Trump officials plotted to kidnap, kill Julian Assange- National & International News – TUE 28Sep2021

Trump officials plotted to kidnap, kill Assange. GOP continues Russian roulette with U.S. debt. Major polluter Australia may blow off climate meeting.

NATIONAL NEWS

Trump officials plotted to kidnap, kill Julian Assange

In 2016, a bromance blossomed between the Trump presidential campaign and Julian Assange following Wikileaks’ publication of the infamous DNC e-mails. The leaks revealed rampant corruption at the DNC and its’ leadership to derail Bernie Sanders’ campaign to hand the nomination to Hilary Clinton. Those disclosures disillusioned many Democratic voters and probably helped Trump to clinch the Presidency. But that bromance was short-lived.

The following year, Wikileaks published the “Vault 7” trove detailing the CIA’s hacking capabilities. Those documents revealed that the agency could to do everything from spying on people through smart TVs to taking control of a car’s onboard computer systems remotely. Following these revelations, then-CIA head Mike Pompeo began drawing up plans to either kidnap or kill Assange. At the time, Assange was still in asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London. So, Pompeo was proposing a U.S. incursion into another country’s sovereign territory.

Trump has since denied these claims, saying he believes Assange “has been treated very badly”. It’s worth noting that if Trump felt that way, he could have pardoned Assange before leaving office.

Assange still in London jail

For now, Julian Assange remains in London’s Belmarsh prison. In January, a judge in London blocked Assange’s extradition to the U.S. on humanitarian grounds. The Biden DOJ is currently appealing that decision. Assange faces numerous espionage charges in the U.S. stemming from his journalistic activities, which have embarrassed successive Republican and Democratic administrations alike. If Assange is extradited and convicted in a U.S. court, he could be facing 175 years in prison.

Republicans continue playing Russian roulette with U.S. debt

Senate Republicans have unanimously voted down a bill that would fund the government through Dec. 3 and raise the debt ceiling to allow the U.S. to meet its debt obligations. Failure to pass the bill before we hit the current debt ceiling would trigger a default on $28 trillion in U.S. debt. Such a default would tank the country’s credit rating and have disastrous consequences for the U.S. economy.

Despite the looming consequences, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that Republicans will not vote to raise the debt ceiling. McConnell hopes this dangerous game of chicken will force Democrats to abandon its $3.5 trillion social safety net package. That package would add far less federal debt that the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which Republicans overwhelmingly voted for. In fact, Republicans have raised the debt ceiling many more times under Republican administrations that Democrats have during Democratic presidencies.

Can the Democrats raise the debt ceiling on their own?

McConnell contends that the Democrats can vote to raise the debt ceiling without Republican support. However, that would be a long and cumbersome process which is too complicated to get into here (but you can read all about it here, if you so wish). In short, the process presents many potential pitfalls and numerous opportunities for more GOP obstruction.

While it’s possible the Democrats could pull it off on their own, the delay could have serious consequences. No one knows exactly when we will hit the current debt ceiling, but experts believe it’s a matter of weeks.  As the days drag on, markets will become more antsy. Even if we avert default, Standard & Poors could downgrade the country’s credit rating due to the uncertainty.

“Not normal”?

Following the bill’s defeat, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had harsh words for his GOP colleagues. “The Republican Party has solidified itself as the party of default, the party that says America doesn’t pay its debts”, Schumer said. “Republicans would let the country default for the first time in history. What the Republicans in the Senate did tonight is not normal”.

Unfortunately, these sorts of games are becoming very “normal”. The Democrats’ failure to plan ahead for such obstruction this time is at least a failure of imagination. The GOP played this game throughout the Obama administration, most notably in 2011 when the U.S. credit rating dropped from AAA to AA+.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Australia’s PM won’t commit to attending major climate meeting

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has “not made any final decisions” on attending a major international climate conference at the UN in November. At the COP26 conference, 200 countries will set new carbon emissions goals in hopes of staving off the worst effects of climate change.

Morrison has received criticism both at home and from abroad for his failure to address climate change and his country’s role in it. Australia is largely dependent on coal and is the most carbon polluting nation in the world per capita. 75% of the country’s domestic power generation depends on coal. What it doesn’t burn at home, it exports to growing markets in Asia. Australia is world’s second leading exporter of coal behind Indonesia.

Morrison has vaguely said he would like to cut Australia’s emissions “as soon as possible” but has outlined no plans to do so. He has also repeatedly resisted the inclusion of any climate standards in new treaties and trade deals with other nations, most recently with the UK.

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