Brittney Griner Freed

[GentlemanJim]

Okay so they freed a dangerous criminal in exchange for a drug offender, all the while we continue to jail drug offenders inside our own borders.

Seems skewed and pointless except as a token of appreciation for select special interests groups.

[Wawwie]

Originally Posted by GentlemanJim

Okay so they freed a dangerous criminal in exchange for a drug offender, all the while we continue to jail drug offenders inside our own borders.

Seems skewed and pointless except as a token of appreciation for select special interests groups.

What is is that she was imprisoned in the first place. The woman had a teeny tiny amount of cannabis oil on her. At most, she should have been fined. Brittany Griner is no dangerous criminal like the one who was swapped. Seems to me like Russia was looking for any excuse to imprison an American.

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by Wawwie

What is is that she was imprisoned in the first place. .

I can't agree with you there Wawwie. Sovereign nations are entitled to set their own rules inside their own borders....and our "approval" should never be a factor. Anymore than China has a right to dictate what laws we enact here.

And I'm not really "anti drug". I smoked the stuff for 30 years...But whenever I ran afoul of authority, I took the prescribed penalty.....like a man.

What I really have a problem with over this, is there are so many people inside our own prisons over drug related infractions, so IMO it's majorly hypocritical for us to vilify Russia for policy we ourselves are not exactly straight on.

And that we released a dangerous criminal just to rescue little Ms Poorjudgement, is a crime against whoever that guy victimizes next.

Hey, they sell weed right over the state line from me in Michigan. Would it be appropriate for me to go there, buy my allotted maximum, bring it back to Indiana, and then insist the laws are to blame if I get arrested?....after all, it was no crime when I bought it. How could I possible be held to archaic standards?

I think you know the correct answer there. As do I.

Can't pay the time, then don't do the crime. But if you do, and you get caught, then take responsibility.

I'm sick to death of all these people blaming society for their own indiscretions.

Man-up fer chrisakes!!

[Babalu]

The US should have insisted that Paul Whelan, an America hero be released. Instead the went for the woke drug addict because she(?) checked all the PC boxes.

I don't even want her(?) back.

**** Joe Biden.

[PhoenixAcres]

Please keep discussion as apolitical as possible.

[Babalu]

Originally Posted by PhoenixAcres

Please keep discussion as apolitical as possible.

I did.

[GentlemanJim]

I think it is a stain on the entire USA that one of our team-sports athletes would smuggle illicit drugs into a foreign nation, especially under the auspices of being "one of our finest".

So much for the concept of "best foot forward"

When Putin cites the imperative of curtailing western decadence, aren't issues such as this just air beneath his wings?

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by Babalu

went for the woke drug addict because she(?) checked all the PC boxes.
.

Gotta tread careful, but I hear you, and suspect you have a point. If it was me over there in the hoosegow, I have little doubt they would just let me rot...especially since that's exactly what they thought I needed when it happened here. "Opportunity to re-evaluate my priorities" I believe they called it.

[Wawwie]

Originally Posted by GentlemanJim

I think it is a stain on the entire USA that one of our team-sports athletes would smuggle illicit drugs into a foreign nation, especially under the auspices of being "one of our finest".

You're belly-aching like she was cooking meth or something along those lines. It was a miniscule amount of canabis oil, unlike the dozens of professional athletes who have been busted for steroids....(no jail time) but you call Brittney Griner a "stain on the entire USA."

[GentlemanJim]

Smuggling illicit substances into a country one is not resident, is not excusable under any stretch. Other countries have an inherent right to protect their children from noxious elements.

[GentlemanJim]

Don't you find it just a little bit suspicious that we always insist that our nationals are "illegally detained" when imprisoned abroad?
Illegal by who's law? Evidently by our laws insisting we are always of a noble cause? Matter of perspective.

[Yong Fang]

I have mixed feelings about this. First, it was BS for her to get nine years in prison for a gram of THC. Basically, that’s a joint (although this was oil in a “vape”). I mean, NINE YEARS? This is in a country where millions die from alcoholism. Alcohol is much more dangerous and addictive as marijuana. I never understood the hate and illegality towards marijuana. Alcohol and marijuana have been around for thousands of years and booze is accepted but marijuana is a crime?

But people online are angry because she was traded for basically an arms dealing gangster. Plus there is a man named Paul Whalen who is an American in prison in Russia for something the Russians consider espionage. The detractors are all going on about Whalen being a Marine Corps veteran while Griner “hates America” and kneels and kneels at basketball games.

Another thing at play is that Griner is a lesbian. Homosexuals and sexual outliers run the government, the media and corporations, so something had to be done about this. If I was the President, I would try channels to get her free, but I am not going to trade a dangerous prisoner for her. No way. I wouldn’t swap for Whalen either. But in the end, Griner comes home (to millions as the sexual outliers will make her a hero to the masses) and Whalen sits in a freezing cell eating cold cabbage soup.

I know if it was me in Russia for nine years after being busted for a tiny bit of marijuana, I wouldn’t be rescued. No gangster would be traded for me. I am a white man of normal sexuality. If this was a normal minded white person and especially a white male, nothing would be done (like Whalen). But Griner and “her wife” will be on every news and talk show from now until next summer.

[Wawwie]

Originally Posted by Yong Fang

I am a white man of normal sexuality. If this was a normal minded white person and especially a white male, nothing would be done (like Whalen). But Griner and “her wife” will be on every news and talk show from now until next summer.

[GentlemanJim]

You're right Wawwie, I shouldn't always be such a "glass is half empty" sort of person. I can do better than that.

Now that Ms Griner has been rescued from Ivan the Terrible, there is ample opportunity to deal with her indiscretions on more familiar terms.

For one, I believe the league that regulates her performances has a fiduciary responsibility to the public to sanction her poor judgement. Afterall, impressionable youth look up to accomplished athletes as their role models, so it is imperative that we not frame her as a martyr. This is a teaching opportunity that we absolutely must not squander.

I don't propose that they necessarily have to go "Pete Rose" on her. But there certainly is ample precedent for dealing with doping in organized sports. Perhaps an A-Rod type suspension, with mandatory public appearances where she might convey an "epiphany" type realization of how she had been on the wrong track, might suffice?

Clearly what they don't want to risk is putting her back in circulation without reprimand where an alert police officer in a less tolerant jurisdiction of her road performances obtains a warrant, searches her room, and repeats the humiliation.

Perhaps accepting her resignation, and letting her get on with what I'm sure would be a rewarding second career as a motivational speaker, is in the cards? I'm confident there must be a book deal lurking in there too.

[GentlemanJim]

I'm sure that I've mentioned this before, but back in the early 1980's I dated a gal from Poland who opened my eyes to just how extensively "propaganda" from our own western news sources, colors our perceptions.

For one, the notion of the "iron curtain" being all prison walls and machine gun turrets, is primarily a western invention. Inside the envelope, their view is pretty much one that the iron curtain serves a prophylactic value in filtering out undesirable vectors.

Perspective is key...not everything we brand as "freedom" has universal appeal. And I believe that is a failing of the west, our insistence that everyone must necessarily want what we want.