Edward Snowden Says Assange 'Could Be Next' After John McAfee Suicide

[David Barrett]

Maybe just skipping ahead a few steps before getting pulled into a debate
about the US government, do you agree with the concept of representative
democracy involving different branches with checks and balances being a
philosophically strong foundation for governance?  Is your complaint that
the US government is an imperfect execution of a fundamentally sound
concept, or that the entire idea underpinning our government is
irredeemably flawed?

I'm not eager to get into a conversation where you end up saying "But
democracy sucks, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength."

-david

On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 3:18 PM Karl <gmkarl at gmail.com> wrote:

> The problem with whistleblowing is that whatever was going on wrongly, it
> was almost certainly happening in order to make somebody powerful actually
> be far more powerful, whether directly or indirectly.  There's likely huge
> incentivisation to pull far more strings to suppress problems.  Like the
> killer who becomes a serial killer because it's all they have left, except
> it's your head of state.
>
> Here's another quote:
>
> However, according to a report that the Committee on Homeland Security and
> Governmental Affairs submitted to accompany S. 743, "the federal
> whistleblowers have seen their protections diminish in recent years,
> largely as a result of a series of decisions by the United States Court of
> Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has exclusive jurisdiction over many
> cases brought under the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA). Specifically,
> the Federal Circuit has accorded a narrow definition to the type of
> disclosure that qualifies for whistleblower protection. Additionally, the
> lack of remedies under current law for most whistleblowers in the
> intelligence community and for whistleblowers who face retaliation in the
> form of withdrawal of the employee's security clearance leaves unprotected
> those who are in a position to disclose wrongdoing that directly affects
> our national security."[8]
> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower_Protection_Act#cite_note-8>
>
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