William: Actually, a young artist I know, who does not have gallery representation, was approached by the Whitney and asked to submit her work. So she did, but didn’t hear anything. So she called the curator back, and the curator said, “Oh, I’m really sorry, I didn’t realize when I asked you to submit that you didn’t have a gallery, because we rely on the galleries to fund these projects.” My friend said, “You’re telling me that I have to have a gallery if I want to be part of this program?” and she’s like, “Yeah, that’s how it’s works.” And this particular artist did not want to have a gallery.

Throughout my life I have seen, and sometimes participated in, peaceful civil disobedience in which sitting and linking arms was understood by citizens as a posture that indicates, in the clearest possible way available, protestors’ intent to be non-violent. If example, if you look through training materials from groups like the Quakers, the various pacifist organization and centers, and Christian organizations, it is universally taught that sitting and linking arms is the best way to de-escalate any confrontation between police and people exercising their first amendment right to public speech.

“Why is Washington so obsessed with Assange?”

“It is power taking its revenge. Assange has made government transparency a moral issue and made people aware that classification and secrecy serve to hide government crimes and deception. This has empowered whistleblowers.”

“Won’t there be other whistleblowers?”

“Not without Wikileaks. Formerly, whistleblowers would release documents to the media. However, whistleblowers have learned that the law that was enacted to protect them is not obeyed in the post-9/11 environment, and the media has learned that the First Amendment has lost much of its authority. It has become too dangerous for whistleblowers to step forward. Moreover, whistleblowers have learned that even the New York Times first checks with the government before the paper prints a leak. Remember, the Times sat for one year on the leak from NSA that the Bush administration was violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and spying on Americans without obtaining warrants from the FISA court. The Times published only after Bush was reelected. Wikileaks is the only way whistleblowers can get the word out.”

“You mean if the government convicts Assange, it is the end of Wikileaks?”

“Yes. If Assange is convicted of spying, then ipso-facto a successor would be a spy. The ability of whistleblowers to bring accountability to government is about to disappear.”

Secondly, the US does not deserve a triple-A rating, and the reason has nothing whatsoever to do with its debt ratios. America’s ability to pay is neither here nor there: the problem is its willingness to pay. And there’s a serious constituency of powerful people in Congress who are perfectly willing and even eager to drive the US into default. The Tea Party is fully cognizant that it has been given a bazooka, and it’s just itching to pull the trigger. There’s no good reason to believe that won’t happen at some point.