Sunday, July 14, 2013

Glenn and Edward Vercotti



Oh see my bruvvah's clumsy Colonel, an' when 'e gets un'appy 'e breaks tings. Like say, he don't feel the US government's playing fair by 'im, 'e may start breaking tings, Colonel.
...
"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinian daily La Nacion.

"The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare."
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10 comments:

bluicebank said...

Back to scratching that Greenwald scab on your knee?

If I might offer an opinion of the VOLUME of words you have devoted to Greenwald regarding Snowden's expose of NSA spying:

Might not an equal amount of effort be given to the substance of the reports be offered a gander? True, there is much to be said of the gadfly role. Yet sometimes the gadfly becomes just that, and is a distraction, adding no substance to the issue at hand.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

Actually, back to trolling the commenters here. I suggest you listen to the Matthew Filipowcz podcast linked last Friday.

Greenwald is rich vein, though. Apparently a firm believer in the Wildean "there is no such thing as bad press", his main goal is to keep his name at the top of the headlines.

If he REALLY thought the NSA debate was the goal of what he was doing, he might consider, as dg has been urging, focusing his writing and twittering on that debate, rather than himself and Snowden.

The 'media figures" are simply following the lead of Media Figure Glenn Greenwald in focusing on the sideshow.

"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had,"

That's.... umm, a VERY BOLD statement, considering that the information released to date, while laudatory for the way it has raised awareness, is somewhat less than new, unprecedented information (America spies on China? SHOCKED, I am!).

Anonymous said...

A few side details fell into place for me, and saying this is going to get me into a world of burning shit with some of the commenters here, but here goes:

I did not a first realize GG lives in Rio. I also did not realize GG lives in Rio because he lives with is husband.

Now, living in Florida, there is a surprising Brazilian community here. On the streets, I hear Portuguese about a quarter as often as I hear Spanish. The Brazilian community is one of the many ethnic communities around Tampa. I've had friends and co-workers from Brazil.

All of my Brazilian friends and co-workers are fairly open that they disliked having their statements questioned, and the question "Are you sure?" annoys them. It seems to be a cultural thing.

Almost every woman I've met from Rio, if you disagree with her, her first reaction will be something like "Do you think I'm stupid?". When this has happened around other people from Brazil, it seemed to simply be accepted. It has also led on many occasions to telling others "He thinks I'm stupid!" and "You think I'm stupid!" and "You better hope I don't tell my husband you said that!". It is a guaranteed cup of instant drama, and I've been told by others to never argue with a woman from Rio. (Far from all, but the ones who are big into the party circuit, most definitely. Think of it as Brazil's Jersey Shore.)

And so... Once I saw GG as a Rio Diva, suddenly everything fell into place. He is acting *exactly* like every other party circuit drama Diva from Rio I've met. He expects every comment made to be taken at face value, and every push-back is met with Diva Drama.

Mike.K.

Theophrastus Bombastus von Hoehenheim den Sidste said...

Meanwhile, the lackwits over at the Daily Kos are shrieking "HE NEVER SAID THAT!" The story of attempted extortion by Saint Greenwald is a distraction from their world historic task of hunting down the Republican infiltrators who have infested the site with their inflammatory message of "hold on a minute, let's think about this first."

Yastreblyansky said...

And last week to Daniel Serwer, "Edward Snowden has done far more for the world in the last 2 months than you have in your life. Does that help?"

Do we begin to detect a pattern here?

Captcha is accusing me of having a dirty relationship with an oil company: ibedsBP

Compound F said...

Yet sometimes the gadfly becomes just that, and is a distraction, adding no substance to the issue at hand.

Actually, Dr. DG McSmearson has indeed added substance, an entirely new substance on the periodic table, which we'll refer to as "solid odium." Give the man a Nobel Prize!

mahakal said...

Now this was a funny sketch. But Snowden really does hold some cards and Greenwald isn't making any demands, nor does it seem like a bad idea to have some insurance in this situation:

"It's not just a matter of, if he dies, things get released, it's more nuanced than that," he said. "It's really just a way to protect himself against extremely rogue behavior on the part of the United States, by which I mean violent actions toward him, designed to end his life, and it's just a way to ensure that nobody feels incentivized to do that."

blader said...

GG strikes me as unhinged and histrionic, kinda like Tony "Do you wanna go on with me, you say it. You don't, then you make a move. "Montana.

I never paid him (GG, not Tony) much mind prior to this Snowden affair, and I'll be sure to pay less afterwards.

JMO. YMMV. Just exercising my 2nd Amendment. GMLOGMD. etc & so forth

Unknown said...

Well, your take of revelation as hostage makes as much sense as anything else I guess. If Greenwald thinks what he is doing has anything to do with journalism, he is surely delusional.

Unknown said...

``Might not an equal amount of effort be given to the substance of the reports be offered a gander? True, there is much to be said of the gadfly role. Yet sometimes the gadfly becomes just that, and is a distraction, adding no substance to the issue at hand.''

What, exactly, do you think the ``substance'' of Greenwald's revelation (or whatever it is) is? I honestly can't figure it out.