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Comment by mcherm | Hacker News Reader

I can't think of a special reason why the UK would have it in for Julian Assange. I presume they are doing this in order to cow towel to their ally the United States. Do they not realize that the United States is likely to undergo a regime change at the beginning of next year? Do they think the new regime in the US will feel the same way about Julian Assange and will put the same kind of pressure on the UK that the Trump administration presumably has? Do they think that they can reverse course and just apologize for the failure of justice if the US changes administrations?

Don't try telling me that the UK government is not a party here and that this is simply a case of a zealous prosecutor and biased judge -- because I'm not fool enough to believe that story.

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I'm guessing cow towel = kowtow. But... Perhaps you do treat your cows nice n stuff?

I think the term "cow towel" should be introduced into common usage. It's much more visual than "kowtow," e.g. "The UK is the US'cow towel."

I'd assume the agencies behind all this might not change. A new government doesn't radically restructure the FBI etc, though it might alter some priorities.

Also, any US gov probably appreciates national serfdom..

> Do they not realize that the United States is likely to undergo a regime change at the beginning of next year?

It's far too early to count on Trump losing the election... In my estimation, there's still over 50% chance he'll be re-elected. All he needs is for some Covid metric to show improvement, and he'll claim that as a win at the key moment. And economically, due to the weaker lockdown measures, the US will come out ahead of many other countries.

The media is (yet again) far too eager to sell you the idea that "he can't possibly win", and as long as people continue to buy that, he (and people like him) will continue to be elected.

It's not very likely the US will come out ahead economically. Countries that had stricter lock downs seeing great economic revivals as case numbers dwindled and lockdowns get progressively more targeted and less intrusive. This can't be done successfully in the US.

To give an extreme example of where countries with stricter lockdowns will be soon, look at China. Their economy is almost already at pre-pandemic levels.

FYI I think you meant "kowtow" rather than "cow towel."

> Do they think the new regime in the US will feel the same way about Julian Assange and will put the same kind of pressure on the UK that the Trump administration presumably has?

The pressure came from the Obama administration, the Trump administration just kept it up. I don't see any reason to believe that Biden would be substantially different.

I don't think he is especially popular with Hillary Clinton either, given the role that wikileaks played in leaking her campaign's emails.

Trump has floated the idea of pardoning Assange. A Biden presidency would likely be even more against Assange, because of his actions during the 2016 election which generally harmed Clinton.

I see nothing at all about the potential new Democrat government in the U.S that indicates it would in the least bit reduce its stupid, petty, vengeful prosecution efforts against Assange.

A fundamental loyalty to protecting the superiority of the U.S state and its military power/secrets is a firm tenet of both major parties. Obama never budged on Assange, or Snowden and what would make the even less flexible-minded Biden likely to go against the grain?

If anything, Trump winning is Assange's (or Snowden's) best hope, because so long as he has nothing to immediately lose in the form of electoral points, he's exactly the kind of arrogant that would love a grandiose gesture of clemency just to stick it to political rivals and look "edgy". Something similar to what made him push for the talks with N. Korea. (I have a hard time picturing Hillary Clinton having seriously considered such a thing)

I don't see why my older comment would be downvoted. Obama initiated the legal process against Assange and Biden never once stated a lack of support for it. What in the world would make any of you think he'd somehow change that tendency if he won? Trump, for all his mendacity and nonsense, has at least floated the idea forward here and there and has just enough vindictive weirdness to plausibly decide to do such a thing.

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