LOL Harvard:
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government rescinded a visiting fellowship offered to Chelsea Manning, the former military intelligence analyst who spent seven years in prison for leaking classified government secrets, after the university faced forceful backlash from CIA Director Mike Pompeo among others.
honored to be 1st disinvited trans woman visiting @harvard fellow ? they chill marginalized voices under @cia pressure ??? #WeGotThis https://t.co/7ViF3GaSec
— Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) September 15, 2017
And before some chowderhead starts the argument about her not being qualified, don’t. That’s not the point. Qualified or not, she was invited. Disinviting her because the CIA director threw a little hissy fit is not a good look- it’s cowardice, first and foremost. Hell, anyone that upsets the CIA THAT much is probably worthy of a fellowship.
Also, after all she has been through and the shit she deals with on a daily basis, Chelsea seems very happy, stable, and is somewhat attractive. Good for her.
low-tech cyclist
I believe the term of art for their conduct is “chickenshit.”
JDM
Anyone holding their breath until the “free speech” believers of the rightwing rush to denounce Harvard’s decision and/or the CIA pressure?
gene108
Kind of scary this Administration feels so free to threaten private enterprise that employs people, who disagree with it.
Lee
When I read this my only reaction was a mental face-palm for Harvard. They could have ‘re-evaluated’ the invitation & then just let her in after the CIA felt they had made their point with their tantrum. Even better they could have said ‘well if she pisses you off that much, she should probably be here’ (but apparently that is a bit much to ask).
I agree she’s cute in the pictures I’ve seen.
Baud
Same could be said of Trump.
Baud
@JDM: Right. Never take their concerns seriously.
Betty Cracker
As the primary justification for booting Manning, Harvard says extending a fellowship implies an honor and endorsement. Okay, maybe. But in that case, why are they honoring Trump campaign thug Corey Lewandowski? Why are they endorsing serial liar and laughingstock Sean Spicer?
Bobby Thomson
Via LGM, Harvard also put the kibosh on an ex-con’s admission to a doctoral program in history because of fear of Fox.
Baud
This is an opportunity for Yale or Stanford.
TomatoQueen
Noting the gratuitous comments above on Chelsea’s appearance, nonetheless I hope Yale will do a little better. But I am a New Haven girl, boola boola.
Patricia Kayden
@JDM: Rightwingers only want freedom for hate speech — and only for hate speech that pushes their agenda. I’m sure that Chelsea isn’t in that mix.
Catherine D.
Also, per Charlie Pierce, Squint and Mika and Jason Chaffetz.
Starfish
It wasn’t just direct pressure from the administration.
Baud
If Harvard is looking for a pardonee to invite, there’s always Arpaio.
Viva BrisVegas
RIP Cassini spacecraft 1997-2017.
Baud
This isn’t Manning’s fault necessarily, but I’m disturbed that WaPo chose to highlight a Julian Assange tweet in its article.
Emma
@low-tech cyclist: Well, you nailed on in the first try. But it’s Harvard. All the convictions allowed by the rich and powerful.
Victor Matheson
If Harvard Business School had offered a position to Bernie Madoff or Ken Lay, I would certainly hope that someone with more wisdom up the chain of command would have undone that decision.
I think Manning is a bit of a harder case given the question whether she is traitor or a whistle-blower, but I can think of a ton a criminals, including those who have served their time, who I would not want my institution to honor with any type of position. (The Ph.D. student disinvited to Harvard is not one them, btw.)
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
I am absotively, posilutely sure that she had nothing whatsoever to do with deciding what the Washington Post prints, and I doubt she still thinks highly of a guy who left her out to dry like Assange did.
Baud
@Victor Matheson: Berkeley hired John Yoo. Granted, he wasn’t convicted of anything.
Baud
@Amir Khalid: I don’t follow her enough to know if she has expressed any regret for her actions or her past associations.
Kay
@Baud:
I didn’t want him to do a lot of time- our prison sentences are ridiculously long and he’s ancient. At least 90 days is essential however, for his rehabilitation and a productive return to society. If there is a criminal who needed the humiliation of riding on the jail bus and “intake” it’s that one. He isn’t rehabilitated.
Baud
@Kay: Think of the moral hazard, Kay.
