Russia gets an arms dealer, US gets a female basketball player; leaves veteran Marine behind

The Biden administration prisoner exchange is a clear example of how incompetent and immoral they are after exchanging Viktor Bout, a Russian citizen also known as the "Merchant of Death" for a WNBA basketball player Britney Griner while leaving US Marine Corps veteran Paul Whelan to languish in a Russian prison. 

Griner actually committed a Russian crime by bringing marijuana into the country, while Whelan was railroaded by being falsely accused of spying. He has been in prison since 2018 and was sentenced to 16 years, while Griner has been in custody since this past February after the pot was found in her luggage.

US policy in prisoner exchanges is to free the longest incarcerated American and I did the math: 

Whelan was detained in December 2018 and Griner in February 2022. Thus, December + 2019 + 2020 + 2021 + 11/12 of 2022 > February 2022 + 10 of 2022. 

Conclusion: Whelan has been in a Russian prison a lot freaking longer than Britney Griner, but Whelan キ gay, black, female, basketball player. Thus, Griner gets the break while Whelan gets the shaft.

Biden's handlers initially tried to get both Griner and Whelan released in exchange for a very dangerous person responsible for the deaths of many thousands of victims, but couldn't convince Putin's people to do a 2-for-1.

Bout was convicted in 2011 of a conspiracy to kill Americans and was given a 15 year sentence.

Viktor Bout

So, based upon Whelan's white supremacy, the Russians freed Griner and Whelan can whistle as far as Biden  is concerned.

Nevertheless, Whelan's brother, David Whelan, congratulated Griner on her release in a Thursday statement.

"There is no greater success than for a wrongful detainee to be freed and for them to go home. The Biden Administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home, and to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn't going to happen," he wrote.

His statement also noted that the Biden administration notified the Whelan family that Paul would be left behind in the exchange. 

David's statement pointed out that it was the second time the Biden administration had left Paul behind in a prisoner exchange, with the last instance coming in April, proving to many Americans that Biden's priorities have nothing to do with ethics or morals, just like decisions he makes on a daily basis.

"How do you continue to survive, day after day, when you know that your government has failed twice to free you from a foreign prison?" David added.

Biden mumbled and it sounded as if he said Griner will be back in the United States on Friday.

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As Brittney Griner languishes in Russian prison, her anti-National Anthem Comments live on

WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner said the national anthem should not be payed before WNBA games because it somehow offended her. She swore to protest if it was played. “I honestly feel we should not play the National Anthem during our season,” she told AZ Central in 2020. “I think we should take that much of a stand.”

“I don’t mean that in any disrespect to our country,” she said. “My dad was in Vietnam and a law officer for 30 years. I wanted to be a cop before basketball. I do have pride for my country.” Just not in our National Anthem/

“I’m going to protest regardless,” Griner added, long before her arrest. “I’m not going to be out there for the National Anthem. If the league continues to want to play it, that’s fine. It will be all season long, I’ll not be out there. I feel like more are going to probably do the same thing. I can only speak for myself.”

And so she and her teammates took a knee when the Star Spangled Banner was played .

You know what--Griner probably doesn't hate the United States. She's just another mindless sheep with her head up the butt of the sheep in front of her in the herd. And that sheep whose butt is being followed by Griner has her head up the butt of Colin Kaepernick, the premier detractor of the greatest nation on earth.

Griner was sentenced this month to nine and a half years in a Russian prison for possession of cannabis oil. She knew the Russian laws about drugs--it wasn't as if she hadn't been there before.

Her comments about the anthem resurfaced online after sentencing.

Tomi Lahren, a political commentator, mocked Griner: 

On the bright side, B Griner won’t have to endure our National Anthem for 9 whole years! What a win for her!

Sure, it was kind of a cruel thing to say, but you can understand how her previous behavior can anger conservatives and people such as Tomi Lahren who call themselves conservative but are pro-abortion. 

Fellow Phoenix Mercury player Brianna Turner, who also disrespects the American flag and the National Anthem, on August 4, the day Griner was sentenced, defended Griner.

“I would love to individually respond and annihilate every negative viewpoint I receive but that would be a waste of my time,” Turner posted online. “At the end of the day many people lack compassion & critical thinking skills and it’s not my responsibility to teach that. Respectfully, get a life trolls.”

One has to respect Turner's loyalty to her teammate. But it isn't a lack of compassion for Griner that her detractors are showing: it's their respect for the country and how the view Griner's past behavior along with that of Turner's, who, in responding to the anti-Griner messages added in her post,  "I know many Americans lack compassion due to all the chaos … that happens regularly in our country.” She couldn't help but get in a ding to the nation.

Before Griner was sentenced, the 6-foot, 9-inch WNBA star told the court she never meant to break any laws and made an “honest mistake.”

Really? She didn't know the laws of Russia? She simply took it for granted they would allow medical marijuana into their country without checking?

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On the other hand, nobody deserves to serve nine years in prison for what she did. But on the other hand, why are we thinking about handing over Viktor Bout, a known terrorist in her place along with one other American, former Marine, Paul Whelan, when it's clear that more lives will be endangered, possibly killed, if we hand Bout over.

I hope Griner and Whelan are freed, but I don't think it should be with this deal when one uses "critical thinking," as Brianna Turner says we lack.

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Putin sends our US Marine to a Soviet-style gulag

Trevor Reed, who served in a US Marine security detail assigned to protect then-president Barack Obama, was moved to a Soviet-style gulag to likely serve out the rest of his 9-year sentence. This penal colony is about 217 miles from Moscow. Reed has already been imprisoned in Russia for over a year in several different prisons.

The American embassy and Reed's family say Russia subjected the Marine veteran to brutal conditions and denied him medical treatment. He was also limited to access to diplomatic services. 

In March, Russia moved Reed to a maximum-security facility in Moscow without notifying American diplomats, in violation of international treaty law. In response to discovering this factoid, President Biden ate a chocolate chip ice cream cone with variegated sprinkles.

A Russian human rights organization said Friday that Reed was transferred from his small cell in Moscow to Mordovia, a region with penal colonies for political prisoners. He will join fellow Marine veteran and American citizen Paul Whelan in the region. Whelan was arrested on espionage charges in 2018 and moved to a penal colony in August 2020. He too has complained of abuse and mistreatment from Russian authorities.

Republican lawmakers have called for Reed's release for months, with House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Reed's congressman, August Pfluger (R-TX), leading the efforts. 

With more than seven months in office, the impotent Biden-Harris-Obama-Jarrett-Sanders-AOC administration has secured the release of merely one hostage abroad, while over 50 Americans remain detained. One theory is that those still in prison are GOP voters, like the Cuban protesters, and thus the White House sees them as white supremacists who should receive no federal assistance to help them.

A resolution pressuring the Biden administration to bring Reed home passed the House in June and awaits a vote in the Senate. President Biden first raised Reed and Whelan's status in his June summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Biden has given no public update since then, likely having forgotten. In June, dictator scumcrumpet Putin called Reed a "drunk" and said he needs more time to consider a prisoner swap.

Reed's transfer comes days after Biden climate envoy John "The Ketchup Gigolo" Kerry met with fellow communist and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to advance cooperation on climate change policy. Lavrov defended the Putin regime's human rights violations and has acted as the State Department's primary point of contact for discussing Trevor Reed, never mind the other Americans in prison there.

One thing you have to say about Joe Biden is that he continues his perfect record of being wrong on every foreign policy decision he has ever made in his nearly half century in politics.

And when it comes to Russia, Biden talks softly and carries a chapstick.

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