Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/26/russian-agent-maria-butina-sen.html
Butina ‘jeopardized this country’s national security’ says judge
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Light punishment for a spy
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Too bad they didn’t try her as a 300 lb Black man:
/sarcasm, since some folks don’t grok.
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The sad thing is, given the choice between two Russian agents, Butina would have been a far better President than Trump.
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I thought the same thing upon reading the headline, but not surprising looking who she worked for (on both sides).
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If an American was jailed for doing the same things in another country, Americans would be all about human rights, political freedom and free speech.
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I gotta be honest, I don’t much care. Nor will I ever.
These people hurt my country, and what little time they will spend in prison qualifies as some accountability.
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Ok, I have two questions.
One: is this enough time to cover her appearance to testify? (the Trump admin. wanted to deport her quickly)
Two: why would she be allowed back? Ever?
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That’s the dark side of nationalism. Others expect their nation to be better than others, and are thus more upset when their own country does bad stuff
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If an American was caught doing what Butina was doing, they’d be killed, not jailed.
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So espionage is only 18 months?
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So - you’re saying Americans should demand that their citizens get no human rights etc?
No one’s stopping you, Sparky.
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Butina was more willing to take a knee or two in service of her country.
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Yes, we do. Therefore we tend to not pour whataboutist comments over what justice does get served over here.
Your response makes it seem like you don’t know what that word means, or else you reached for that term out of a desire to characterize a celebration of justice as something other than what it is.
Also: no, it is not.
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what’s odd is I think BridgeGate Bridget Kelly was also sentenced to 18 months today?
the only thing I don’t like is how all these women and “low on the totem pole” people are going to prison to make a statement while their bosses are sitting pretty, like Chris Christie is waddling around just fine today and doing better than ever for the mess he made
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Did you really misunderstand his point? Or thought there would be some value in pretending to? The comment was obviously suggesting that her transgression does not deserve jail time, and that if Americans were treated this way for similar transgressions we would accuse the offending nation of human rights abuses.
Our justified national revulsion at Trump has started us sliding down some slippery slopes.
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No
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Yes
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Its disconcerting how ‘whataboutism’ is being applied as an off-the-shelf rebuttal to any self-criticism leveled at our own behavior. Revulsion at Trump need not cause us to embrace hypocrisy, practice selective amnesia, or downgrade our critical thinking abilities.
Another problem is that hypocrisy is something which makes us look especially ridiculous and dangerous in the eyes of other countries.
And a final problem is that what we do does set standards which can have blowback against us and cause other side effects. Hmmm… we have now proclaimed that its justified to jail Betina for these specific transgressions. What could go wrong? It’s not as if this precedent could affect Americans in other countries or anything…
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Appreciate the fast and efficiently worded reply.
Disagree.
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No need for hypotheticals. Here’s an American non-spy jailed in Russia with insufficient due process.
ETA: Butina broke some serious laws about registering with the government as a foreign agent. She admitted to doing so. Not sure why you’d be saying that doesn’t justify a relatively short stint, then deportation, unless you’re connected to her bosses…
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