Kay
@Baud:
Soft bigotry of low expectations. In a very real way their coddling of Right wing criminals harms the offenders. I believe he has the ability to meet “ordinary human being” standards with some effort on his part, but with the pardon we’ll never know.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Viva BrisVegas: Cassini included a probe called Huygens, and found anomalies (too much methane) in the atmosphere of Titan which so far as I know haven’t been explained. But it looked like there could potentially be methane-based life in the oceans. I think there was too much methane in the atmosphere and too little something else on the surface, as if something on the surface was respiring.
Only one or two extremely cautious NASA articles ever floated the possibility of it being life-based, and the popular press never ran with it that I saw. But I still think that’s one of the coolest stories to ever come out of a space probe. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we finally found life outside of earth? Even if it’s bacterial life that might be a couple billion years from sending a probe back our way?
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Betty Cracker: Paul Campos’ musing on whether Harvard is an asshole magnet or factory remains evergreen. (The same can be said of UChi).
low-tech cyclist
@Bobby Thomson:
Link to NYT story. Looks like Harvard’s being chickenshit on multiple fronts these days.
low-tech cyclist
@Kay:
Agree totally. And while he’s in his mid-80s, he certainly looks like he’s in excellent shape for his age, and he sure leads an active life on the Professional Asshole circuit. Physically, he should be able to handle 90 days at a Club Fed with little problem.
Marcopolo
@Viva BrisVegas: Seconded. And thanks to it for all the lovely data from Saturn & environs including lots of gorgeous photos.
Here’s CNNs article on it: http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/15/us/cassini-mission-ends/index.html
rikyrah
Hillary Clinton: “Trump admires authoritarians. He doesn’t just like Putin – he wants to be like Putin” https://t.co/atIrARErlI
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 15, 2017
Victor Matheson
@Baud: And a lot of people have trouble with the hiring of Yoo, including fellow Berkeley faculty member Brad DeLong. Again a bit of a harder case than a Madoff or a Lay since he wasn’t convicted of anything.
Just as an aside, when I was on the job market many years ago, the University of Missouri, I think, had an opening for the Ken Lay Chair in Economics. I was wildly unqualified for the position but applied for it anyway just for the satisfaction of getting the letter stating I was not worthy of the Ken Lay Chair.
rikyrah
#BREAKING: California makes history-passes bill requiring presidential candidates release tax returns #ImpeachTrump https://t.co/CGI7mqkV6R
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) September 15, 2017
eric
Think of the Endowment!
Cash is king, bitches.
Harvard is, as harvard is.
rikyrah
One of John Kelly’s flaws as the “adult in the room” is that he seems kinda nutty.https://t.co/6y3m9tmuLY pic.twitter.com/r6jQH5pHkW
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) September 15, 2017
Suzanne
Let’s remind ourselves that Harvard is where Jared Kushner attended after his dad paid them off.
They’ve been chickenshit for a long time.
rikyrah
The Sessions outburst, like the Comey firing, was all about controlling the investigation. There’s a word for that. https://t.co/jN6h6MyWHd
— Will Saletan (@saletan) September 15, 2017
msdc
@Victor Matheson: I’m glad somebody said this. Manning is a tough case in that her horrible treatment while in prison gives her a moral standing and a story students should hear, but at the same time there was a good reason she was in prison. I’m not sure that sabotaging US diplomatic efforts is worth a fellowship either. And it’s a little rich for Manning to tweet about “chilling marginalized voices.” I’m pretty sure the CIA’s beef with her isn’t that she’s trans.
Also, I don’t get all the comments about Manning’s appearance. Reminds me of some of the fawning coverage Caitlyn Jenner got when she came out–“let me show you how cool I am with this by ogling you as I would any other woman.”
charluckles
People Harvard is proud to give a platform to:
Mike “Pro-torture” Morell
Corey “Thug” Lewandowski
and Jason Chaffetz whose governance consisted in using every bit of power and time afforded him to launch attacks on Clinton.
I don’t see Harvard coming out of this smelling very sweet.
Suzanne
@low-tech cyclist:
No. Tent City.
Fuck that guy.
eric
the real questions are how did so many “smart” people not see this backlash coming and, assuming they did, why change their minds? They had to know there would be blow back from the government.
Another Scott
This is about the least surprising thing I will read today. :-/
Haavaad is shocked, shocked, that some powerful people wouldn’t like Manning being there. Really? Either they have incompetent people on the selection committee or they have no actual policy about what to do about potentially controversial people.
What are they going to do when/if Obama is invited there (Haavaad Law, after all)? “He let that ‘traitor’ Manning out early!!!11” Are they going to cave to the pressure and rescind that invitation as well?
