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Why did Obama commute Manning’s sentence? — 39 Comments

1. I am so tired of the glorification of ‘transgenders’..They need therapy, not hormones or surgery. So yes, this is just a parting shot at traditional values. The msm will be swooning with praise for bho’s legacy.

   Next, Bergdahl is on deck.

2. parker:

   Maybe tomorrow will be Bergdahl’s day. Or for maximum effect, Friday morning.

   I give it about a 60% chance of happening.

3. I heard Glenn Greenwald on the BBC World Service earlier today and he was strongly supportive of the release. He said that there was no evidence that anyone had been hurt or killed by Manning releasing this info and that the US authorities had admitted this. However, he then went on to say that is was the leaks that stopped Maliki signing an agreement with the US granting US troops immunity (given that the leaks specified supposed war crimes) which of course led to the US pull out and the rise of ISIS. And the interviewer didn’t ask or comment on the obvious point that Greenwald had just drawn a straight line from the leaks to terrorist caused deaths.

4. Time and again Obama makes it clear that he does not like America, Jews, and white folks.

5. Wiki calls him a her.
   Wiki is OK for facts, e.g. dates, titles. But otherwise it is crap. “Manning was used to being bullied.”
   Manning is a POS. S survives in large bureaucracies, especially if those have been bent into PC . If it yelled back at its superiors, it should have been brigged, then dishonorably discharged.

6. London Trader:

   Whether or not there is evidence that someone was harmed is quite irrelevant.

   Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

   What’s more, Manning’s revelations could have easily led to such harm. The idea is that his offense was severe, and the possible consequences very severe. The violation was meaningful, and the fact that he may have been lucky enough to have not killed anyone is hardly the point.

7. I am sick of the whole trannie thing. I think sensible people should boycott the color pink so that clothing manufacturers find it unprofitable. Tis could help prevent young boys from thinking it would be cool to be a girl. I also think that young boys who think the are a girl should be given a pill that would let them experience menstrual cramps every month and be made to wear sanitary napkins (no place for tampons) for 5 days every month. Maybe this would counter some of the attention they get from their crazy mothers. This in turn could prevent some mothers from jumping on the trannie bandwagon.

   There are enough shrinks in the US to handle the miniscule number of transexuals. Why does our whole society, including our miltary and intelligence services, have to be destroyed to accomodate this small group of people with serious mental problems?

8. Should I care what Glenn Greenwald says?

   There are a lot of threads here. The first is how he managed to enlist (as a male) at barely 5 ft I guess there are no longer any physical standards at all; but, that fact obviously limited the options for employing him quite severely.
   The second is the decision not to discharge, after the emotional problems, and unsuitability for service were apparent.. Strongly suspect that, well obviously, was fear related, as in cover yourself against a storm of protest from the most catered to community in the country.
   Finally, the TS/SI clearance. Mind boggling. If it is this easy to get that clearance now, even with a troubled history, then heaven help us.

9. I imagine that Manning’s confused gender identity was a factor and perhaps the primary one for Obama. But asking the question, what message does Obama’s action send? Suggests another rationale, namely that laws regarding national intelligence only apply to some people. At least when either their motivation for their actions or membership in an approved group are considered. Certainly Hillary escaping accountability further supports that message. I suspect that to be Obama’s primary motivation, as he and the Left can confidently rely upon the support of the LGBT “community” whether he’d commuted Manning’s sentence or not.

   While “sticking it in the eye” of America is just “icing on the cake”.

10. Oldflyer:

    I wondered about that height/weight thing, and so I looked it up, but I didn’t get into that aspect in my post.

    The standards are pretty broad, but they do exist, with minimum height of 5 feet for men (I don’t have time to do the Googling again, but you can look it up). At Manning’s 5’2″, the weight minimum is 104 pounds.

