Comments

1
I think it's great, if for no other reason than all of the right wing doofuses who will have strokes over it.
2
Time served is enough. Being transgender in jail must be hell.
3
Yup
Right move, real Potus.
And I appreciate @1's point too
4
rant rant rant.

TLDR: There are thousands of prisoners with vastly more compelling cases for clemency and commutation of sentences than Manning, who knew she was committing a crime, understood the consequences, and did so anyhow, for the benefit of particularly nobody. I don't quite understand why she gets to zoom to the front of the line. I've got family members who did more time for actively trying to help people.
5
@4: "I don't quite understand why she gets to zoom to the front of the line"

Tech-aligned activism is my guess. This sort of thing absolutely is a popularity contest.
6
@4 - Your arguments are valid, but that's the nature of commutations and pardons. It's not about justice but rather the empathy a president has for a felon. And Chelsea's is just a commutation - Bill Clinton gave Marc Rich a full pardon!
7
@4 She's a trans woman in a male prison! Think how horrifying that is. It's a new year, try for some compassion, we're all going to need it.
9
Now that's cool. Good on ya, Chief.
10
A much less hateful thread than expected so far. @4 even used the correct pronoun.
11
Now we'll see how big a weasel Julian Assange is.
12
@10 what's the current preference on past-tense pronoun use?
13
@4- Chelsea Manning gave the American people information they absolutely should have had. She did more fot this nation than mist people ever will.
14
@8 my dad 8 years as a repeat offender for disturbing the peace - trying to get hospital staff pay attention to a crackhead with a stab wound. Before that, drug possession. So lol. lol lol lol.
15
At first I had limited sympathy for Manning. She released a lot of information pretty indiscriminately. You can make a legitimate argument that some of that was good, but a lot was not, and did real harm. The information dump was careless and thoughtless. Snowden, to his credit, was at least more thoughtful and specific about the information he released.

Having said that, Manning's sentence was way over the top, and she's been treated abysmally while in prison. She's served enough time. Let her go.
16
I've not yet in my life met someone who preferred *not* to have current pronoun used in reference to past. Have you ever? Because maybe you can simplify this decision that concerns you.
17
Manning is a real hero: this is really good news and I only wish it had happened sooner. Pulling the curtain away from Oz is always a good thing...no matter how uncomfortable it is.
18
Manning's sentence was in now way over the top for committing espionage, people tend to mix her up with Assange and Snowden who leaked documents, but could never be charged with espionage. Leaking documents/whistleblowing is not the same as espionage, and everything becomes different once you factor in military vs. civilian.

That being said, if commuting her sentence is the only way to get her out of torturous solitary confinement, so be it. Better a criminal go free early than be tortured by the government.

But it would be better if we would just stop torturing criminals.
19
@4, 5: This.
20
Snowden is a hero. Manning was a disgruntled blind data dumper.
21
Still no punishment for the incompetents who allowed then Pvt. Manning access to classified materials in the first place? We know that background checks were being falsified by the thousands, and people who were dealing with serious interpersonal issues should have been screened out instantly. This is exactly why those background checks and psych profiles are important.
21
@20:

A "disgruntled blind data dumper" who just happened to reveal some of the most heinous acts committed and sanctioned by the U.S. military in recent memory. And let's not forget former General David Petraeus leaked far more classified - and damaging to national security - materials than those released by Manning, and yet never served a day in prison. Seven years confinement under abysmal conditions is more than enough punishment - and far more than she deserved.
22
@11, a pretty slimy one. Ask anyone who posted his bail in London.
24
@23: Are the many Afghans (who aided US forces) who Manning put in danger with her blind data dump just haters, or do they just not count? Should they have had a say if their own lives and safety was put at risk, or was it ok for Manning to put their lives and the lives of their families in jeopardy for her own ends?

Just wondering how this qualifies her as a humanitarian hero, unless of course you just think Afghan lives don't really matter.
27
@25: When did I say she did not serve time or take responsibility? The point is that there were real life victims of what she did, victims that did not need to exist if she took a moment to actually view the documents she was leaking. Or, I don't know, just release the stuff relating to war crimes.

Personally, I do not feel that "heroes" put innocent people's lives at risk without their consent for their own ends, but to each their own.

I got the answer I was looking for from your complete refusal to address the actual question though, so thanks.

Oh, and god forbid people disagree with you on the internet. Grow up.
29
@28: Please do, if it stops the whining.
31
@30: How big of an ego must you have to think that anyone who disagrees with you is a troll? Or to think that you alone are allowed to express viewpoints in a comment thread?

What is ironic is that trolling is about derailing a comment thread, which you are accusing me of for staying on topic, whereas you dodged an on topic question to throw a childish insult-laden tantrum. So well trolled, I guess, because know we are just talking about your little tantrum.

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