They should have a clear policy about who is invited and who isn’t. Invitations should only be rescinded on the most extreme circumstances, and being controversial shouldn’t be one of them.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@Victor Matheson:
The fact that he has never even been indicted for anything is an indictment of us as a society unwilling to face our own sins.
rikyrah
The scope of Trump’s humiliation of Sessions comes into focus
09/14/17 04:53 PM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump is accustomed to a specific professional dynamic in which he’s the boss, he barks orders, and those orders are carried out. Those who fall short of the boss’ expectations are upbraided and replaced.
Trump, the nation’s first amateur president, may not fully appreciate how useless this approach is in national politics.
When Trump expected Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to shield him from inquiries related to the Russia scandal, and the GOP leader did not, the president “berated him in a phone call that quickly devolved into a profane shouting match.” Soon after, when Trump was disappointed after an August political rally, he “lashed out” at White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who “later told other White House staff members that he had never been spoken to like that during 35 years of serving his country.”
And then there’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and a New York Times report published today on how Trump has treated the nation’s top law enforcement official.
Viva BrisVegas
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I think it was too little hydrogen and acetylene rather than too much methane.
Which indicated either some kind of biological process or some novel kind of low temperature chemistry going on.
I’d love it to be biological, but the chances are slim at best. But even a new type of chemistry would have huge implications.
Unfortunately it’s going to be a long long time before another probe gets to have a look.
Victor Matheson
@eric: I would assume the people doing the hiring did think of the backlash and hired her anyway. The people up the line who have to actually deal with all of the blow back reversed the decision. Different people at different places in the institution can have all considered the same factors but may have all put different weights on the costs and benefits.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Calling a 19 year old E3 an “intelligence analyst” is a major stretch – I’m one of the people who was of the firm conviction that she should be thrown under the jail along with everybody who thought it a good idea to place a 19 year old E3 in a position to handle that much raw, sensitive data.
Now, as to the propriety of the invite, I’d think that the academic world would confine these to people who actually worked in creating or implementing policy, most of whom have degrees. Some are ogres, some on the side of the angels – Manning isn’t one of those. He had nothing whatsoever to do with the formulation or implementation of policy. It was a dumb offer, delivered by the trendier leftbros on the Assange alignment.
Under my idea, Spicer, Yoo, and even Arpaio have observations to offer – wrong that they may be. Manning doesn’t have shit.
Another Scott
@Kay: TheHill – Judge questions throwing out Arpaio conviction after pardon:
‘twould be interesting to see if the conviction remains.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
Lips pursed.
Trump on hurricanes: ‘I never even knew a Category 5 existed’
09/15/17 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
At a White House reception last night, Donald Trump reflected on the severity of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, respectively, and referring to the latter, the president said, “I never even know a Category 5 existed.”
And as strange as this was – a 71-year-old man who watches a lot of television had never heard of a Category 5 hurricane? – it wasn’t the most surprising thing Trump said yesterday in reference to the deadly storms. Consider this exchange aboard Air Force One yesterday between the president and reporters:
……………………..
Soon after, as Irma approached land, he tweeted, “Hurricane looks like largest ever recorded in the Atlantic!” It was followed by, “Hurricane Irma is of epic proportion, perhaps bigger than we have ever seen.”
But the moment climate change came up, Trump turned on a dime. “We’ve had storms over the years that have been bigger than this” is the new line.
As The New Republic’s Emily Atkin put it, “This is a near-perfect example of how climate deniers will bury their heads in the sand to keep pretending climate change doesn’t exist. Harvey inundated Houston with more than 50 inches of rain – there has never been a bigger rain event in America. Irma, at its peak, reached sustained winds of 185 miles per hour, making it the strongest storm recorded in the Atlantic Ocean outside of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Trump knew all these things a week ago – but now, suddenly, he doesn’t.”
When confronted with an opportunity for self-aggrandizement, Trump is eager to hype hurricanes. When confronted with a question about the climate crisis, he’s eager to do the opposite.
eric
@Victor Matheson: i would say maybe. I generally agree, but she is a very special case given what she was convicted of. I gotta think “money” called and threatened, and not the CIA. Makes no sense. everyone up the foodchain had to know she was coming and that the US govt would scream.
rikyrah
Economic Anxiety, My Butt
Won’t you sympathize with the “white working class”? Sure they voted for Trump, but they had nothing left to lose! Won’t you feel their pain from their loss of jobs and income? What’s wrong with you liberals? Aren’t you supposed to be the ’empathy’ guys?