    Standards have waxed and waned over time:

    the minimum height for U.S. soldiers was 66 inches early in the nineteenth century and has progressively lowered, with the least stringent requirements (no minimum height standard during part of the Civil War) coinciding with national emergencies when new recruits were in greater demand (Figure 3-1). The Romans also imposed height standards on their soldiers, and the usefulness of this selection standard was questioned even then. Vegetius Renatus, a military philosopher, suggested using a more subjective visual appraisal of potential recruits, noting that “when all these marks are found in a recruit, a little height may be dispensed with, as it is of much more importance that a soldier should be strong than that he should be tall” (Baxter, 1875). When health screening capabilities were less advanced, height standards served a health fitness screening purpose; for example, short stature could reflect disease and poor physical development. Thus, even after careful review of physical standards during World War II, men less than 60 inches in height were “nonacceptable” (U.S. Congress, 1944). Today, the best rationale for current height standards is practical: to limit the range of sizes for uniforms, protective ensembles, and workspace dimensions. However, when other reasons are dismissed, commanders argue from anecdotal experience that short soldiers simply cannot carry the same load as their average-height peers (Davenport and Love, 1921).

11. neo,

    I think the chances of a Bergdahl pardon are a bit higher. More like 80%. It would be his parting shot at the military and signal, once again, his identification with islam.

    expat,

    The normalization of transgenderism and the bho policies to promote it are intended to weaken the military, terrorize girls’ locker reooms, and destroy ancient values. The left must destroy every aspect of Western Civilization. They seek a Reign of Terror.

12. “She …”

    Pffft.

    And yes, it was probably not tossed out on its can for the good of the service, precisely because it was an example of a protected class of mental disorder.

13. A rule that leaves no room for exception is inefficient. In a fight, it’s not the size of the dog that matters but the amount of fight in the dog. Logistics aside, we didn’t beat the japs because we were taller.

14. Neo and Oldflyer: I think you both miss my point. I wasn’t in any way defending the decision. My point was that Greenwald said there was no harm and then proved there was enormous harm. All in the same interview.

15. London Traveler:

    I didn’t mean to suggest you were agreeing with Greenwald. I was trying to criticize Greenwald’s point.

16. The commutation was somewhat about the transgender thing but mostly because Obama hates America. I never thought that until now. Obama knows better than anyone the damage Manning did to our national security. Sen. Tom Cotton is fairly certain that Americans were killed due to Manning’s treason.

    Add in the fact that Obama has released all those terrorists from Gitmo that have gone back to killing Americans and the only reasonable conclusion is that Barack hates America. I find his actions completely inexcusable and near criminal.

    Memo to Barack: About half of America hates you.

17. Anyone awake knew Barack hated America in 2007.
    Manning enlisted to push the gay bit, and another poster hit it, there are enough people in DoD who support this, former appointees from the 90s who magically became Senior Executive Service.

18. I think Obama pardoned Manning so he will have someone to marry after he divorces his current husband.

19. And I’ve seen multiple Facebook posts from liberals applauding Manning’s release and calling for Trump to be tried for treason. It’s a wonderful world.

20. I can’t understand Obama’s action as anything other than a genuflection to the LBGT crowd, as well as a further indictment that Obama has little concern for US national security.

21. Pardoning or commuting seems like an unusual power to constitutionally give to a leader for people who don’t like kingly powers.

    Or at least unlimited pardoning. You can get all your cronies out of jail if you need to and keep them from serving any more time. Hardly seems like a productive use of it.

22. One common sense question arises immediately upon hearing the story of Manning in the military: Why, if Manning was so persecuted and bullied, did he want to remain?

23. One of the major deleterious effects of the Manning treason was that the info named Afghanis who were cooperating with the U.S. The Taliban used the information to execute a large number of them. If you cannot protect your covert allies’ identities, it becomes more difficult to recruit them. That, along with the effect the airstrike video had on Iraqi – U.S. relations , is a large amount of damage.

    I suspect that Manning was recruited and retained because the Army was looking for possible gay recruits to diversify the ranks. There is constant pressure on DOD from Democrat Senators and Congress people to diversify the military. There are enough political flag ranks and high level civilian employees in DOD that are on board with that program to allow it to happen. Pace the Senate questioning of General Mattis where the lady Dems asked him in some form about diversifying the military.

