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OT Brittney Griner

Fwiw, this is the exact same deal Putin offered months ago. We thought it was unacceptable and rejected it back then. So was Biden was just waiting until the mid-term elections were over before caving?
More than likely just like Trump waited after midterms to announce another presidential run. Politics are for the rich and powerful not for folks like you and me.
 
Well, ideally over the last 250 years, one would hope that looking at all of that policy we'd be roughly near 50/50 balance in decision making. You can look at smaller chunks of time between party control years and see huge disparity like 70/30 or so. But ultimately, we'd all prefer seeing some give and take to eventually and more consistently achieve a 50/50 balance.

But both parties are currently engaged in a culture war. People are soft. Offended. Need "safe spaces". Canceling each other. Labeling themselves some wacky pronoun as a teenager (mostly for attention...thanks social media!). Abortion rights arguments. Providing services for gay people arguments. Gun debate. It just never ends, and there seems to be no middle ground in the negotiation process. Each side wants all or nothing. No way we can continue like this.
Shortly after 9 11 politicians learned that you need to scare people into doing what you need them to do. They are paid by the special interests to keep people stirred up and moving in the direction that they want them to. That's why there is an "American Action PAC" for all of the subjects that you mentioned. In all of those instances there are people on both sides willing to throw money and hate at anything that they don't support.
 
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Once again you are all over this Dude. I have looked up Whelan's background and I agree that he is probably untouchable in this case as far as public support for his release is concerned. He was supposedly caught red handed with the evidence so who knows. It is easy to look at his military record as opposed to a basketball player and gripe, but the facts don't look great for him if we leave party affiliation out of it all.
His military record is horrible. Any SemperFi Marine brother would (should) be disgusted that he was court-martialed and discharged.
 
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Couple of things here.
We trade a known terrorist, an arms dealer Viktor Bout known as the “merchant of death” for Griner?????
While Paul Whelan a US marine has been imprisoned 4 years in Russia.
Our president is a worthless, mindless scumbag. Our marine comes home first, then her. Our marine is worth such a big trade but she is not. We are releasing evil into the world just to satisfy the woke community. It's ridiculous.
 
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Our president is a worthless, mindless scumbag. Our marine comes home first, then her. Our marine is worth such a big trade but she is not. We are releasing evil into the world just to satisfy the woke community. It's ridiculous.
I wish the she-man would have rotted over there.
 
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Seems odd to compare Griner and Whelen given that the latter is held as a spy.

Where was the outrage when another American, Trevor Reed, was brought home before Whelen? Where was the outrage when Trump was in office and didn’t bring him home?

My goodness our country makes everything so political. Even Whelen’s family applauded the decision.

Now, I’m open to a debate on if it makes sense to trade an Arms dealer for Griner, but the Whelen argument does not make a lot of sense.

Exactly, and I’m so tired of it. Divisive and destructive rhetoric that tears our country apart.

To increase the division, Whelan gets white-washed into some kind of military hero, and Griner demonized into some kind of American/traitor/hater who spit on the flag and stomped on the graves of patriots.

The reality about Whelan was addressed in another post. Griner meanwhile is just another one of many young black athletes that was caught up in the lame political stunt of kneeling during the anthem as a form of protest against police brutality.

Whatever your political bent, those of you who wanted this young woman - who has won gold medals for this country - to rot away for the rest of her life in one of the harshest prison systems on this planet for some minor drug offense really need to think about the degree to which you’ve allowed toxic political rhetoric in this country over the last few years to harden your heart.
 
His military record is horrible. Any SemperFi Marine brother would (should) be disgusted that he was court-martialed and discharged.
Yeah I won’t act like I know all the details. But it’s beyond sketchy that he had a Russian bff and brought 80k into the country. Alright your closest homie happens to be Russian, ok that’s at least conceivable. But why as a former US Marine especially would you go to Russia with 80k cash on you. Why would you go anywhere but the bank with 80k cash on you for that matter. With my military record I can’t even set foot in Russia, and I probably wouldn’t be able to leave for a very long time if I ever was so stupid to go there.
 
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She should hire a PR person to handle all the press conference and her image going forward. Because if she doesn't handle this right, and say comes back to bash America, she's going to be extremely hated, and that will follow her everywhere she goes.

Hopefully she has the smarts to be extremely thankful and appreciative of the US, our leaders (for better or worse) and our service men.
Won't happen guaranteed
 
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i thought the same thing y’all did. But Biden doesn’t hate the military. He makes sure they’re recognized. Try and keep up at least a little.


220902-biden-speech-marines-jg.jpg
 
Neither Griner or Whelan are in fact stellar examples of pristine US citizens, although aside from Griner's bad decision for bringing hashish oil to a country where anything pot-related is punishable by lengthy prison terms, I can't find much about her like I have been able to find on Whelan's less-than-stellar past. She did have a domestic violence arrest in 2014 that was dismissed. She's also been vocal about the kneeling during the anthem, and of course is lesbian (all contrary to the R party's base ideologies).

