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Brittney Griner exchanged

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by bwilson4web, Dec 8, 2022.

  1. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    The Russian, Viktor Bout, is going to Russia that has and is burning up the arms he used to sell. The economy is going down with Soviet era shortages. He fits the profile of a Russian general who should go to Ukraine where the Ukrainians are skilled at reforming Russian generals.

    A former Marine, the other USA hostage can deal with it better than the giant Britney who was being tortured by Russian pigmies. For example, in boot camp I had a pair of boots too small and they hurt like h*ll.

    So I would offer Ukraine some long range weapons for a USA hostage rescued by a Ukrainian prisoner swap. There is a fair chance he would join the volunteers fighting the Russians … get some payback. Heck, he could deliver the long range weapons.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #41 bwilson4web, Dec 11, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2022
  2. John321

    John321 Senior Member

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    #42 John321, Dec 11, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2022
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i'm not qualified to decide if this was a 'good' exchange or not, and i don't trust the lying politicians to tell us the truth.
    but i'm happy for her, her family, and friends
     
    #43 bisco, Dec 11, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2022
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  4. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Of course Putin's TV mocks the U.S. on this, and on every topic it can. It is a job requirement, part of their military-political foreign strategy, and part of how they gaslight and control their own citizens.

    I put even less stock in their TV boasts than I put into congenitally lying U.S. politicians' claims.
     
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  5. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    Trump left the Afghan burning bag of poop on the White House steps. He negotiated the withdraw leaving Biden who got 120,000 out when only 50,000 were expected.

    At least we are out of that mess and the Afghans have only themselves for their future. Putin should take notes.

    Who wants to go back in?

    Bob Wilson
     
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  6. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Back when they were on our side we used to offer the Mojahed a "missiles for trophies" swap, famously field-testing the FIM-92 'Stinger' missile system, still in use today.
    I don't have any problem kicking over a few trippe A batteries but I'd be a little careful about using this little proxy fight as a way of teaching Rooskie frontal aviation HOW to fight against something the a Patriot battery or an Aegis Ashore system..
    It's one thing to have Congress critters donating bucks for the Ukies in the form of buying US new missiles and shipping out the ones that we've had sitting on shelves - but it's quite another to set up a Dubbaya Dubbaya 3 Total War Simulator in a laboratory the size of Texas.

    Maybe sell the Ukies a few launchers and missiles and the export model sensors and tell them they can have replacement missiles on the 'installment plan'

    You Install the missiles you HAVE up the tailpipe of some Migs and show us some wreckage?
    We'll "sell" you some reloads.

    JUST as long as you understand that whatever we 'sell' the Ukies will wind up over in Mother Russia. one way or the other......
     
  7. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Easy to say when you've never worked with any interpreters or contractors....and if somebody leaves you a burning bag of poop on the front steps, and scatalogical experts tell you that stomping on the burning poop bag is a REALLY REALLY dumb thing to do, and you ignore them and stomp on it anyway WHO EXACTLY is the real moron?
     
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  8. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    We repatriation continues even after screwed up the agencies that handle it. Not as easy before and risk to life, we’ve done what we can and the ones still there have to escape on their own.

    Is anyone volunteering to send our troops and civil servants in?

    I thought not.

    Bob Wilson
     
  9. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    The one who pooped in the bag and set it on fire. But I don’t remember anyone posting we should stay. Are you posting a desire to return?

    I’m just glad we’re out!

    I’m old enough to remember those leaving Saigon.

    Bob Wilson
     
  10. Michael Wood

    Michael Wood Active Member

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    Going thru customs at an international airport border checkpoint within a county hostile to your own, with any type of street drug, even with a prescription, is a mindbogglingly stupid mistake. Pot is still a street drug in much of the world. She would have been ok if she hadn't poked the bear.
     
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  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    they could just as easily have planted it, doesn't really matter.
     
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  12. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

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    First, I don’’t believe what she head qualifies as a street drug. However, I agree that extra cautionary steps are required.
    I disagree strongly that “she would have been ok if…”.
    From what I have seen, she was targeted. Russia was going to have her under arrest regardless.
     
  13. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Why not?

    Remember that we are talking about Russia (or Singapore or Indonesia or just about anyplace in the Middle East, or ...), not U.S. states that have legalized it, or U.S. agencies that have functionally decriminalized it. Heck, even Idaho jailed a truck driver hauling CBD oil between legalized states just a very few years ago.

    Some of the wider world's prohibitions were even driven U.S. foreign policy.
    I believe they likely didn't targeted her specifically. It seems far more likely that they were on the prowl, very closely examining many or most Americans (or even Westerners fairly widely) entering, knowing from statistical experience that they are likely to find someone, or several, that they can arrest under zero-tolerance policies without having to fake anything.
     