    Severe punishment sends a message to possible traitors. Obama doesn’t believe it. Nor does he think our security is a top priority.

24. On the question of whether or not Manning’s treason got anyone killed, Andrew McCarthy points out that there is more to the disaster than fatalities:
    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/443950/manning-obama-damage-done

    First, it is also disgraceful for the New York Times to report without balance that “Prosecutors … presented no evidence that anyone was killed because of [Manning’s] leaks.” As the Times well knows, in cases involving classified information, the government frequently cannot reveal — let alone prosecute — the damage done. As a practical matter, such revelations end up disclosing more classified information and, critically, identifying other informants and countries who have covertly provided national-security assistance to the United States. That is why it is always a gimmee for apologists of the Mannings, Snowdens, and Clintons to minimize the harm they have done; it is generally impossible to provide concrete information to counter this claim absent exposing more intelligence and endangering sources for obtaining it. Second, there is a logical way to deduce the damage caused. I laid it out in a column about Hillary Clinton’s reckless mishandling of our nation’s secrets:
    …

    As they say, RTWT

25. And this on the timing and the actual degree to which Obama is a useful idiot for the LGBT activists:
    http://libertyunyielding.com/2017/01/17/obama-rescues-chelsea-manning-commuting-sentence-gender-transition-surgery/

    “Manning was Bradley Manning at the time of the document dump to WikiLeaks, but decided in the years since that he was actually a woman. Manning is scheduled to receive gender transition surgery, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense, in April 2017.

    Conveniently, the commutation-release date set by Obama is 17 May 2017. This will presumably be after the surgery date and recuperation period, ensuring that the taxpayers whose trust Manning violated will have to pay for his surgery.

    Manning’s supporters made much of the fact that the military could not swear, during sentencing hearings in 2013, that Manning’s leaks had caused deaths by what they revealed about U.S. operations, and cooperating locals in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    But the Taliban thanked Manning and WikiLeaks in 2010 for “revealing spies,” and put a bounty on the heads of at least 70 people based on information culled from the Manning documents. The U.S. State Department testified to a similar effect in 2013, stating that Manning’s leaks had imperiled human rights work across the board in the war-torn countries.”

26. AesopFan:

    For what it’s worth, I searched for the date of Manning’s surgery and all I found was article after article that said he was told it would happen, but never told when.

    If you study what the ACLU actually said (at your own link or also here), it was that Manning’s psychologist had recommended the therapy in April (the previous April, that is). Not that it would occur in April. A date was never given for the surgery itself.

    That said, I am pretty sure we, the people, will end up paying for it even if Manning is freed before it occurs. The VA may be the one to pay for it, for example. Or subsidized Obamacare.

27. Legally mutilating the body of a person with the mental illness known as gender dysphoria in the name of compassion is the height of cruelty.

28. From when I was in, 69-71, there is an informal, at least, queasiness at applying the same standards to those of a protected class. Manning could expect to get away with things a straight white Christian could not.
    After the Ft. Hood shooting, there were comments–I had some friends who stayed in and were connected still–that it was worth your career to give a Muslim officer anything but the most superlative efficiency report, no matter how appalling their performance was, as was the case with Hasan.
    And then Gen. Dempsey said he hoped it didn’t damage diversity “which is our strength”. Which means next time you see a nutcase doing Islam nutcasery, you’ll keep your damn’ mouth shut. Yessir, general sir, loud and clear sir.
    Same goes for gays. For example, the military is all about sexual assault, which includes a surprising number of men as victims. Funny thing, though. Nobody assaults them.
    As to Obama’s actions; he’s an anti-American jerk who thinks US soldiers are his Charmin. “Here’s to you, boys, and suck it.”

29. Nothing to add to what Richard Aubrey said. Reading between the lines at a distance, Manning was a hysterical, resentful little Nancy, who should have been discharged before completing basic for failure to adapt. But instead – one of the protected class, and I’ll bet he took full advantage.

