• "Refactoring" is a word drawn from the practices of computer programmers. In wiki communities, to refactor a wiki page is to reorganize the ideas it contains to increase the usefulness of the page to readers. Using wiki the way we use it, to start topics of conversation that are intended to reach greater clarity or insight into the ideas we discuss when we are together, refactoring usually involves removing discussion and replacing it, as you did, with clear restatements. Because every version of every page is always available to all readers, removing the conversation doesn't mean that it's lost. The convention of refactoring is to take the page, remove discussion leaving a summary of what has been concluded and what remains in disagreement, followed by a list of the names of contributors to the discussion being summarized.

but since this has grown frustrating and confusing, I'm replacing the entire thread with a straightforward summary that does not resort to referencing Wikipedia, historical analogy, Poland in the 50s, Robspierre, or any other pretensions. I never meant to write anything complicated or argumentative.

• Apparently I did not make myself clear. Geithner and his predecessor, Paulson, made a legal argument: that they did not have statutory authority to prevent the collapse of Lehman. This is pretty generally agreed to be false on its face, and is inconsistent with their other behavior in the same period.

• This can't be the standard applied to private practice, because one could not possibly give zealous representation to any client if one had a supervening duty to prevent unforeseen harms to everyone else.