The Chelsea Manning Commutation: Chivalry Isn't Dead

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Obama just commuted much of Bradley/Chelsea Manning's sentence for leaking classified military material.

Even though Manning is, as far as I know, still anatomically a guy, I'm going to call her a girl.

In truth, I think she looks better as a girl.

What are we to make of this?

Leaving Manning out of it for the moment, the White House has bragged that Obama has commuted more sentences than all of the last twelve presidents combined.

Whether that's good or bad, I think it's an odd thing to brag about. If giving people a "second chance" is a good thing, why not go all the way and pardon everybody? Or, at least 50%? Or at least 5%? Or even 1%? (As opposed to a fraction of 1%.)

I'm not being snarky here. I'm honestly asking. If I don't understand the logic, pardon me.

Obama also commuted the sentence of a Puerto Rican terrorist who pointedly refused to renounce terrorism. Google "Oscar Lopes Rivera". Rivera rejected an earlier commutation because it was conditional on him making a vow he didn't want to make. He served an extra 16 years for that. I don't think much of Rivera, his cause or his murderous principles, but in a sense he has more honor than Obama.

But back to Manning.

It's not unreasonable to claim that a sentence of 35 years for what she is excessive. It's out of line with some other cases. She didn't sell secrets to hostile foreign governments but rather leaked information (much of which was embarrassing and tragic but also true) to Wikileaks. She violated an oath. She broke the law. But it isn't clear to me that she "put American servicemen in danger" (as many now assert). Espionage is espionage, but not every leaker deserves 35 years in prison.

What Obama, Hillary Clinton and others have done to endanger our national security and the lives of Americans (Hillary actually directly got Americans killed and then lied about it) for a variety of motives was far worse. It has arguably treasonous. Tell me again how many years they're getting?

Manning actually would have been eligible for release anyway in only two more years (which either argues for or argues against the case for commutation depending on how you look at it).

Does she deserve clemency because she's "transgender"? Of course not. I reject that particular argument entirely. But by the same token, that doesn't mean she should be penalized for it. As it were.

Another twist here is that Julian Assange promised to allow himself to be extradited to the United States if Manning was given clemency.

Manning was given clemency.

What will Assange now do?

Man, I Wish Jack Chick Were Alive to See This

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A painting of two men "eating" another man, hanging on the wall of John Podesta's office

Yesterday's Wikileaks from the John Podesta emails included a note from Podesta's brother, Tony, inviting him to a "Spirit Dinner" at the home of occult performance artist Marina Abramovic. 

The creepy grossness of this at first seemingly insignificant item was not merely noted by paranoid anti-Clinton people but was highlighted by Wikileaks itself.

Spirit Dinners are part of the religion of Thelema, founded by Satanist Aleister Crowley.

This video made by Abramovic, shows her take on Spirit Dinners:

And here's a picture of one such "dinner," attended by none other than Lady Gaga. She's on the left (licking a spoon). The woman on the right with strategically poised fork is Abramovic.  The blood is allegedly fake, and the "body" is supposedly a woman (though it looks like a man to me).

There's no evidence either way on whether John Podesta actually attended the dinner. 

However, a 2015 Politico article shows that there is (or was) a creepy Spirit Dinner-ish painting hanging in none other than John Podesta's office.

Lest you think it's a painting illustrating 17th century surgery or whatever, Podesta actually confirmed in an April Time Magazine interview that it was what it looked like - two men eating another man.

On the wall in his office at Hillary Clinton’s Brooklyn headquarters, campaign chairman John Podesta has an oil painting on loan from his lobbyist brother, who is an avid art collector. The image shows two men hunched over a dining room table, bearing knives and forks. On the table lays a man in a suit, who looks vaguely like Podesta. “It’s better to be the guy with the fork,” Podesta quips to his colleagues, if they ask about the image, “than the guy on the table.”

Note that the painting is Tony Podesta's, who had forwarded Abramovic's dinner invitation to his brother.

What does it all mean?

Do I think the Podestas are members of a secret occult society (or at least dining club)?

No, actually. I don't. You, if you are a Christian, believe in the reality of the occult. I suspect the Podestas do not. They simply think dinner parties featuring nude bodies bathed in blood are part of the 21st century good life, you know, of high-flying Democrat lobbyists and politicos. Faux-occult things are hip.

Of course faux can often become (or actually be) not so faux, regardless of the intentions or beliefs of the participants. Or so it has been said. 

I have no idea what Marina Abramovic actually thinks or believes. I'm not sure she knows herself. She's an artist. 

Whether the whole thing is satanic, sinister or merely idiotic is your call.

I just wish Jack Chick were alive to see it.