30. “Why did Obama commute Manning’s sentence?”
    Because he is a South-end of a North facing mule.
    I also look for a Hillary pardon too before tomorrow at noon.
    Looking at simply the facts of his term in office- he is the worse president this country has had. Others could look at their ignorance or naivety for their malvesience. His is just pure ideological no matter what the cost to the country in the future.
    May they all be surprised by their just deserts when they find themselves in Hades. 🙁 Good Riddance to bad trash. I don’t care if he is black brown or purple he has caused much damage to this country. 🙁

31. to hide the communted sentence of the terrorist that planted hundreds of bombs is not willing to say terrism is bad and soo on

    and the weather undergroud that wanted to start a race war is also commuted

    and he shipped off the last of the guantanemo UAE people to go free and kill again

    and and and and

    sorry, but there is so much stuff that we didnt discuss and was not paid attention to, that the list of the past few months is huge

    there are the islands that he let build military that will need a conflict.. .then there are the troops moved ot latvia, lituania, norway, poland, ukraine…

    and lots of other stuff like the signing statements and more

    in fact, here is a biggie:
    An individual named the “designated presidential successor” will not attend the inauguration as a security precaution, “but it won’t be a Trump cabinet secretary….it will be an Obama appointee,” reports CNN.

    The report emphasizes that “a president from the prior administration” will take power if there is an attack due to the fact that none of Trump’s cabinet secretaries have been confirmed yet.

    According to CNN, the designated presidential successor is likely to be Tom Shannon, the Under Secretary For Political Affairs, and an Obama appointee.

    and if something does happen, given theplayers and such it will be given the treatment.

    right now the aclu wants the police to turn off their cameras now that they fought to have them. why?

32. There are enough shrinks in the US to handle the miniscule number of transexuals. Why does our whole society, including our miltary and intelligence services, have to be destroyed to accomodate this small group of people with serious mental problems?

    i explained this a while ago

    you can only FEEL power when you make or force people to do what they dont want to do

    when you use your power to help them you dont feel it

    so power oriented people tend to make up things to test that power and fealty… like the story i put up about the emporers purple horse…or even caligula…

    they impose from above and if it happens and mobilizes and people are agianst it, you have the power…. but if they impose and people yawn and ignore you, they have no power… they can feel

    this is also what they do with republicans, they ignore the laws and so, take away the power and feel it themselves for the opposites

    there realy is no place for this in representative government, but there is a huge place for this in the dictatorship of the proletariat..

    which is why they hate americans (they saved the jews), hate jews (they are the inventors and promulgators and maintainers of capitalism, which is why marx wrote “the jewish question” and hitler and rudin (who wrote for sanger), came up with “the final solution to the jewish question” but the left leaves that ending off so you dont know that he wasnt crazy, he was marxist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). and they hate whites cause they are the saviors of the jews more than america itself.

    duh…
    been that way for ages, but no one wants to believe it, because that owuld be valid and then what? so your allowed any answer as long as it blams something elsee other than marx…

    i had a progressive recently get on case for trump and all that and how these people want idiots and that. i pointed out that argument by aurhotity is invalid and that there is along line of experts in history that ended up doing tons of harms… but then they wanted to know why i stopped… i said easy, when i was a broken kid in an inner city place, they all glomed on to me as that was their way of proving their ideas (deny brains and talent, and take credit).

    but the minute i actually succeeded, i became the enemy!!! ie. you can win but only so much if you do better than that, we will punish you by taking things

    i also said that they are punishing me, but what about my wife? she is the favored but punshed through me, so then what.

    i didnt have the nerve to tell her after she said she is worried for her daughter that its not going to go well for her. not only are the contemporaries on MGTOW and not willing to bother, but the schools are pushing tuff progressively that she doesnt follow (and blames others not hers), and that ultimately the tanned people are finding out or figuring out that if you get rid of the white women, you stop the production of evil white males… but this is only because they didnt have enough babies to have voters that give them power, and the tanned people hate them… soooooooooo.. they are stuck paying high taxes in jobs they got given (like the malcontented wacko here that was fired and then became vice president of chase, because they needed a warm pudenda to fill the place to look pc)… so that they fund other women with other men, and their men are running for the hills comparatively

