US Politics Mega-thread - Page 6583

On January 18 2017 07:54 Nyxisto wrote:
well good luck finding someone who means it



Manning aside I think the general opinion is that the Obama administration was a pretty huge blow back for whistleblowers and that the US is a pretty bad country to leak so much information. Pretty sad but I guess that's what you have to expect. Certainly isn't going to get much better with Trump and I can't even remember Bernie talking a lot about civil liberties. Even after the whole Snowden thing blew up nobody really seemed to care.

On January 18 2017 08:06 Nyxisto wrote:
I think what is interesting about this is that Obama commuted Manning's sentence who leaked the information in non responsible manner but faced the system and seems to shun Snowden who leaked through responsible channels but fled. I imagine the damage of the Manning leaks far exceeds the Snowden leaks. I'd actually have done it the other way around if I had to choose.

On January 18 2017 08:06 Nyxisto wrote:
I think what is interesting about this is that Obama commuted Manning's sentence who leaked the information in non responsible manner but faced the system and seems to shun Snowden who leaked through responsible channels but fled. I imagine the damage of the Manning leaks far exceeds the Snowden leaks. I'd actually have done it the other way around if I had to choose.

On January 18 2017 08:06 Nyxisto wrote:
I think what is interesting about this is that Obama commuted Manning's sentence who leaked the information in non responsible manner but faced the system and seems to shun Snowden who leaked through responsible channels but fled. I imagine the damage of the Manning leaks far exceeds the Snowden leaks. I'd actually have done it the other way around if I had to choose.

On January 18 2017 08:05 Thieving Magpie wrote:


For context.

I absolutely love that Manning went through the legal process and understand why Obama made the decision he made; especially to send the optics that whistleblowers who turn themselves in and are found guilty will be treated better from now on.

I absolutely hate Snowden for running away and not trusting the legal process to fully vet his story as publicly as possible in order to set precedent on how whistleblowing will be dealt with in the future--but I also understand why he jumped ship the way he did.

On January 18 2017 08:14 Gorsameth wrote:

Considering what happened to Manning I can not hate or blame Snowden for running.

I trust the legal process.
I don't trust the government once the public eye turns away to the next big thing.

On January 18 2017 08:19 Thieving Magpie wrote:


I definitely agree he would have been crucified--possibly literally.

But that's what MLK did during the civil rights movement as well. He continually allowed himself and his peers to be beaten, arrested, and harassed in order to present to the world the issue at hand, to show that there is something wrong with the system. I felt that Snowden was a very real chance to begin that dialogue, to really present it with a case study as the focal point. Instead he ran to Russia and his retreat was followed by continual leaks from "Russian" sources/code.

On January 18 2017 08:30 Gorsameth wrote:

It takes a great man to be willing to sacrifice himself like that. No shame in not being that man.

Plus I would guess that if there had been bigger public outrage about the systems exposed by Snowden, and real movement by a majority of politicians to effect change that Snowden might have turned himself in.
But that never happened.

On January 18 2017 08:09 LegalLord wrote:

According to Hillary in the leaked GS speeches, the Snowden ones were worse because the Manning ones involved calming down some asshats who they were doing diplomacy with, while the Snowden ones undermined the effectiveness of their intelligence gathering methods.

On January 18 2017 09:24 DickMcFanny wrote:
Have you ever wondered why Trump supporters are so obsessed with that 'cuck' meme?

I googled around a bit and found the proto-cuck:
+ Show Spoiler +

On January 18 2017 09:49 xDaunt wrote:

They like the term because they find it funny. It's not really any more complicated than that.

Barack Obama has heeded calls to help secure the future of the historic Paris agreement by transferring a second $500m instalment to the Green Climate Fund, just three days before he leaves office.

The fund was a key aspect of the Paris agreement signed in 2015, which aims to keep global warming “well below” 2C and aspires to keep warming to 1.5C.

Established in 2010, it is financed by wealthy countries and used to assist developing countries with adaptation and mitigation. It was widely seen as a key measure to bring both rich and poor countries to the negotiating table.

The US committed to transferring $3bn to the fund. The new instalment leaves $2bn owing, with the incoming president, Donald Trump, expected to cease any further payments.