    #53 fuzzy1, Dec 11, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2022
  14. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Is this another incidence? The story I remember is with the shipment of hemp.
    https://norrismclaughlin.com/blogs/lg/category/trucker-arrested-for-industrial-hemp-transportation-demonstrates-legal-implications-for-the-future-of-cannabis-enforcement-and-testing
    "The officer ended up testing the shipment for THC, which returned a positive result. K-9 dogs also positively responded to the cargo. According to the company who purchased the hemp, the plants were all tested at the farm from which they were purchased and contained approximately 0.043% THC, which would legally qualify the plant as industrial hemp under the 2018 Farm Bill.
    ...
    The Idaho State Police has taken the position that any product containing any amount of THC is illegal to possess, even if it qualifies as industrial hemp under federal law."
    Sounds like Idaho is following Monsanto's playbook.

    Couldn't find a clear source on hemp's legality in Russia. Seems like some are blurring marijuana and hemp laws. One company has been growing hemp in the country since 2017 though. Russian hemp producer sees rising demand boosting IPO plan | Reuters
     
  15. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    That is probably the same incident, though I don't see a date. Hemp destined for CBD production, meets a trooper and drug sniffing dog trained to find THC, in a state where any THC is illegal (at least then), and driver is arrested, jailed, and charged.

    These articles refer to 2 cases covering 3 drivers, in April 2018 and January 2019:

    Truck driver accused of trafficking marijuana in Idaho pleads guilty to lesser charges | KBOI
    Truck drivers sentenced for transporting hemp through Idaho | ktvb.com
    https://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article235506842.html

    It appears that Idaho adopted a new hemp plan late last year. According to an official FAQ, the incoming raw hemp can have up to 0.3% THC, but regardless of the federal 2018 Farm Bill, the state still limits the processed output products to 0.0% THC.

    https://agri.idaho.gov/main/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/News-release_State-Hemp-Plan_Nov-2021.pdf
    https://agri.idaho.gov/main/hemp/frequently-asked-questions/
     
  16. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Maybe seems odd that Griner was going to Russia 2022 Feb, when winds of war were rising. She went there to play basketball in some Russian league, as done years before, for financial reasons. In retrospect, and in luggage spect, it was a bad play.

    We can discuss until whenever that she was especially targeted in this entrance. I understand she had done similar before, for same reasons, and maybe carrying similar goodies, and not detained. But Russia 2022 Feb difference was not noted by her or by anyone up her advice chain. So, things happened, and Griner and Bout were both repatriated oppositely.

    In 2023, I expect that no US W Bball players will seek extra cash in Russian league. Game over. Anyone notable could get their luggage stuffed with illegality, and stimulate later swaps, further down the swap list.

    One way to view this is that US W pro bball players are inadequately paid. Or maybe, they are as a group too uppity; imagining that they ought to receive 1/10 (or 1/3? I really don't know the differential) of male pay.

    In this particular case, Griner will be in hot spotlight as long as she chooses to play ball in the bigs. In any case I wish her well.
     
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  17. ETC(SS)

    ETC(SS) The OTHER One Percenter.....

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    Hashish is a "street" drug. CBD oil isn't.
    There might be some flavors in between.....maybe even some that are all the way 'legal' instead of just not ILLegal in some US states.
    Currently, cannabis/marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it defined as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” This is the same designation given to LSD, heroin and ecstasy.
    If you think that's a distinction without a difference, then substitute the word 'abortion' or 'suppressor' (or vaccine) and tell Siri to recalculate your destination.... ;)

    If you think that dot.gov ought to leave this as a 'states rights' sort of thing?

    Welcome to the fight! :)

    Neither Griner nor her attorney has made any allegation of luggage gardening by the Rooskies, and she has a doctor's note for whatever it was that she had in her bag....So it's fairly logical to presume that it wasn't CBD and since cannabis/marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I drug, she was moronic to have had it in her bag, ESPECIALLY when traveling to a nation who we're engaged in a proxy war with.

    She was....
    High Profile US traveller.
    That's sorta why you don't DO the FIRST swap so lopsidedly, if you're smart.... ;)

    As do I.
     
    #57 ETC(SS), Dec 12, 2022
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2022
  18. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

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    yee nimrod and conelrad of ole' if only they were still classified and not so antiquated and repurposed in history. got historically accurate colossus
     
  19. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Have any of Russian detainees claimed that their luggage was stuffed? Neither Griner or Fogel make this claim, and I don't recall others doing so.
    That is true of nearly all pro sports, except maybe tennis.

    Another view, not necessarily in any conflict with the above, is that M pro sports players are seriously overpaid. There are many of us who don't like paying for massive public funding or tax subsidies for Billion dollar palaces so that highly profitable privately owned businesses can pay their celebrity employees 7- and 8-figure salaries. With that kind of money, they should be paying for their palaces out of their own damn pockets, as other commercial enterprises do.

    I believe the current differential is somewhat closer to 1/100th of male players.

    I also wish her well.

    But I can't say the same for others stateside who falsely, ignorantly, or gratuitously played the racism and sexism cards on her behalf, seriously detracting from the very many other cases where those cards are quite real and justified.
     
  20. Michael Wood

    Michael Wood Active Member

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    I know several adult men and women who won't travel because they're flat out addicted to weed. They are psychologically dependent on marijuana and can't enjoy anything in life without getting high. And the denial you'll hear from people who feel that their addiction has been validated by recent legality is enlightening. Ask any weed dealer and they'll tell you...that's what happened to Brittney Griner. And it's a terrible place to be.