Sounds like a nice guy! I wonder how many people will die so that an America hating communist doesn't have to sit in a Russian gulag for nine years? I know it will mostly be brown people in third world countries that liberals don't really care about, but are their lives really worth her avoiding a jail sentence? Even if the jail sentence is unjust?

DTP02 said:

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dmart90 said:

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ShotOver said:

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….I caught myself saying something inappropriate, so I wiped it clean. My apologies….glad she's free.

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This is how I feel. There's a lot of bad things to say, but at the end of the day an American is not longer locked up abroad. Glad she's out and on her way home.

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I think Griner's sentence was incredibly harsh so getting out now seems closer to a just sentence. I don't like or respect Griner, but I thought the original sentence was a miscarriage of Justice.

But the fact that we traded a major arms dealer for Griner is ridiculous, and clearly only done because of Griner being a celebrity and black and trans.

A one for one swap should have been the arms dealer for the Marine, or get multiple Americans out like the other guy who was sentenced for the exact same thing as Griner.

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I can't disagree with any of that.

PanzerAggie06 said:

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1872walker said:

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PanzerAggie06 said:

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Quit taking the damn bait.

Biden and his cronies are salivating at the idea of Republicans coming out en masse and raging about this. They will gleefully scream racism and homophobia at any and all criticism of Griner's release. Sometimes the best play is to sit back, smile, and wait.

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What you'll be waiting on is the media circuit where the media fawns over Griner and the Biden administration. Wheelan will continue to get ignored and the media won't hold this administration to task for freeing the "merchant of death"

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And? Of course they will do everything you just stated.

My point is still more than valid. Don't take the bait. This is a no win situation for the GOP. Just smile and move on. Raging against the evil, America hating, lesbian basketball player is what they want the right to do. Why give them the ammo?

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spoiler alert. They were going to do this anyway. When has the left been able to hold themselves back from calling literally anything and everything racist and homophobic?

I'll hang up and listen

My Name Is Judge said:

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It took him that long & he still had to hand over the arms dealer?

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And didn;t get Whelan out.

So we swapped one America hating ******* for another.

Great job democrats.

TresPuertas said:

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PanzerAggie06 said:

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1872walker said:

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PanzerAggie06 said:

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Quit taking the damn bait.

Biden and his cronies are salivating at the idea of Republicans coming out en masse and raging about this. They will gleefully scream racism and homophobia at any and all criticism of Griner's release. Sometimes the best play is to sit back, smile, and wait.

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What you'll be waiting on is the media circuit where the media fawns over Griner and the Biden administration. Wheelan will continue to get ignored and the media won't hold this administration to task for freeing the "merchant of death"

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And? Of course they will do everything you just stated.

My point is still more than valid. Don't take the bait. This is a no win situation for the GOP. Just smile and move on. Raging against the evil, America hating, lesbian basketball player is what they want the right to do. Why give them the ammo?

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spoiler alert. They were going to do this anyway. When has the left been able to hold themselves back from calling literally anything and everything racist and homophobic?

I'll hang up and listen

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They certainly could try, as they often do. However, those words would ring hollow with all but the most rabid of leftists. When they don't ring hollow is when Republicans take to Twitter, Instagram, Texags, etc. and rail agains the evil black lesbian. Again, just smile and welcome her home. Optics matter.

kind of a ridiculous statement to be honest.

"just be quiet so you don't look bad"

Heres an idea:, especially to the spineless republicans in Washington. Its time to get into the fight and do and say whats right, no matter what people say about you or the consequences... Its called integrity.

PanzerAggie06 said:

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1872walker said:

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By not raging against the evil, American hating, lesbian basketball player. Hell, praise this administration for bringing home a political prisoner as an intro but hammer home what we gave up for Griner while all the time ignoring Whelan.

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That's fine. Never stop mentioning Whelan but not in the context of "we should have gotten him out not the black lesbian". Just smile and welcome her home and then keep working on getting Whelan out of there.

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I didn't know Griner was a lesbian. After all, he's married to a woman.

Griner is a man trapped in a man's body

PanzerAggie06 said:

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TresPuertas said:

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PanzerAggie06 said:

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1872walker said:

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PanzerAggie06 said:

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Quit taking the damn bait.

Biden and his cronies are salivating at the idea of Republicans coming out en masse and raging about this. They will gleefully scream racism and homophobia at any and all criticism of Griner's release. Sometimes the best play is to sit back, smile, and wait.

---

What you'll be waiting on is the media circuit where the media fawns over Griner and the Biden administration. Wheelan will continue to get ignored and the media won't hold this administration to task for freeing the "merchant of death"

---

And? Of course they will do everything you just stated.

My point is still more than valid. Don't take the bait. This is a no win situation for the GOP. Just smile and move on. Raging against the evil, America hating, lesbian basketball player is what they want the right to do. Why give them the ammo?

---

spoiler alert. They were going to do this anyway. When has the left been able to hold themselves back from calling literally anything and everything racist and homophobic?

I'll hang up and listen

---

They certainly could try, as they often do. However, those words would ring hollow with all but the most rabid of leftists. When they don't ring hollow is when Republicans take to Twitter, Instagram, Texags, etc. and rail agains the evil black lesbian. Again, just smile and welcome her home. Optics matter.

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It's quite possible and reasonable to fiercely attack this decision while not attacking her as a person.

The real tragedy here is that the IK-2 facility had just reached the Elite 8 of the Russian Penal Colony Inter-Oblast Tournament and now they're facing off against the Butyrka Prison squad without their starting post. Their coach says they're going to try and run an up-tempo offense to compensate, but you can't install that sort of fundamental change in strategy in just a few days.