This has pretty much been the narrative covering Donald Trump’s surprise win in November, and while much of the media has began to do some of the long overdue work of vetting candidate Trump after he ascended to the White House, this zombie narrative about the ‘economic pain’ of the ‘working class’ just won’t go away.
But it is a zombie narrative. Because everything about the narrative of economic anxiety being at the root of the ‘white working class’ voting Trump into office has been proven false. Hillary Clinton won the under-50K demo. In fact, Hillary Clinton won every demographic group except whites, and she lost nearly every white sub-demo. She and the Democrats were much better trusted on policies that would help the middle class. Barack Obama and the Democrats had rescued the American economy from the Great Recession, and Hillary Clinton offered policies ranging from a hike in the federal minimum wage to debt-free college. Donald Trump was – and is – a hothead with a messiah complex.
With all of that evidence contradicting their zombie narrative, the media still persevered. So one should not expect their narrative to suddenly change in wake of the latest news. But to the extent that facts still matter, this news really should be the final nail in this zombie narrative’s coffin: the nation’s median income rose to its highest level ever in 2016, reaching $59,032.
Not only that, the poverty rate fell to the pre-crisis level 12.7%, and the uninsured rate to the lowest ever at 8.8%.
Oh, and the median income for that all important white working class rose to more than $65,000 last year. In other words, the black president’s final year in office was exceptionally good for the working class, and especially so for the white working class.
And yet, this venerable ‘white working class’ voted in droves for a man who promised to undo everything that made that progress possible.
Economic anxiety, my ass.
rikyrah
Trump’s Pivot Is a Retreat From a Blind Alley
by Martin Longman
September 14, 2017
It’s admittedly hard to read a man like Donald Trump. He isn’t consistent. His word is not good. His comprehension of some of the basics of our system of government is shockingly low. His understanding of history, both recent and distant, is horribly flawed. His grasp of what is easy and difficult doesn’t appear to exist. He beat all his political opponents without seeming to have a realistic and overarching strategy, but more through a series of tactical battles that involved as many big losses as big wins. He lives in the moment and doesn’t follow even a basic script. He’s driven by lower emotions and is blinded to larger concerns.
So, it wasn’t really possible to confidently predict that he would not want to deport the Dreamers. His reaction to Charlottesville and his pardon of Joe Arpaio could have legitimately led people to conclude that his racial animosity would outweigh his compassion, and that his strategic vision was focused on shoring up the support of his racist base.
I perhaps am willing to give him too much credit for strategic thinking, although I’m wary of underestimating him after having done so for too long. But, I saw some of racial misbehavior in August as a potential prophylactic against the backlash he knew was coming in September when he would have to back down on DACA and the border wall to strike a deal with the Democrats on the budget.
……………………..
Nonetheless, the man does not learn or change easily. His blind spots are so huge that he will continue to wander into dead-end alleys. That he found himself in the position he was at in the beginning of September is a testament to his colossal lack of imagination and foresight. And, honestly, he only became somewhat easy to predict when his options had narrowed to a pinpoint.
He’s also a callous and unfeeling man. His approach on DACA is unconscionable because he is so concerned to preserve some face that he’s willing to leave all the Dreamers hanging in a suspended state, with all the fear and anxiety that creates for them and their friends and loved ones. Even if he’s committed to doing the right thing in the end, he’s going about it in such an awful and immoral way that he can’t be given much credit for it.
rikyrah
Trump reignites racial controversy over Charlottesville violence
09/15/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
A month later, it’s still hard to believe the controversy even happened. In the aftermath of violence in Charlottesville, Donald Trump created an international firestorm by arguing that “both sides” – racist protesters and anti-racism protesters – bore equal responsibility for what transpired, adding that there were many “fine people” among the bigots.
In the days that followed, members of several White House advisory boards resigned in disgust; organizations started cancelling events at Mar-a-Lago; and even some congressional Republicans and members Team Trump were publicly critical of the president’s bizarre remarks.
Yesterday, talking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump apparently thought it’d be a good idea to bring all of this up again.
Just One More Canuck
@Suzanne: affirmative action for rich people is real
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@rikyrah:
Here’s the thing – economic anxiety in is regional. There are many areas – particularly Appalachia – where economic activity is so moribund as to be enough to justify many places being in a localized depression.
