Explain this to me like I'm a second-grader

I wonder if Charles P. Pierce is voting.

 

If I'm arguing against Charles Pierce, I probably need to rethink things. Way outta my league, I'm told.

 

We're talking light years. It's laughable you would even post what you just posted.

 

Benghazi was investigated?

 

Well, my second-grader, the Democrats are Mommy and the Republicans are Daddy ...

 

...and Daddy has this thing called a penis, and if you ever hear Mommy moaning, it's the penis' fault.

 

What a pair:

The State Department said Tuesday that John Kerry, when he was a senator, used a private email account to send information now deemed classified to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her personal server.

Spokesman John Kirby said then-Senator Kerry used a "non-official account" to send a May 19, 2011, message to Clinton and then-national security adviser Tom Donilon. Portions of the message were classified as "secret" last week and censored when it was released along with about another 1,000 of Clinton's emails on Friday. The non-redacted portions of the message in question refer to developments in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

There was no indication that the information in Kerry's email was considered classified at any level at the time it was sent or if Kerry, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would have considered it particularly sensitive. Several hours after Kerry sent the email, Clinton forwarded it to a staffer with the instructions "pls print."

Kirby said the account that Kerry used to send the email from his iPad is no longer active.

Another email that Kerry sent to Clinton on his iPad, from Aug. 28, 2012, was released in full on Friday with no redactions. Another email from Feb. 4, 2012, apparently not sent from Kerry's iPad, was classified in full at the "confidential" or lowest level. Officials said both of those two messages were sent using non-official emails.

News from The Associated Press

 

"Now deemed classified."

As in, it wasn't classified in 2012. It was marked as secret last week.

You're back to the "she should be a mind-reader" stuff again.

 

Baron, your work defending the undefendable is admirable.

But, let's explain it like we would to a second grader...

If someone -- say the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- takes classified information, and types up an email summarizing that information, the information remains classified.

Now, of course the actual email has no markings declaring it to be classified. How could it? It hasn't been submitted for review. That doesn't change the nature of the information. It's still classified.

And, surely the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should be expected to know and understand this.

I understand that this concept is more difficult for you to comprehend, but then it is geared to a second grader.

 

I believe the threshold of what constitues classified information is pretty low. Classified might be information you might see in a USA Today article. Top secrety might be something from the international desk of the New York Times.

 

I'm having a hard time figuring out why this matters.