I can tell you from my experience with background checks that I would never have been given a TS with that sort of record.
As if he could do better.
I’ve definitely been hearing that “openly hates our country” thing slapped on Griner.
Can anybody enlighten me? Did I miss something, or … Is that a given – as the RW would have us believe – because she’s:
*Tall,
*Gay, or
*Black
Or is it the combo platter – some/all of the above?
She played ball in Russia where she was paid more. Was it something else?
[Leaving aside, for the moment, the irony of the CFSG – the man who stole state secrets and tried to overthrow the legitimately-elected US government, after repeatedly attempting to sodomize the Stars & Stripes – questioning anybody’s (maybe one of The Most Overrated Virtues In My Book) patriotism. We’ll get back to that.]
You drive for the best deal you can get. The American side was hoping to get both out for the one but couldn’t swing it. An arms dealer ten years out of the business being a source for Russia to GET arms? That’s stupid. Reality is that Russia didn’t feel he was worth both.
OTOH a dishonorably discharged Marine who was doing private security in Russia may be worth a lesser trade.
I think you ticked most of the relevant boxes. However you can add has said the National Anthem should stop being played before sporting events and refused (with the rest of her whole team) to take the floor during it on one occasion as a protest over the Breonna Taylor killing. I happen to heartily agree with her on that one, but many jingoists do not.
She famously knelt on her knees while the national anthem was playing.
Let’s not fool ourselves…the fact that she is one of what Dave Chappelle calls the “alphabet people”* is relevant. If she had been white, there would be less press coverage.
And being unusualy tall is also part of the “combo plate” you mention…
Every single article I’ve seen about her has her picture prominently displayed , to catch your attention, and your clicks.
(* LGBTQ POC , etc etc)
Sucks they couldn’t get a better deal. So in my fantasy world, the US now announces supply of ATACMS rockets for HIMARS/M270 in Ukraine and says it’s because Russia refused to be reasonable in the hostage negotiations.
I don’t know how famous Griner was before (I didn’t know of her until she was arrested) but if someone like Sue Bird was in this situation, there would have been a lot of press.
Thank you, @Tamerlane and @chappachula .
This obviously plays to one my innumable blind spots.
I see countless “God Bless America” stickers on vehicles in my town every day. Surely, the consolidated, synergistic religion AND nationalism of those stickers must handily vanquish any bad Juju that a couple dozen/score African-American athletes kneeling during the anthem might entail.
Or is Flag-Fu weaker than we’re led to believe?
Hm.
I’m so glad to learn this news. I’m very happy for Britney Griner and her family. I have no doubt that President Biden has and will continue to work diligently to secure the release of Whelan.
My mother, MAGA supporter, told me she doesn’t care whether Griner’s trail was fair or not. She “broke the law” and got what she deserve. This is a common talking point among MAGA. I replied to her post, “It’s painful to hear you say you don’t care whether Griner received a fair trail, because those aren’t the values you instilled in me.”
Is is impossible for you to feel joy that Griner is released from Russian custody and is coming home?
Fuck me.
“American released from Russian penal colony” should be a headline that Americans celebrate.
From the pictures released from Russia, it looks like her hair was cut and she has a very short hair style now. The place she was sentenced to has a reputation for dragging women around by their hair. Wondering if she did it or it was done to her.
Modnote: This is pretty much attacking the poster. Please do not do this again.
Has there ever been any reliable evidence at all that she even broke the law, at all?
As for this “Merchant of Death”, wasn’t he involved in moving weapons OUT of Russia, into other places? Moving weapons out of Russia strikes me as a pretty good idea, right around now.
Indeed, the guy is of zero value to Russia in regard to the current war in Ukraine. He smuggled arms FROM Eastern European former Warsaw Pact stockpiles to third world countries and guerilla/terrorist organization under UN arms sanctions. The sting that busted him involved him arranging to sell 100 MANPADS to what he thought was FARC, a Columbian guerilla movement but turned out to be the DEA. That’s peanuts to what’s being consumed in the Ukraine. Russia wants to get things like thousands of tons of artillery shells in calibers compatible with the guns it’s using, and the only real source of that kind and quantity aside from domestic production is direct sales from countries like North Korea and China. Bout is of no value in looking for that quantity of arms and wouldn’t be even if he hadn’t been out of circulation for the past decade.
A bunch of notes reading What’s good for Milos Milosovitch Minderbinderski is good for the country?
I don’t think Putin is going to be around much longer and Britney Griner’s sentence would likely have been reduced after his demise.
While it’s wonderful that she’s away from that nightmare I would have waited a little longer before trading her for an arms dealer.
No. As far as I know she hasn’t even “confessed”, though such a confession would obviously be suspect. The furthest she’s gone is to admit that she might possibly have accidentally packed the cartridges. As I said I will be interested to hear how likely she thinks that possibility was now that she is back in the free world.
I posted this a few months ago when the trade was first suggested. Bout is not some exceptionally evil guy; he’s an asshole criminal like thousands of others, most of whom never served time or served much shorter sentences. Even the judge from his trial thinks his sentence was too long and this was a worthwhile trade.
Ideally, he’d still be in prison. But this world is far from ideal, and getting Brittney released seems well worth it.
Bout has served 11 years in a federal prison, almost half of his 25-year sentence, and Scheindlin thinks that’s enough. In fact, she thought the sentence “was too high at the time.” Bout was convicted of conspiring to sell arms to the FARC, the Colombian guerilla group that the U.S. had designated as a terrorist organization. However, Bout himself “was not a terrorist in my opinion,” Scheindlin said—”he was a businessman.” But under U.S. law, 25 years was the minimum sentence for someone convicted of selling arms to terrorists, so she had no choice.
Now, though, she told the Times, “I think the United States’ interest in punishing him has been satisfied, and it would not be a bad equation to send him back if we get back these people who are important to us.”