Timurid
@rikyrah:
I’m wondering if all the flip flops on DACA are Trump fishing for a Sessions resignation…
Amir Khalid
@Another Scott:
As far as I know, a pardon only forgives the offender. It’s not a finding that the offender was wrongly convicted, nor does it wipe out the offence. That, I think, is one reason presidential pardons are typically given out not less than five years after conviction or the end of any jail time. Just how is Arpaio justifying this request?
nightranger
She leaked classified intel…full stop. Has nothing to do with being trans or any of that other bullshit. Get a clue Cole. If you sign up for a job with the legally binding agreement that you will not leak classified intel and then leak classified intel that does not make you a hero.
What part of that do you not understand!
FlipYrWhig
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Hasn’t that region been continuously moribund ever since white people discovered the Cumberland Gap?
mattH
And John Yoo still has a job teaching Law at Berkley.
rikyrah
One Promise Trump Is Not Allowed to Break
by Nancy LeTourneau
September 14, 2017
I have to admit that it was difficult pulling myself away from Twitter to write this. Things are busting loose since Trump’s meeting with Pelosi and Schumer last night, and the ensuing conflict about the terms of their agreement about the DREAM act. Part of what is so entertaining is to watch both Trump and his spokespeople try to explain the reality that the president has no idea what he’s talking about.
WH spox: Trump ‘will not be discussing amnesty’ but will discuss ‘legal citizenship over a period of time’
— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) September 14, 2017
“We’re not looking at citizenship. We’re not looking at amnesty. We’re looking at allowing people to stay here.” Trump to reporters in Fla.
— Robert Costa (@costareports) September 14, 2017
Trump today: “I’m very capable of changing to anything I want to change to.” Oh great.
— Brit Hume (@brithume) February 11, 2016
Major Major Major Major
Cole I know you think the ‘somewhat attractive’ part is maybe a compliment but… no.
@Baud:
Sorta? She says basically that it was a different time and place and a weird time in her life, and she doesn’t know if she’d do the same things now. Or at least that’s what I saw as a report of a speech/Q&A she gave at the big local hacker collective.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@nightranger: Yeah, imagine if you blew the cover of a CIA operative working in the middle east on nuclear proliferation, just for some minor political gain. Good thing we punish our members of congress and cabinet officials who leak classified info, right?
rikyrah
I’m #TheBestCommsOfficerInTheGalaxy, and a black woman, from The Future.
The #PrimeDirective allows me to say; Trump is a White Supremacist. https://t.co/fSfGXpNi1a
— Lt. Uhura 2017 (@LtUhura2017) September 15, 2017
Amir Khalid
@nightranger:
Here’s what you don’t seem to understand: Harvard knew all that about Manning when it offered her that visiting fellowship. So it was presumably taken into consideration as part of the selection process. Its error was that it caved in to outside political pressure and withdrew the offer for reasons that had nothing to do with the merits of the selection.
rikyrah
@Timurid:
As I reminded Kay in the previous thread..
Attorney General White Citizens Council is living out his White Supremacist Fantasies.
NO.WAY.DOES.HE.EVER.RESIGN.
He must be FIRED.
mattH
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
SHE, please. Second:
So many people there for Leftbros.
MattF
@Bobby Thomson: This, to me, is the interesting one. The applicant (Michelle Jones) committed a horrific crime as a teenager, then reformed and redeemed herself. She was admitted to Harvard as a Ph.D. candidate in the history department– and the admission was overruled by the Harvard Front Office, which, basically, never happens. The Front Office admitted that they were afraid of right-wing media reaction.
Jones was also admitted to NYU, and will do fine there, I’m sure. The business with Manning is bad enough, but… if you’re looking for plain, unadorned cowardice that damages Harvard’s basic line of business, it’s right there.
Gin & Tonic
I’m ambivalent about the offer and its withdrawal, but her playing the trans card now is some first-class bullshit. There is absolutely no indication that her gender identity had anything at all to do with anyone’s reaction to her appointment.
nightranger
@Amir Khalid: Doesn’t matter what harvard did or didn’t do. Wrong way Cole is siding with Manning just because she is trans and doesn’t give a damn about the fact she broke the law and that is why the CIA is upset about it. In other words, wrong way Cole is going the wrong way as usual.
different-church-lady
Manning tries to make it about her being trans, and Cole makes it about her attractiveness. Jesus fuck…
Amir Khalid
@nightranger:
I forgot, you’re that troll. My bad.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Then maybe those nice white people should stop voting for the party that takes advantage of their racial resentment to screw them at every opportunity to give tax cuts to billionaires.