The move followed a large campaign, with more than 100 organisations and nearly 100,000 people calling for Obama to transfer the full $2.5bn owed to the fund.

“The Obama administration is refusing to let president-elect Trump’s posse of oil barons and climate deniers dictate how the world responds to the climate crisis,” said Tamar Lawrence-Samuel of Corporate Accountability International, which led the campaign.

“Tens of thousands of people around the world called on President Obama to step up before Trump takes the keys of our government and tries to reverse decades of climate progress,” she said. “This victory is the climate justice movement’s opening salvo to the Trump presidency. And we’re not going away.”

The money is being drawn from the state department, the same way that the first transfer was, allowing it to be done using executive powers without congressional support.

Dear Milo,

You don’t frighten me.

I’m going to take my heels off so I can get down to your level. Let’s cover some basic ground: your bleach job and concealer several shades too light don’t make you Aryan, it just makes you look like Gerard Way failing to get into a frat party. You’ve taken all your self-hatred, warped it, and levelled it at vulnerable people. I think you’re pathetic and sad.

I’m not going to waste time telling you that you’re a bigot. The faculty has pretty well covered why you shouldn’t come here in their open letters to the chancellor. Besides, being called a Nazi doesn’t appear to stop you or anyone else on the alt-right from doing a goddamn thing.

I ought to sue your “Dangerous Faggot” tour for misleading the public. The only thing you’re dangerous to is a skinhead’s self-esteem. The world is full of very dangerous faggots, but you are not one of them. I raise a glass to the real dangerous faggots, from the AIDS survivors and queer anarchists to the gender warriors and the mincers of Fire Island. Here’s to every disobedient queer body to ever walk the streets in defiance of state and society.

If we, the gender deviant, were not dangerous, you would not be so clearly threatened by us.

As I write this, Milo, I’ve got terrible period cramps, and I’m a bigger fag than you’ll ever be. Hell, I’m probably a better top than you.

I’ve hated you for a long time — being compared to you by some commenter on my column sent me into a rage for several hours — but the stunt you pulled against that young woman in Milwaukee was the last fucking straw.

If you’d like a transgender Berkeley student to direct your firehose of impotent rage at, I offer myself. Here’s the target on my back, so go ahead and take aim. I’m a Jewish anarchist drag queen with no eyebrows. The jokes write themselves. I dare you to put up pictures of me — it’s a matter of public record that I look fantastic. Tell that crowd to laugh at me. I’m not ashamed of my face or my body or my politics or my life choices.

Don’t you want to find something original to say? You can’t cut me down to size, I’m five foot two and chronically depressed. I dare you to say something about me that I haven’t already said about myself.

There’s a lot of pressure on the administration to cancel your appearance on this campus. I don’t think the administration will get in your way. They’re so terrified of looking biased that they’ll treat your “fellow traveler” ass like you have a point worth engaging with intellectually.

I’d like to address the real reason you’re coming here — Berkeley College Republicans, a pit of snakes, money and Pepe memes, agreed to host you, upping their game from the cardboard Trump cutout. I, for one, am just happy that their tacit white supremacism is now completely undeniable. They bring you here and then complain that It’s Going Down compiled their members’ public information and that UCPD would like to be compensated for the heightened security your presence on our campus will require. Hey BCR, what happened to Blue Lives Matter?

Frankly, I hope BCR gets their dads’ checkbooks out and raises the coin to bring you here. I hope our chancellor remains spineless in the face of justified faculty and student outrage.

When you get here on Feb. 1, we will be waiting here to strip you of your gay identity. You can have sex with all the men you want, but you’re not gay anymore. You’ve used your sexual orientation as an excuse to spit bile and galvanize cowards for long enough. Put your badge and gun on my desk. The community rejects you. You have never been one of us.

You never should have booked this UC tour, Milo. But you want to come to my town? I say, welcome to Berkeley, motherfucker. I’m the meanest gay on this coast. I was assigned to raise hell at birth. You come through me.

See you soon, Milo.

On January 18 2017 12:22 Nyxisto wrote:
I still don't understand why anybody gives this Milo guy a public platform, he is a troll