Obama administration has secured 526 months of jail time for leakers

[davide405]

Okay, got it.

It sucks to be a leaker, especially under the Obama administration.

And, as always…

But this is all perfectly legal, so that makes it perfectly good.

Amirite?

[GilbertWham]

Yeah, that way at least you’re armed with a knife, and there’s things you can throw.

[OtherMichael]

@nungesser

I appreciate you explaining it rationally, rather than dismiss me as un-American, a trolley, or worse.

They could have called you a “Gamer” !!!

(shudder)

[fluffitfluffit]

Amirite?

Of course you’re not. And you probably knew that when you started collecting the straw for your strawman.

[nungesser]

I can only imagine what or worse might mean. My best guesses are

Top Of Cupcake Eater
Sandwich Crust Leaver
Elevator Farter
LARPer (which I am)

[OtherMichael]

btw, kudos for actually reversing onesself in a thread. It would take me days to do the same.

[davide405]

Which straw man is that?

This one?

@fluffitfluffit

Leaking is usually a crime, but leakers know the risk. What they can hope for, but not expect, is that what they leak is sufficiently compelling, and in the public’s interest to know, that they will be pardoned or otherwise receive leniency. That’s the gamble they take. Do you disagree?

But the first clip, from the Holy Grail, addresses exactly the point. The leader tells a peasant to shut up and uses the coercive power of the state to enforce it.

Or did you mean this one?

@fluffitfluffit

Now if the President chooses to leak, or authorizes someone else to leak, nothing can be done - the President is fully authorized to classify/declassify anything he wants. That’s simply a benefit of the office. Yes the power can be used for petty ends, but it’s perfectly legal.

But the second clip, from History Of The World, addresses exactly that point. “It’s simply a benefit of the office” are your words, not mine. I don’t think “It’s good to be the king!” is far enough from your notion to be a straw man.

Your position on this matter is legalistic, authoritarian, and inflexible.

You’ve proven completely unwilling to acknowledge any of the many compelling reasons to recognize the wrongness of the situation described by the linked article, so I’m going to stop trying to debate you and just use the fertile ground for satire that your thinking affords.

[fluffitfluffit]

Which strawman? The one where you implied that I think legal = good.

I never said anything about “good”. That’s all you. It’s your straw and you can clean it up yourself.

[davide405]

@fluffitfluffit

It’s your straw and you can clean it up yourself.

- YouTube

@fluffitfluffit

The one where you implied that I think legal = good.

Since I’m wrong about that, please tell me which of the lawful behaviors engaged in by the Obama administration are not good, in your estimation.

And please remember, the topic of the thread is the fact that the Obama administration has secured 526 months of jail time for leakers, compared to 24 months for all previous administrations combined.

[OtherMichael]

but we’re talking about leakers, aren’t we? Where people cross the legal-line to do good?

So we are, by definition, talking about where “legal” ends and “good” begins.

If you want to argue absolutes – be they “legal” or “good” – that is a different thread.

[daneel]

@OtherMichael

talking about where “legal” ends and “good” begins.

Different axes. Good is orthogonal to legal.

Good/Bad goes on the Real, Legal/Illegal on the Imaginary.

[davide405]

Well conceived and well said!

EDIT:
So the actions of the leakers can be mapped into quadrant IV (good, illegal), and the actions of the current administration can be mapped into quadrant II (bad, legal).

[crenquis]

Until the Dept of Justice comes up with a set of conformal mapping functions that makes everything just okey dokey.