Raven Onthill
Political science professor (GWU) Henry Farrell on this: Why I’m having nothing to do with Harvard’s Kennedy School for the foreseeable future
Gelfling 545
@nightranger: oh. It’s you.
Major Major Major Major
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: at this point I’m just giving them the benefit of the doubt that they’ve weighed their choices and decided that hurting minorities is more important than money.
Bobby Thomson
@Amir Khalid: yep. Noted.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@FlipYrWhig:
But they’re the Real Heartland ‘Murkans, and must be celebrated, fellated, coddled and deferred to on all matters of economics and culture….
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Major Major Major Major:
We have a winner – they’re happy to live in shit so long as they’re “above” those they hate.
Starfish
@Raven Onthill: I think that link provides more information than a lot of the other comments. Thanks.
Aleta
@Gin & Tonic: Her tweet strikes me as a humorous response to the change in the previous media announcements, which all claimed “1st trans(person) fellow.” (Not sure it’s true that she was, but publicly announcing it was a first.)
Also an example of her staying in control– publicly reversing what in the past would have been used for public humiliation.
You could say that the trans card shouldn’t have been part of the fellowship offer in the first place, but my guess is that the offer was because of her entire ‘life experience,’ as they say in college admissions. Originally Harvard thought they could benefit from her contribution.
Corporeal Clegg
Opinions are like assholes, and many shouldn’t be exposed in public.
Shalimar
@Another Scott: The law seems pretty clear. Accepting the pardon is an admission of guilt. There would be no sentencing because of the pardon, but I don’t see any grounds for throwing out the conviction now that Arpaio has admitted he is guilty.
Kristine
@Bobby Thomson: Wondering if it’s the behind the scenes pressure from donors as much if not more so than the public complaints.
burnspbesq
@Baud:
Boalt hired Yoo well before he engaged in any conduct that can be viewed as aiding and abetting war crimes. Not that the institution doesn’t have a closet full of other skeletons.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
I believe we have the actual title of Trump’s autobiography, as well as his overarching philosophy of life.
burnspbesq
@nightranger:
Manning paid her debt to society, and deserves a fresh start. I don’t hear you complaining about the wingut welfare going to convicted criminal Dinesh d’Souza.
burnspbesq
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
“He?”
Fuck you.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: that’s absolutely standard for the military, always has been. MOSs that require security clearances like MI don’t have age limits, and it’s infinitely easier to get a TS when you’re 18 than 26.
Amanda in the South Bay
@burnspbesq: +1
Amanda in the South Bay
NatSec/NatSec academic Twitter had a collective stroke over Manning’s appointment. Yet they stay silent about Cory L, Spicer, etc. fuck em.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Corporeal Clegg:
That left me a little eeew too. Just ugh, John, you know better.
Frankensteinbeck
The mention of whether Manning’s looks should be mentioned keeps coming up here. On the one hand, it’s not relevant to the specific issue, and women get judged way, way too much on their looks. On the other, at least two thirds of my friends are transwomen (zero clue how that keeps happening) and most of them if they don’t merely pass after transition but people think they’re pretty is a big, big validation they do not tire of hearing quickly.
Cacti
@Another Scott:
That’s the part Arpaio didn’t think through. Acceptance of pardon implies admission of guilt for the underlying offense. We don’t pardon the innocent.
Joe wants to be pardoned AND not guilty. Sorry, doesn’t work that way.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Frankensteinbeck: In this case it came across as ‘it helps her case against Harvard, thank goodness she’s young and cute and passes, otherwise she wouldn’t be worthy of defending’. Then again I’m trans and super sensitive, so go figure.
Amaranthine RBG
@TomatoQueen:
Pity the somewhat unattractive transsexuals I guess …
Frankensteinbeck
@Amanda in the South Bay:
I actually mildly lean against this usage, but I didn’t get that at all. Just a kudos from someone who thinks that’s appropriate on a list of good things to happen to someone who has been through shit.
Bobby Thomson
@Shalimar: it’s really not. It’s just dictum in a very old SCOTUS opinion. DOJ procedures for a pardon include an admission but this wasn’t done by the book.
