Pot Smoking Griner For a Dangerous Arms Dealer

[Honeyman]

The best line I've heard on the Griner situation was from Ben Shapiro...

"This is the very first time anyone has ever cared about a WNBA player getting traded."

SNL had a joke saying it was a great trade for the US since Bout was barely averaging 5 points and 3 rebounds.

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The fact the White House didn't at least make a two for one deal is inexcusable.

You can make that kind of a deal only if the other party is willing to make that deal. The Russians were not prepared to agree to that.

It's like when we go into collective bargaining looking for a $2/ hr increase and we end up accepting eighty-seven cents.

If Whelan for Bout was available to Trump, it was available to Biden. I'm ok with Trump turning that down. Biden got played.

They had Griner… a more valuable prize than Whelan.. far more valuable for them as a bargaining chip. What they were going for was both Whelan and Griner for Bout… Putin didn’t bite. Putin can save face a bit on imprisoning somebody famous… nobody cares about poor Whelan apparently…

As for your assertion that the previous deal was available again… that’s speculation at best but with a more valuable person being held I doubt he’d have the same offer on the table.

You are insane if you think Griner is more valuable than Whelan.

They’ve beaten the information out of Whelan by now… he’s worthless… it’d be nice to have him back but that’s about it.

Besides Whelan for Bout wasnt on the table… Whelan for Krasikov is the new price.
https://us.cnn.com/2022/12/09/politics/ ... index.html

Funny nobody mentions that Whelan was drummed out of the marine corps for larceny by the way. He was court marshaled and given a bad conduct discharge. I certainly didn’t know that he wasn’t an angel.

[km1125]

I agree with Graham on this topic.

Nationally, the detention of Whelan has received only a small fraction of the amount of attention the incarceration of Grinder has received. That isn't right, in my opinion. He's been incarcerated significantly longer, too.

The fact the White House didn't at least make a two for one deal is inexcusable.

I also agree with Circle Seven about the dangerous precedent this move creates.

Those darn Freudian slips!

[km1125]

They had Griner… a more valuable prize than Whelan.. far more valuable for them as a bargaining chip. What they were going for was both Whelan and Griner for Bout… Putin didn’t bite. Putin can save face a bit on imprisoning somebody famous… nobody cares about poor Whelan apparently…

As for your assertion that the previous deal was available again… that’s speculation at best but with a more valuable person being held I doubt he’d have the same offer on the table.

You are insane if you think Griner is more valuable than Whelan.

The question is really "value to who"? Certainly not as the country as a whole, nor the country as a sovereign body. If Whelan was in fact being used in the intelligence community, the county had an obligation to prioritize his return. Still might not have been worth an exchange for Bout, but he should have been higher on the list of priorities.

Her (?) value was to the admin and their party followers.

I'm not to concerned with his discharge from the Marines. That could easily be part of a botched cover story, as were his other "assignments". I had a good friend in the FBI and CIA and his cover was "working in a car wash" until he was well into his 40's.

[Turkeytop]

Can we assign a value to one's humanity? Is one of them more or less valuable than the other?

[craig11152]

Can we assign a value to one's humanity? Is one of them more or less valuable than the other?

I would say yes we can assign value. Just to jump on an extreme Hitler vs Mother Teresa.
In fact the President assigned value when he struck a deal for Brittney Griner instead of Marc Fogel.
Essentially the same crime for both. Fogel is 60 years old and looking at 14 years in a Russian prison. Care to take a guess at whether he can survive to age 74 in a Russian prison?
Griner is 32 and a professional athlete. What were her chances of doing her 10 years and coming out alive at age 42?

[km1125]

Can we assign a value to one's humanity? Is one of them more or less valuable than the other?

I would say yes we can assign value. Just to jump on an extreme Hitler vs Mother Teresa.
In fact the President assigned value when he struck a deal for Brittney Griner instead of Marc Fogel.
Essentially the same crime for both. Fogel is 60 years old and looking at 14 years in a Russian prison. Care to take a guess at whether he can survive to age 74 in a Russian prison?
Griner is 32 and a professional athlete. What were her chances of doing her 10 years and coming out alive at age 42?

Excellent points. Everybody is trying to make an association with Griner and Whelan when their cases are dramatically different. A comparison of Fogel to Griner is much more apropos. They should have BOTH come back or Fogel should have been FIRST.

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Can we assign a value to one's humanity? Is one of them more or less valuable than the other?

I would say yes we can assign value. Just to jump on an extreme Hitler vs Mother Teresa.
In fact the President assigned value when he struck a deal for Brittney Griner instead of Marc Fogel.
Essentially the same crime for both. Fogel is 60 years old and looking at 14 years in a Russian prison. Care to take a guess at whether he can survive to age 74 in a Russian prison?
Griner is 32 and a professional athlete. What were her chances of doing her 10 years and coming out alive at age 42?

Excellent points. Everybody is trying to make an association with Griner and Whelan when their cases are dramatically different. A comparison of Fogel to Griner is much more apropos. They should have BOTH come back or Fogel should have been FIRST.

You can only get what’s on the table. Neither Fogel nor Whelan were on the table.

[craig11152]

Can we assign a value to one's humanity? Is one of them more or less valuable than the other?

I would say yes we can assign value. Just to jump on an extreme Hitler vs Mother Teresa.
In fact the President assigned value when he struck a deal for Brittney Griner instead of Marc Fogel.
Essentially the same crime for both. Fogel is 60 years old and looking at 14 years in a Russian prison. Care to take a guess at whether he can survive to age 74 in a Russian prison?
Griner is 32 and a professional athlete. What were her chances of doing her 10 years and coming out alive at age 42?

Excellent points. Everybody is trying to make an association with Griner and Whelan when their cases are dramatically different. A comparison of Fogel to Griner is much more apropos. They should have BOTH come back or Fogel should have been FIRST.

You can only get what’s on the table. Neither Fogel nor Whelan were on the table.

You don't know that Fogel wasn't on the table. Your just saying that to justify your hero Joe.

[TC Talks]

So far...

You are all campaigning for older white men. Just watching that...

A deadbeat dishonorable Marines might be better in a Russian prison. Great job Monday Morning Quarterbacking our intelligence community. Keep it up.

The entire thing you people miss? Many of these arrests are designed to set up a trade. And don't think the US isn't also playing this game.

[Bryce]

You can only get what’s on the table. Neither Fogel nor Whelan were on the table.

Who told you that?

[craig11152]

So far...

You are all campaigning for older white men. Just watching that...

Actually I am campaigning for an older human being whose chances of surviving his sentence is not as good as the person who got out.
You are a racist to bring race in to it .
Don't feel too bad most far left radicals are in fact racist.

[km1125]

You can only get what’s on the table. Neither Fogel nor Whelan were on the table.

You don't know that at all. More likely that the Russians knew who they were dealing this and knew that this ADMIN would place a higher value on someone like Griner than anyone else the Russians had to offer.

[km1125]

So far...

You are all campaigning for older white men. Just watching that...

A deadbeat dishonorable Marines might be better in a Russian prison. Great job Monday Morning Quarterbacking our intelligence community. Keep it up.

The entire thing you people miss? Many of these arrests are designed to set up a trade. And don't think the US isn't also playing this game.

Are you saying or implying that BOUT falls into this category?

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You can only get what’s on the table. Neither Fogel nor Whelan were on the table.

You don't know that at all. More likely that the Russians knew who they were dealing this and knew that this ADMIN would place a higher value on someone like Griner than anyone else the Russians had to offer.

I already linked to something explaining it. I’m not gonna play games with you guys.