Brittney Griner prisoner swap

[Nailbender]

Fair trade?

 

https://www.kwwl.com/news/top-stories/wnba-star-brittney-griner-released-from-russian-detention-in-prisoner-swap-for-convicted-arms-dealer/article_a80e687c-7d34-5a36-bf7c-9d25ff9c97bb.html

[Mike Parrish]

Yes.

Would you want the USA to go to bat to get your daughter back?

If Lout peeks his nose outside of Russia again, he'll eat an AGM-114.

[Mike Parrish]

For all the Republicans who are complaining about the ONE prisoner President Biden swapped for Brittney Griner, out of the 5000 Taliban prisoners Trump released, a report tracked 108 of them and found 68% were immediately re-integrated into the Taliban conflict.

[headshuck]

We left a U.S. Marine behind?

[Mike Parrish]

2 minutes ago, headshuck said:

We left a U.S. Marine behind?

Vice President Kamala Harris
@VP
·
1h
United States government official
While we celebrate Brittney’s homecoming, we remain committed to seeing Paul Whelan released. We will not relent in our efforts until Paul is home with family. We will not stop working to bring home every U.S. citizen wrongfully detained.

[Le duke]

Glad she’s being released. However, her entire case incenses me. Hubris, personified.

If you’re a black, lesbian, 6’9” woman in a country filled with racists, where the legislature is passing increasingly homophobic bills all the time, maybe don’t bring your weed vape cartridges on an international flight to Russia where you’ll be subject to a customs search. Particularly when the country you are flying to is rumored to be on the brink of invading another large sovereign state.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mike Parrish]

Unfortunately the Russians seem to view this as a criminal for a criminal swap while they view Whelan’s case as espionage which is a completely different threshold.

[Mike Parrish]

from the Whelan family: "There is no greater success than for a wrongful detainee to be freed & for them to go home. The Biden Admin made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home, & to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn't going to..”

[BobDole]

20 minutes ago, Le duke said:

If you’re a black, lesbian, 6’9” woman 

Those poor people who are only 6'8"! They are victimized more than we can imagine.

[Mike Parrish]

Whelan was imprisoned in 2018. Who was president then?

What about Otto Warmbier, the American college student that North Korea murdered while Trump was sending love letters back and forth with Kim Jong-Un?

 

[headshuck]

Whataboutism?

[Mike Parrish]

1 minute ago, headshuck said:

Whataboutism?

Comparing and contrasting.

I'd prefer that we got all US citizens out.

People complaining about Biden not getting Whelan out should look at what Trump did or didn't accomplish before shitting on Biden.

[headshuck]

Nothing wrong with that. But last week you called my comment “Naked whataboutism!”

[Mike Parrish]

5 minutes ago, headshuck said:

Nothing wrong with that. But last week you called my comment “Naked whataboutism!”

Am I supposed to guess which comment this was??

Apparently, this has been bothering you for a while now.

[headshuck]

There’s got to be more to the deal. Maybe “10% for the big guy” in future arms trades?

[BerniePragle]

Funny, there are a lot of politicians, lobbyists, defense contractor executives, and others in the US that I would call "arms dealers".  Other countries too.

[Ban Basketball]

I don't know enough about any of it to have any kind of informed view,  but I have always wondered how Greiner could have been so foolish as to even mess with trying to bring weed into Russia, of all places. 

Kind of invited that problem,  due to recklessness. 

[Nailbender]

1 hour ago, Mike Parrish said:

Comparing and contrasting.

I'd prefer that we got all US citizens out.

People complaining about Biden not getting Whelan out should look at what Trump did or didn't accomplish before shitting on Biden.

If Trump would've made the exact same trade, would he have been a "tool of Putin" or would it be a "collusion with Russia"? 

   What you call comparing and contrasting, I might call finger pointing that is nothing but a distraction. Trump isn't president, hopefully won't be again and doesn't really have any bearing on this conversation.

Brittany Griner left the USA, broke the law and was sentenced. I feel the sentence was unjust and I'm glad she gets to come home. That said, Biden is not a good negotiator in my opinion. 

[mspart]

3 hours ago, Nailbender said:

Biden is not a good negotiator in my opinion. 

This is manifestly true.   The trade was obviously one sided.   Basket ball player found with hashish oil and a man known as the "merchant of death" that was caught trying to sell missiles to FARC to kill American's in Colombia.    Seems a bit one sided to me.  There is no equivalency to this, Biden got it handed to him for all the world to see. 

mspart

[Mike Parrish]

The hissy fit on the MAGA side over the Greiner liberation is one of those examples of absolute message discipline on that side.

But it only works on them. It won't move the numbers, and Americans will welcome this as a win.

[MPhillips]

How are folks upset that an American is out of a Russian prison?  

 

[Ban Basketball]

7 minutes ago, MPhillips said:

How are folks upset that an American is out of a Russian prison?  

 

At the risk of my banishment from these forums, I'm suspecting it's similar to folks being jubilant with an American "president" having inside relations with Russia and North Korea. 

[Ban Basketball]

Again,  at the risk of banishment,  I'm not sure how someone who's served in leadership roles for 30-40 years in the Senate, during divided Congress' for much of it,  isn't a good negotiator.

I think too many of us don't know that until the mid-90's, Congress operated,  by their own words,  as adversaries not enemies.  Since the mid-90's, being enemies is the rule,  and we all suffer because of it.

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by Ban Basketball

[headshuck]

Weingarten tweet:

“What a great relief!!! Extraordinary news, a basketball star, but also a gay, black woman is released. And yes of course we want other prisoners like Paul Whelan released.”

[Mike Parrish]

Quote

 

I'm starting to think...just MAYBE...that the flaming, white-hot insane MAGA hatred of Britney Griner...might...just MIGHT be about her race and sexual orientation.

MAY-be.