Oatler.
As I say every year, Harvard-endorsed Kissinger is still alive and untried for war crimes.
John Cole
I don’t know what I did that was so offensive. She has gone through hell, a lot of hard changes, and I merely stated that she looks happy and pretty. I didn’t realize that would make me history’s greatest monster. Even being shit on publicly again, she’s handling it with grace and a sense of humor.
Some of you miserable motherfuckers could learn something from her.
Lurking Canadian
@rikyrah: you want to know how racist Jeff Sessions is? Jeff Sessions is so racist that he’s willing to go to work and get chewed out by Donald Trump, as long as he gets to keep stomping on the people he hates.
Swannie
John Cole is letting his little head do the thinking. Manning is a convicted traitor.
Gin & Tonic
With comments like this one, I don’t think Manning is going to win more supporters. Not to defend ICE here, but this is just an almost complete ignorance of history.
Amaranthine RBG
@John Cole:
I don’t think anyone said you were history’s greatest monster. Calm yourself
When a dozen people call you out on a comment, you might want to try to understand
Lemme see if I can cisplain this to you.
It’s seldom acceptable to make comments about a persons appearance, especially when it’s irrelevant to the subject at hand. Normally it would have just been run of the mill sexism. But when a trans person is the subject, such comments also imply that you think it’s somehow up to you to approve of how they look post transition. It ain’t.
Shantanu Saha
Between Manning and Michelle Jones (among other ridiculous episodes of conservative PC run-amok), boy am I glad I never accepted that invitation to go to Harvard.
Gravenstone
@nightranger: And once again, shitheel shomi shows his patented patter and reveals the fuckstain behind the endless series of nyms.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@burnspbesq: @Amanda in the South Bay: +2
(((CassandraLeo)))
Regarding Manning, I think we need to remember that Wikileaks was considered much more reputable when she leaked her documents than it is now. It’s my understanding that she’d been led to believe they’d redact everything she leaked of sensitive info that could possibly endanger service personnel before publishing it, and they’d had a history of actually doing that in the past, so there was no great reason for her to believe things would be different in this case. And as clear as it is nowadays that Assange is scum, a lot of people got taken in by him at the time. He’d essentially used the work of other people at Wikileaks (essentially all of whom are now gone, to my understanding) to build a reputation for himself as some heroic advocate of the underdog.
I consider Manning guilty of naïveté, but a lot of people seem to take it on faith that she leaked documents maliciously or without any concern for whether doing so would endanger people. I don’t see any credible evidence that either is the case, and the person who should be getting most of the blame here is Assange, for being a lying, fascist-supporting sack of shit.
In any case, she’s also already served a lengthy prison sentence during which she was essentially tortured. Shouldn’t reintegration of ex-cons into society be a priority for liberals and leftists? It’s a recurring problem that criminal pasts end up causing people employment problems, and given that the criminal populace features disproportionate numbers of minorities (due to sentencing disparities caused by white supremacy and various other horrors), that’s a serious injustice. If people carry around baggage from their convictions for the rest of their lives, that decreases the likelihood of their reintegration into society, increases the likelihood of recidivism, and contributes to a growing prison population.
Punishment shouldn’t be the left’s top priority, and we shouldn’t generally be defining people by the lowest points in their lives. Obviously, there are some cases where people who are obvious dangers to the public are unjustly acquitted (nearly every pig who’s ever murdered an African-American) or are given ludicrously lenient sentences (far too many sexual assault cases), and we should fight those. But this isn’t one of those. Manning has served time and it’s not as if she’ll ever be in a position to re-offend. I’m not OK with holding her past against her for the rest of her life.
NorthLeft12
Funny, I can remember in my youth that any invitee to a university that was bad mouthed by the CIA or Defence Dept. could be assured of a warm welcome and probably a full auditorium.
Well, have times ever changed.
WaterGirl
@Amaranthine RBG: The arrogance just drips off of you in this comment. Go jump in a lake.
Corporeal Clegg
Cole’s “explanation” for his idiotic and unnecessary comment makes me ill. He’s handsome enough though, given all he’s been through.
Sab
@John Cole: I am a middle aged not trans woman who hates makeup, and yes its shallow to comment on her looks, but Chelsea Manning is making some effort to look good, judging by her makeup use, and I think she has succeeded. She’s very pretty. Why is everyone blasting John for commenting on her looks, when she apparently cares how she looks. It was just a compliment.