Now she (or whatever pronoun) is out she better pledge her undying allegiance to the USA, stand for the National anthem, and be a beacon of America. Otherwise send her back and let her rot. This was not a fair trade by any stretch of the imagination, but an American is home with her family.

Disgusting

Really, he should just go on a tour promoting the virtues of our legal system, and rights. Having experienced how some of the rest of the world is so different/doesn't play by his rules, some praise of American exceptionalism is clearly in order. I won't hold my breath.

1872walker said:

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PanzerAggie06 said:

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1872walker said:

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PanzerAggie06 said:

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1872walker said:

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PanzerAggie06 said:

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Quit taking the damn bait.

Biden and his cronies are salivating at the idea of Republicans coming out en masse and raging about this. They will gleefully scream racism and homophobia at any and all criticism of Griner's release. Sometimes the best play is to sit back, smile, and wait.

---

What you'll be waiting on is the media circuit where the media fawns over Griner and the Biden administration. Wheelan will continue to get ignored and the media won't hold this administration to task for freeing the "merchant of death"

---

And? Of course they will do everything you just stated.

My point is still more than valid. Don't take the bait. This is a no win situation for the GOP. Just smile and move on. Raging against the evil, America hating, lesbian basketball player is what they want the right to do. Why give them the ammo?

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By not raging against the evil, American hating, lesbian basketball player. Hell, praise this administration for bringing home a political prisoner as an intro but hammer home what we gave up for Griner while all the time ignoring Whelan.

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That's fine. Never stop mentioning Whelan but not in the context of "we should have gotten him out not the black lesbian". Just smile and welcome her home and then keep working on getting Whelan out of there.

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It's going to be hard to bring Whelan home when we are trading away basketball players who brought along a THC cartridge for someone who " has been international arms trafficking enemy number one for many years, arming some of the most violent conflicts around the globe."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-17634050

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This plays right into the Establishment politicians' playbook. Take guns away from the citizens they are supposed to serve, but freely give them to terrorist groups around the globe. Good grief.

I'm not getting my hopes up...but it would be interesting to see if Griner has had any sort of an epiphany concerning how oppressive the US is.

Paul Whelan tells CNN: “I am greatly disappointed more hasn't been done to secure my release, especially as the four year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. I was arrested for a crime that never occurred. I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”https://t.co/6KMof1iQLl

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 8, 2022

I'll admit it. I had no idea!

Name what team Brittney Griner plays for without looking it up

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) December 8, 2022

SMM48 said:

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Arms dealer for a …………. Nothing rhymes

Edit not thumbs up. Should be thumbs down

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I don't approve of the swap, but for purposes of helping out the rhyme:

Arms Dealer for a Connoisseur of Reefer.

will25u said:

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Two Americans. Same drug, same airport. One's a celebrity, the other isn't. Guess which one Biden is bailing out? https://t.co/9CltndQL4U

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) December 8, 2022

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This should be brought up more. I see people bring up Whalen, but leave this guy out. Guess he just gets to rot in prison.

At least we didn't use to.

TresPuertas said:

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kind of a ridiculous statement to be honest.

"just be quiet so you don't look bad"

Heres an idea:, especially to the spineless republicans in Washington. Its time to get into the fight and do and say whats right, no matter what people say about you or the consequences... Its called integrity.

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It's called losing elections.

Quit being emotional. Fight the fights that can be won. The GOP will lose this fight if they go on the rampage about the lesbian basketball player. Integrity don'ts mean squat if the Dems continue to control the Senate and WH. Think tactically not emotionally.

The Biden Admin was apparently worried that their DEI score would go down if they freed an American Marine. pic.twitter.com/XWxWvFf1co

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 8, 2022

The D said:

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FriscoKid said:

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Quote:

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Notably, the Griner-for-Bout exchange leaves retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan imprisoned in Russia. Whelan has been in Russian custody for nearly four years. He was convicted on espionage charges that the U.S. has called false.

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This is unreal.

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Awful. Poor guy.

I'm glad for her, even though I don't like her, it was too harsh a sentence.

But had Griner been an American white basketball player, I doubt Biden would've made much effort. But we'll never know.

But if she EVER takes a knee again.

so the arms dealer for the basketball player?

good trade?

An attorney for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout said he is "confident" the proposed prisoner swap of his client for Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan is going to happen https://t.co/fnlZY75nZn

— CNN (@CNN) August 1, 2022

Deal was mediated by the Saudi Crown Prince and finalized just 2 days after the US dropped the Khashoggi lawsuit.

Bogey1996 said:

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will25u said:

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Two Americans. Same drug, same airport. One's a celebrity, the other isn't. Guess which one Biden is bailing out? https://t.co/9CltndQL4U

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) December 8, 2022

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This should be brought up more. I see people bring up Whalen, but leave this guy out. Guess he just gets to rot in prison.

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This isn't quite apples to apples either. One had a couple of cap cartridges at the bottom of her bag. The other had 14 carefully hidden cartridges as well as weed hidden in contact lense cases and other hidden compartments.

One has plausible deniability the other was clearly trying to smuggle weed and the state department has historically treated this differently.

That's not to say being a tall gay black wnba player doesn't play a role, it's to say these are not straight apples to apples

jefe95 said:

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Putin wins.

Played Joe like a fiddle.

Has his bad guy back. Still holding a US good guy.

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Yep.

Thanks for the clarification.

Way to go Biden. Release the merchant of death. Don't want to hear of you and you minion libs screaming for gun control. This guy is going right back to work with his connections. Great job idiot.

usmcbrooks said:

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At least we didn't use to.

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Apparently now we get bent over by them.

ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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usmcbrooks said:

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At least we didn't use to.

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Apparently now we get bent over by them.

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