Name:   copperline - Subject:   Village liberal here..... Date:   9/9/2016 2:23:56 PM

I didn't reply to your hypothetical mainly because I think that if there was a standing order like that,  it would have been revealed already.   That's not a secret that would be easily kept these days.   I still think that this episode is just revealing that at this level of State Dept-Congressional-White House interaction, there is communication that isn't handled the way you guys were trained to handle it.    I don't know how to explain that ... nor am I defending it...., I'd just note that Colin Powell used similar communications methods apparently.   But I'm thinking that neither Powell nor Clinton were as casual & careless about it as their critics might want to assume.   Both are too savvy for that, and there is no evidence of damage from what they did.

I have always been impressed by the degree to which your training might have instilled a strong reaction to the disclosing of military secrets.   And I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but that it is really different when you have been a civilian without that intense indoctrination.   Many years back, I read a book called The Puzzle Palace about the NSA, and in it was a desciption of the secret ELINT missions flown into Russian airspace to probe their reactions.   I mentioned what I had read to a friend who had been an intelligence officer and asked if he knew about them.   He said that even hearing me ask about it, to talk about it himself, made him feel almost nauseated because it was a secret that no one was supposed to know.  Of course, years had passed... the information was (sort of) public and he had been discharged years before.   But his training had ingrained in him such a severe revulsion about keeping these secrets that it almost made him feel physically sick.    In a similar vein, the guys I have met that worked in the nuclear subs were also highly trained to be tight-lipped.  It must be shocking to have that training & then to hear that a congressman, or a cabinet member has a much more casual approach to something you were trained to view as nothing less than crucial.   I remember that Jimmy Carter let slip info about Stealth technology, and that Ronald Reagan liked to carry on about his Star Wars satellite system plans.....   Those incidents must have made several people puke each time...... 

Beyond that issue.....Maybe we are all stuck with speculations & opinions more than we would like when it comes to this election.   Both sides of this one feel like the stakes are really high & threats are significant.   And I choose to go with Hillary Clinton.     Certainly I can't prove everything I believe about Trump's personality & temperment, but I do think I can point out more evidence in his behavior for what I put out there than his supporters can.     Truth is that Clinton opponents feel little trust in her by citing her past & present actions.    Who's closer to right?

Well, I am.  (insert laughter)  That's why it's called my opinion.    

i can respect that other people can reason this one out differently, but I really don't want to spend my time swapping insults with any of the posters who think that is how civil public debate should be.   I'm sure you  guysknow what I mean.