Bay 12 Games Forum

It might not hurt to ask the librarians about an ILL (inter-library loan) or see if they're affiliated with any nearby libraries that might have it. Just because it's not on the shelves doesn't necessarily mean they can't get it for you anyway.

Praise be to you, miss potato.

I have no illusions that he's mainly if not solely keeping it private so he can appear as rich as he claims to be rather than as rich as he is, wherever those two numbers may lie, but ultimately its his prerogative.

Ah, though. Sorta' missed it 'cause I feel like someone's trying to jam a rail spike through my eye socket, but. Not anymore it isn't. Congress has asked, and Congress will receive. Do or do not is no longer his (or mnuchin or whatever that is) choice, it's do or suck down congressional contempt charges and probably have copies seized anyway

Another batch of scammer fucks have started harassing my grandmother. Barely managed to stop her from giving them permission to drop a five hundred buck charge on her credit card today. Wish to hell I could figure out a good way to stop these pieces of fucking human filth from calling. Phone blocker thing isn't working particularly well, can't seem to find anyone that'll actually fucking do something on the law enforcement side of things, haven't figured out a way to convince grandparents to just goddamn change phone numbers and then stop talking to these goddamn bastards. Almost all fraud prevention advice seems to rely on the target being able to follow through, and neither grandparent is cognitively capable of it anymore. Not consistently. They're bleeding hundreds, thousands of dollars to shit like that and I can't seem to fucking do anything about it that works.

It'd have to be a hell of a tax. Quick check suggests our welfare spending is only in maybe the 1trillion range, with estimates between ~670 billion and 2.7 trillion (which includes SS, both medis, etc.), and that 1k/month for everyone between 18 and 64 (which suggests SS wouldn't be touched...) would have a 2.5ish trillion dollars pricetag. What sort of taxation is this guy suggesting?

Or rather, cases where that is what happens is what an executive pardon is there for, when it's not being abused to get fuckers like arpaio off the hook. Or commutation or whatever it is. A way to recognize that, yes, a crime was committed, but circumstance et al mitigates things.

... though I think Manning's currently detained for contempt rather than anything directly connected to the charges the US first dropped, unless something changed on that front.

Tired enough at the mo' to not comment much, but if you're speaking in Manning's favor can you at least not fuck up her gender, SG?

E: Thanks.

I'm really confused in general.  Because whistleblowing by its very nature is going to involve law-breaking most of the time, so your arguments are on some level implying an opposition to whistleblowing on principle.

My argument there doesn't really have anything to do with whistleblowing per se, actually. That's a whole different kettle of fish compared to journalism and already shat on hard enough this particular situation is going to probably do sod all to its perils, which does by its nature tend to involve law breaking.

Rather the point is that journalism and journalistic protections, at the absolute least in the US, does not, has not, and by and large I have trouble conceiving a state of things where they would (as that would be basically giving free reign to all sorts of shit, so long as a veneer of reporting was slathered over it), receive a pass for criminal behavior in pursuit of a story. It's one of the reasons reporters tend to seek sources rather than do that sort of scut work themselves -- they have protections regarding dissemination and whatnot (i.e. journalism and reporting), but the protections they have for direct acquisition and assisting in it are much, much slimmer. Particularly when it involves breaking laws.

Which is to say what's currently aimed at Assange, if it goes through, would do bugger all to the state of journalism, even if you do accept unquestionably that he counts as a journalist. What he's getting hit with was already something protections didn't exist for. If he were extradited, charged, and somehow (presumably someone breaks out a hyperbolic time court) sentenced before Monday, nothing about the state of journalism in the US would have changed. Nothing. There would be no new precedent involved, no novel legal issues, just, as noted and at most, a reaffirmation that journalistic practice does not absolve you of criminal culpability. Which was just as true last week as it will be the week after whatever happens on the extradition front happens.