Tag: Chelsea Manning

Trump and the Professional Athletes

Paul A. Rahe
Paul A. Rahe Inactive
5831
 

I will say this for Donald Trump. He really knows how to hit a nerve. He has an instinctive understanding of wrongs swept under the carpet and of how to get those who perpetrate those wrongs to rise up and do themselves harm.

I do not personally much like his way of going about things. Schoolboy taunts seem to me childish and unpresidential, and they can be counter-effective. But let’s face it: with this weapon, he made mincemeat of his Republican opponents, and he defeated Hillary Clinton. He knows something that those of us who are more conventional do not quite get.

Every once in a while, however, I get a glimpse of what Trump is up to, and then I really am impressed. His attack on the NFL could not be more timely.

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My Conversation with Jon Gabriel, Editor-in-Chief of Ricochet.Com

Jerome Danner
Jerome Danner Inactive
43
 

Next on Thinking It Through:  I get the opportunity to converse with the Editor-in-Chief of Ricochet.com, Mr. Jon Gabriel.  He gives me his thoughts on Harvard hiring (and later rescinding the invitation) Chelsea Manning to be a visiting fellow, ESPN Host Jemele Hill’s recent comments on Trump, Trump working with Democrats, and how important is building the wall for Trump’s base.  It was a great conversation and Mr. Gabriel does not disappoint.

 

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The Mess at Harvard

Paul A. Rahe
Paul A. Rahe Inactive
1011
 

First, the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government invites a former intelligence officer for the US army who was convicted of espionage and sentenced to prison for thirty-five years to become a Fellow of the Institute. The man’s qualification? He thinks that he is a she, demands that we accommodate his delusion, and treats our unwillingness to do so as a justification for his misconduct.

Then, after an outbreak of criticism, the resignation from the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of a former acting director of the CIA, and a scathing letter from the current director, Douglas W. Elmendorf, the hapless dean of the Kennedy School, rescinds the invitation and issues a statement denying what everyone knows — that the school honors someone when it invites that someone to become a Visiting Fellow of its Institute of Politics.

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Three Martini Lunch

Berkeley Stays Calm, Harvard’s Manning Mistake, Terrorism in London

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Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are happy to see Ben Shapiro was able to give his speech at Berkeley without incident in the auditorium and minimal unrest outside, which this year counts as very good news.  They also unload on Harvard for offering convicted spy Bradley Manning, who now identifies as Chelsea Manning, a position as a visiting fellow, and only rescinding the offer after the intelligence community denounces the move.  And they groan as a terrorist attack on the London tube injures 22 people and suggests terrorists there might be changing their tactics.

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Chelsea Manning to Teach at Harvard

Paul A. Rahe
Paul A. Rahe Inactive
3522
 

Here is a piece of news that will warm the cockles of your heart. Chelsea Manning, as Bradley Manning now calls himself, will soon be lecturing at the Institute of Politics in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. His qualification? In 2013, after leaking to Wikileaks something like three-quarters of a million classified State Department and military cables, Manning was convicted of espionage in army court-martial proceedings and sentenced to 35 years in prison; and in January 2017, Barack Obama commuted the sentence.

What an opportunity for Harvard students!

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Justice as a Social Construct

oddhan
oddhan Coolidge
27
 

It seems today that Justice is an idea as malleable in some people’s eyes as gender has become to the very same people. We are obviously witnessing a rise of people who consider themselves ‘Justice queer’. This week we have a convicted terrorist, Oscar Lopez Rivera, going to the scene of his crimes to join a public parade. The person formally known as Private Manning is now out of prison after eight years after committing one of the worst crimes against national security ( especially ironic given the current Oval Office intel kerfuffle ) and is now to remain on the taxpayers’ bill for his mental health despite being out of both the service and prison. Then there’s Bowe Bergdahl who at least is still awaiting trial but is a hero to the ‘Justice queer’ for his desertion.

I wonder if anyone who happens to not be ‘Justice queer’ will feel it necessary to take justice into their own hands. Perhaps seeing a violent man freed for no other reason than popular politics will drive someone to seek justice by Rivera, who was never convicted of killings. Maybe a distraught father who’s family was harmed by the actions of Manning or Bergdahl will be unsatisfied seeing the source of their pain released on a whim as a sop to Hollywood donors. Bergdahl’s fate is undetermined, but his celebrity carries the risk of a commutation similar to Manning’s.

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Obama to Free Chelsea Manning

Jon Gabriel, Ed.
Jon Gabriel, Ed. Alumni
5725
 

For the past month, Democrats have screamed about the danger of WikiLeaks and Russian hackers. But when it comes to a guy who damaged US military and intelligence assets instead of the DNC, Obama has decided even massive leaks are unimportant. From the New York Times:

President Obama on Tuesday largely commuted the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of an enormous 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted the administration, and made WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures, famous.

The decision by Mr. Obama rescued Ms. Manning, who twice tried to commit suicide last year, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the male military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She has been jailed for nearly seven years, and her 35-year sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction.

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