U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga — doing his best to strengthen our oligarchically totalitarian state

© 2019 Peter Free

 

09 August 2019

 

 

Do tell, your honor

 

Federal District Judge Anthony Trenga might as well put an SS uniform. Or if that does not "suit" his apparently refined totalitarian taste, perhaps an NKVD one.

 

He, evidently, is convinced that resistance to totalitarians (like him) is a highly remunerated occupation:

 

 

[Judge Trenga] in the Eastern District of Virginia on Monday denied a motion filed by Manning’s lawyers for a hearing requested to press the court to reconsider its sanctions, which include jail time—not to exceed 18 months—and financial penalties that may ultimately total around $441,000.

 

Manning has stated that she has a moral objection to testifying before the grand jury and that no amount of jail time will compel her to testify.

 

Legally, she can only be imprisoned as part of an effort by the court to coerce her into testifying. Her time in jail is not supposed to be punitive.

 

Her attorneys argue that she’s shown her resolve is unwavering and that the sanctions are ineffective. Thus, her time in jail cannot be considered coercive, an attempt to compel her testimony.

 

U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga, however, says he’s convinced otherwise. On Monday, he denied Manning’s attorneys the opportunity to further argue their case before the court.

 

“Ms. Manning has proffered a substantial number of financial records detailing her assets, liabilities, and current future earnings,” he wrote.

 

“The Court has reviewed these records and concludes, based on the evidence proffered, that Ms. Manning has the ability to comply with the Court’s financial sanctions or will have the ability after her release from confinement.”

 

© 2019 Dell Cameron, Chelsea Manning Can Remain in Jail for Another Year, Judge Rules, Gizmodo (07 August 2019)

 

 

Trenga's message?

 

Let's make anyone who resists the State thoroughly impoverished.

 

That'll teach 'em to knuckle under to our rules.

 

 

And — if the reason for this debtor's prison incarceration does not meet Law's actual standard . . .

 

. . . we will pretend that it does — by imagining fantastical ways in which the prisoner could make herself rich — simply by the fact of having been imprisoned in the first place.

 

 

In other words . . .

 

Judge Trenga appears to think that after the United States has thoroughly and unjustly "screwed" Manning, she will (nevertheless) become wealthy enough to pay off the ridiculous levels of fine that he is imposing upon her.

 

That hypothetical wealth — we can infer — coming from:

 

 

writing her story about having been unquestionably raped by our government

 

and

 

then having millions of apathetic Americans give enough of a "shit" about Freedom to buy it.

 

 

Hmmm

 

Do you think that the Shark Tank guys would bankroll Trenga's reasoning, if Manning were to present it to them as a business idea?

 

 

The moral? — Nothing like an entitled Ivy League grad — (Trenga is from Princeton) — to articulate us into tyranny

 

Like the King of Hypocrites, Judge Trenga is an embarrassment to reason and ethics.

 

But he, like Obama and Obama's predecessors, appears to be par for our American course.

 

Unthinking patriotism, no matter how well-educated, has a nasty way of obliterating liberty.

 

These guys are the Gestapo-thinking vermin, who consistently destroy what they pretend to protect.