And just because he was a "US Marine" doesn't make him the ultimate US citizen that needs to be rescued over all others imprisoned in Russia. The dude pretty much disgraced his SemperFi code and was court-martialed for theft. I'd wager that many USM veterans would cast this guy out once they found out his true background (let's not forget he wasn't a grunt, he was an administrative IT guy...not downplaying his service by any means, but the general perception of a US Marine is a billy bad ass grunt on the front lines fighting for our freedom...this guy is not that guy...).

This is my problem with the hero worshiping of anyone who serves in the military that is popular in certain ideological circles. Some people think just because someone served in the military that person is automatically a great human being.

I lived just outside of Fort Knox for almost 15 years. I met some absolutely amazing military men and women who walked the walk and were the finest citizens imaginable. Humble. Kind. Brave.

I also met some of the dumbest, absolutely garbage humans who wore the same uniform. In fact, one of my neighbors was a young couple in their 20s. Husband was a Specialist in the Army. She was a stay-at-home Army wife. She wore long sleeves and sunglasses at all times and was rarely seen outside. One night in 2010 someone came pounding at our door screaming for help. It was her. Her husband came home drunk and had beaten the ever living shit out of her. She had blood coming out of her nose and mouth and welts on her forehead. My wife and I let her inside to call the cops and stayed with her until they got there.

A few seconds later, he started pounding on the door and threatening to kill everyone in my residence. He mentioned his military training and how badass he was. I told him his military anything didn’t mean dick in my world and that the cops were on the way. He then tried to fight 4 cops at once before he was arrested. They beat his ass with the sticks and he stopped resisting when the Tazers came out. I don’t know if he was punished by the Army. They moved in the middle of the might a couple weeks later. I hope she’s not dead.

This memory is seared into my brain forever.

That experience is why I’m not auto worshiping someone like that just because they served in the military.
 
So do you know what they do? And who they support?
I know more about L-M than you do I assure you. I’d prefer to know nothing about them tbh. Did you know that 20x more of your taxes go directly to L-M than what you pay for social welfare programs?
 
Putin is bodying everyone. This trade is bending the knee. He has all of Europe buying his oil. He's made more $ then ever and remember how the world was going to cut his funds and "bury him". Yeah.....you don't give in on a trade when you are holding an upper hand. Putin is Daddy and everyone else is sucking his ****.

These are rough times and glad I'm a full George Costanza thinker. Whatever I'm told is going on, it's just the opposite.
 
I don’t believe Kari does believe that. I just don’t. I mean at this point ya know? Lol.
So the Republican Party doesn’t enrich the rich? Good luck disproving that one. Truly a fool’s errand with mountains of evidence against you.

They don’t strip rights from the poor? You’ll have an even harder time against all that evidence.

They don’t try to overturn elections? I mean c’mon this is recent history you guys, it’s impossible to have your head buried that far into the sand. These things happened in front of our eyes, it’s not something you can gaslight away.
 
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I know more about L-M than you do I assure you. I’d prefer to know nothing about them tbh. Did you know that 20x more of your taxes go directly to L-M than what you pay for social welfare programs?

Kari, that sounds like a challenge? What do you know about Lockheed Martin, what they want, and who they use to get it? What politicians are pushing war as we speak to enrich the powerful?

What news organizations are using identity politics to shield themselves while advocating for war, murder, and genocide so entities like LM can make another 100 billion.

The fact that you buy into party and identity politics tells me you actually know understand anything about LM. But I’ll entertain it before my 12:15.
 
Our president is a worthless, mindless scumbag. Our marine comes home first, then her. Our marine is worth such a big trade but she is not. We are releasing evil into the world just to satisfy the woke community. It's ridiculous.
No, he’s not. Neither of them are worth setting free one of the world’s most powerful, dangerous and well-connected criminals …who now harbors one helluva grudge against the United States.

It’s quite likely that Americans are gonna die because this trade was made.
 
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Lol please try to dispute anything I said. Please give it a go. You won’t.
Lol, the "party" didn't try to overturn elections. It's actually the democrats who keep the poor, poor with handouts. There are more leftist elites these days than conservative. You keep voting for a group who has done nothing to help your community, nothing. Teaching people to have ambition, take personal responsibility, get a good education, yep those are republican ideas. If democrats didn't prefer to keep people in urban plantations, people would do much better for themselves. As for stripping rights from poor people. That's made up nonsense.
 
No, he’s not. Neither of them are worth setting free one of the world’s most powerful, dangerous and well-connected criminals …who now harbors one helluva grudge against the United States.

It’s quite likely that Americans are gonna die because this trade was made.
Fair enough but she certainly isn't.
 
