. There are a lot of other people who see Assange as nothing more than "rapist on the run". Dotcom hasn't stopped fighting his imprisonment and the seizure and loss of his equipment, business, and customers' data, even though he's already won far more than maybe anyone else in his position could have hoped to win in this age. He easily could have gone back home, moved to another country, and faded into obscurity; instead, he relaunched the service that got him into so much trouble in the first place, and has seemingly made it his mission to embarrass the governments involved as much as possible. Whether his motives are entirely selfish, for his own aggrandizement -- as I suspect they probably are -- or more altruistic, I'm still glad he's pouring so much of his resources into this.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    KDC is a convicted felon in Germany, has 10 or more counts against him and has had a 2 year suspended sentence which he did not contest. He's also been involved in setting up a ponzi scheme and stole 1.5M in a 'pump and dump'. I won't take a word of that back.
    - thaumaturgy 12y ago
      OK. You can refuse to take back anything you said -- which I didn't ask for, btw -- but it will still have nothing to do with what I said.
      - jacquesm 12y ago
        Apologies for being unclear, I was mostly responding to the bit that states that I'm being 'a bit unfair' to KDC. I think it is very fair and that he's simply a bad puppy. If he accidentally does something useful while he's pursuing his selfish goals then great, but that's not his first and foremost interest, most probably merely a convenient vehicle for his ambitions.
        thaumaturgy 12y ago
        I'm having trouble understanding how you're able to give Assange and Dotcom different treatments. I'm not trying to pick a fight here, I'm genuinely puzzled. You're having a similar argument with idlewords, but in defense of Assange; your comment upthread acknowledges that Assange has "flaws" and "something to answer for in his personal life", but when it comes to Dotcom, it sounds like you've got a much stronger negative impression of him. This isn't really that important I guess. I should probably just drop it. It just seems weird. (FWIW, I've defended Assange too in other conversations, but with full knowledge that he probably is guilty of a sex crime under his country's laws; likewise with Dotcom, after his release. It's good that the battle against mass surveillance doesn't require saints, since we don't get to pick allies for their winning personalities.)
        12y ago
- junto 12y ago
  I said something very similar in another KDC related post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8317883 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8317883 In addition to your comments, the fact that Snowden and Greenwald are prepared to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Dotcom shows me, that they are prepared to put their own integrity (which is everything to both of them) on the line, because they believe these claims to be true. That or the USD has false flag leaked the information in order to make Snowden and Greewald look stupid. However, considering the lengths Greenwald went to in order to make sure he wasn't being stitched up by Snowden, the likelihood is that he has correctly validated his source. Time will tell, but yeah, Kimble is a shill. He stitched up a load of people here in Germany back in the day to save his own ass.
codeulike 12y ago
People seem to be missing Skidoo's joke here: "all of these men are absolutely on the same page...of persons who will never in their lifetimes be invited to any White House gala"

by skidoo 12y ago

jacquesm 12y ago

> That said, I think that ideologically, all of these men are absolutely on the same page... I don't think even they would agree to that. KDC is a serial criminal/fraudster with a ton of convictions to his name that will pursue a buck no matter what he has to do for it. Glenn Greenwald is a journalist who will not be pushed or pressured into behaving as governments believe he should, who has taught a superb lesson in ethics to a large swath of the journalistic profession. He's this generations Woodward or Bernstein, take your pick. Julian Assange is a person that I respect on a professional level for what he's done with WikiLeaks but who quite probably has some flaws and possibly something to answer for in his private life. They couldn't be more different.

thaumaturgy 12y ago
I think that's a little unfair to KDC; at the very least, it is no more a complete picture of the man than "John Doe is a felon" is of anyone else. There are a lot of other people who see Assange as nothing more than "rapist on the run". Dotcom hasn't stopped fighting his imprisonment and the seizure and loss of his equipment, business, and customers' data, even though he's already won far more than maybe anyone else in his position could have hoped to win in this age. He easily could have gone back home, moved to another country, and faded into obscurity; instead, he relaunched the service that got him into so much trouble in the first place, and has seemingly made it his mission to embarrass the governments involved as much as possible. Whether his motives are entirely selfish, for his own aggrandizement -- as I suspect they probably are -- or more altruistic, I'm still glad he's pouring so much of his resources into this.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  KDC is a convicted felon in Germany, has 10 or more counts against him and has had a 2 year suspended sentence which he did not contest. He's also been involved in setting up a ponzi scheme and stole 1.5M in a 'pump and dump'. I won't take a word of that back.
  - thaumaturgy 12y ago
    OK. You can refuse to take back anything you said -- which I didn't ask for, btw -- but it will still have nothing to do with what I said.
    - jacquesm 12y ago
      Apologies for being unclear, I was mostly responding to the bit that states that I'm being 'a bit unfair' to KDC. I think it is very fair and that he's simply a bad puppy. If he accidentally does something useful while he's pursuing his selfish goals then great, but that's not his first and foremost interest, most probably merely a convenient vehicle for his ambitions.
      - thaumaturgy 12y ago
        I'm having trouble understanding how you're able to give Assange and Dotcom different treatments. I'm not trying to pick a fight here, I'm genuinely puzzled. You're having a similar argument with idlewords, but in defense of Assange; your comment upthread acknowledges that Assange has "flaws" and "something to answer for in his personal life", but when it comes to Dotcom, it sounds like you've got a much stronger negative impression of him. This isn't really that important I guess. I should probably just drop it. It just seems weird. (FWIW, I've defended Assange too in other conversations, but with full knowledge that he probably is guilty of a sex crime under his country's laws; likewise with Dotcom, after his release. It's good that the battle against mass surveillance doesn't require saints, since we don't get to pick allies for their winning personalities.)
        12y ago
junto 12y ago
I said something very similar in another KDC related post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8317883 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8317883 In addition to your comments, the fact that Snowden and Greenwald are prepared to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Dotcom shows me, that they are prepared to put their own integrity (which is everything to both of them) on the line, because they believe these claims to be true. That or the USD has false flag leaked the information in order to make Snowden and Greewald look stupid. However, considering the lengths Greenwald went to in order to make sure he wasn't being stitched up by Snowden, the likelihood is that he has correctly validated his source. Time will tell, but yeah, Kimble is a shill. He stitched up a load of people here in Germany back in the day to save his own ass.

codeulike 12y ago

People seem to be missing Skidoo's joke here: "all of these men are absolutely on the same page...of persons who will never in their lifetimes be invited to any White House gala"