    [when we started MGTOW, me being one of the founders, we didnt think it would be an international movement and that so many would take it up.
    https://www.mgtow.com/

    basically, they are sacrificing their fatherhoods and mating to make sure that the movement that negated them, and all this communist stuff dies on the vine…

    you can force a lot of unfair things on them, but only if they participate… ie. they avoid the power game of women over men in family (Which the feminists said was to destroy family!!!)… so, its destroyed, and the men dont have ticking clocks like women… in fact most men never had babies in the past (when one man can have 5000 women, there are 4999 men left in the cold… in china there are 35 million men without such.. could you imagine what our society woudl be like if there were 35 million women who want kids and no mates? ha!)

    anyway…
    its going to be interesting..
    i wont live long enough to do other than laugh at it
    but the ladies never thought that there could be a movement that ran on bad advice. same with the dems, and the other progressive things. become an authority, and give bad advice, a sneaky form of power forcing. then as they get miserable and come to you, you get more power than before, and then can impose on others unfairly, etc..

    a very old game that the public has no idea of since their idea of learning is to study kanye west at a big college and get a degree in kanye… then what? tell people your a person with a degree who cant get a job?

    ha!
    god writes great comedy…
    who needs netflix when you have the left, history, and progressives screwing their own for fun and profit.

33. I just can not understand why obvious freaks (gays, lesbians, gender-confused perverts) are considered fit to serve in the Army. This utopian idea about universal equality must be ditched completely as soon as possible.

34. Sergey:

    I actually know two transgendered people personally. Both are extremely intelligent and unusually well-adjusted, and neither of them would be someone you’d look at and think anything was unusual or amiss (they were both born female and became male). They function in the world at a high level. They are the sort of people who—if they wanted to serve in the military—would be a credit to themselves and the country.

    There are also plenty of regularly-gendered people who are pretty screwed up.

    Now, there is no question—and statistics bear it out—that the incidence of psychological pathology is significantly higher in transgendered people. But that has nothing to do with each individual, who must be evaluated as an individual. It is of note that Manning’s personal history and emotional adjustment were such—as an individual—that he/she never should have been allowed to stay in the military, much less given a position in intelligence.

35. “”It is of note that Manning’s personal history and emotional adjustment were such–as an individual–that he/she never should have been allowed to stay in the military, much less given a position in intelligence.””

    Precisely, as I said, why Manning was given slack. Had he been sent to cooks and bakers[ school, he could have effectively cried discrimination and the Army would have folded.

36. I would think that we would refer to Manning as “he” when talking about back in the day when he was Bradley and didn’t wear dresses, no? Of more significance, China hacks federal personnel records, and Obama snoozes. Manning hacks federal diplomatic and military records, and Obama commutes his sentence. Russians hack DNC e-mails, and Obama is suddenly a font of offended energy. Interesting priorities.

37. I was amazed and horrified in 2008 when an obvious America hater was not only elected but immediately canonized by a clearly idiotic public. He did everything but wave a Soviet flag on the fourth of July. The majority of the electorate are morons. It was Obama’s genius to mobilize them.

    BTW the only journalist that actually came out and called him a fellow traveler in 2008 was the English-Jewish Melanie Phillips. She complained that everyone was being overly polite by refusing to note that little detail.

    My guess is that Obama will pardon Bergdahl tomorrow morning but not Hillary. He probably detests her for daring to share the Dem Party limelight with him.

38. Parker says:

    Legally mutilating the body of a person with the mental illness known as gender dysphoria in the name of compassion is the height of cruelty.

    True, but if the twit desires it wouldn’t it be cruel to deny him his wish? Give him the chop. After what he did to betray his country he sure as hell is a disgrace as a man. Spit.

39. Him. To be factual, the article should refer to Manning as “him.”

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