What we’re seeing in this country right now is the scratching and clawing of a political party that is being left behind. Just 15 short years ago, ~54% of the US population were White Christians. That number is now at ~44%. That is a very good thing from my perspective, as it is the white Christians who are leading their side of the culture war and doing the vast majority of the scratching and clawing. This is no more evident than in the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe. The White Christians maintained a pocket of power and overstepped with their influence by causing an extremely publicly unpopular decision to go through. So now Republicans are like the dog who caught the car. You can’t afford to do unpopular shit when your numbers are declining. If that 44% gets down to 35% over the next decade or 2 like I think it will, then this country will finally be essentially free of the shackles of that awful party, especially when combined with the growing influence of Gen Z and the political participation of the generation that follows, which will likely be another liberal dominated generation.

Liberals have won the culture war as it stands today and conservatives have zero solutions for the supposed problems a liberal leaning society has created (the problem is of course the Republicans who obstruct progress) and we will have our way. And I will personally enjoy all the crying and bitching from those who feel “left behind”. Truth is, they couldn’t keep up with a changing world. If you become less able to compete in society as society becomes more equitable, then that’s a you problem. It’s not “White Replacement Theory”. It’s “you suck at life and blame your problems on others”. We are not a white nation, and we are not a Christian nation. Those that want it to be that way are losing, and they are losing bad. I’m excited about what’s to come for the country as religion and the hatred it breeds is slowly being defeated.
You morons are something else...you do realize your gutless generation will be ruled by the Chinese.
 
So the Republican Party doesn’t enrich the rich? Good luck disproving that one. Truly a fool’s errand with mountains of evidence against you.

They don’t strip rights from the poor? You’ll have an even harder time against all that evidence.

They don’t try to overturn elections? I mean c’mon this is recent history you guys, it’s impossible to have your head buried that far into the sand. These things happened in front of our eyes, it’s not something you can gaslight away.

These days the Republican Party has such a spotlight on it they can’t even pump gas without you knowing which grade.

The Republican Party is bought and paid for by much bigger entities than you might realize.

Why do you think they throw the senate away? Did you not pay attention? The leader of the senate intentionally gave it up, go check it out.

I just don’t think you know what to look for honestly.

Those D’s are gonna get us all.
 
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In all fairness, Whelan only checks 2 or 3 boxes for the R party:

Supported Donald Trump
US Marine
Is straight (as far as we know...may come out of prison different! haha!)

And I agree that Griner does fit up with the demographics the current administration likes to use for political brownie points with their base (black, gay female), which supports my earlier statement that politicians, regardless of party, are all in it for PR that might get them reelected over trying to make the US a better place for all political ideaologies.

But as I posted above, there's more context to Whelan than people either know or are willing to talk about. The dude was court-martialed from the USM due to larceny. He's lied about being a cop in Michigan, and has lied about having a bachelor's and master's degrees (and he did so under oath during some depositions). Was he spying for the US under the guise as a BorgWarner automotive IT security specialist? Who knows. But one must question why he might have needed to travel so often to Russia as an IT security specialist when most IT folks enjoy remote work and can do a ton of their jobs without leaving home, on more secure networks than what he'd probably get in Russian hotels.

Imagine the outcry, though, from African American females (or females in general), had the US Government managed to trade for a white US marine and left Griner behind! Frankly, the government should have done more to trade BOTH Whelan and Griner for this Russian terrorist. That would have been more of a brownie point to show an administration that's open to help everyone regardless of party affiliation. But it's always about the party base over America as a whole.
Guarantee Biden has no clue who either is or why they are in Russian prison.
 
I’m all for getting any American out of foreign prisons, but it’s just so disgusting how this one played out.

Griner should spend every day on this earth advocating to get this Marine home. She won’t, she’ll just continue to bash the country she couldn’t wait to get home to.
This is something you and I are aligned. Any American trying to bring illegal drugs into Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, etc deserves what they get. Sick of “woke celebrities” getting special treatment while the real hero’s of our society are treated as disposable.
 
Lol, the "party" didn't try to overturn elections. It's actually the democrats who keep the poor, poor with handouts. There are more leftist elites these days than conservative. You keep voting for a group who has done nothing to help your community, nothing. Teaching people to have ambition, take personal responsibility, get a good education, yep those are republican ideas. If democrats didn't prefer to keep people in urban plantations, people would do much better for themselves. As for stripping rights from poor people. That's made up nonsense.

If it’s a debate about social negatives, then yea the leftists take has gone too off the rails. But the brainwashing is strong, once you believe the leftists nonsense in these areas you can’t get it out. I’ve seen some accept reality but not many.

Now educated liberals I have seen accept it. But not young leftists.
 
This is something you and I are aligned. Any American trying to bring illegal drugs into Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, etc deserves what they get. Sick of “woke celebrities” getting special treatment while the real hero’s of our society are treated as disposable.

Well we see something similar after all.
 
This is something you and I are aligned. Any American trying to bring illegal drugs into Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, etc deserves what they get. Sick of “woke celebrities” getting special treatment while the real hero’s of our society are treated as disposable.

That disgraced former marine is a well documented POS. A uniform doesn’t make someone a hero.
 
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