Apparently, one of President Obama's final acts in office is to commute the sentence of Bradley "Chelsea" Manning, duly convicted of disclosing close to a million classified and sensitive documents to WikiLeaks. Now as much as this is cruel to the country--telling people that it does not indeed matter whether one keeps private information private--it is simultaneously cruel to Mr. Manning, who is said to have attempted suicide twice in 2016 and is on suicide watch at Leavenworth.
How is it cruel to Mr. Manning? Simple; outside of Leavenworth, he will no longer be on suicide watch, and will not be eligible for medical benefits through the VA--this is part of a dishonorable discharge that was part of his sentence. He will also have a tough time finding work as a result. In other words, in commuting Manning's 35 year prison term, President Obama may well have given him a death sentence. I hope I'm wrong for his sake, but this is where the evidence points.
Know Your Lifts: The Romanian Deadlift (RDL)
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In the Know Your Lifts series, we’ve covered the high-bar back squat, the
low-bar squat, the power jerk and split jerk, and the overhead press. It’s
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17 hours ago
3 comments:
I was expecting my husband to be livid about Manning's commuted sentence, but he said much of what you did - he's a private with a dishonorable discharge for espionage, and he works in IT. He's never getting a job in his field again.
Bingo. And lack of gainful employment ain't gonna pay the rent or get him that operation he wants. Not quite a death sentence, but it's close.
It doesn't even set much of a precedent--the precedent that matters is the one set last year by Loretta Lynch and James Comey.
i was thinking much the same thing. I'm not at all bothered by his comutation, because his real sentence will the life he has ahead of himself.
bo bergdahl, who i expect to be pardoned on the last day, is a whole nother thing...
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