“The ‘Merchant of Death’ Victor Bout, is one of the most dangerous men on the face of the earth.”…@60Minutes
Yet we traded him for an American-hating, third rate, basketball player. pic.twitter.com/UeQKGg0tQR— Farm Girl Carrie 👩🌾 🌽 (@FarmGirlCarrie) December 8, 2022
News that I missed, courtesy of The Babylon Bee:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to negative backlash over a poorly negotiated prison exchange with Russia, President Biden has begun reading The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump.
“I vow to do better,” Biden told the family of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who is still stuck in a Russian prison. “That’s why I picked up this great book from the library.”
“I mean look at this guy. He looks like he makes deals every day!” said Biden, holding the book up proudly. “I promise you I’m going to be just like him. A real go-getter!”
Whelan’s family initially expressed disappointment when American authorities first traded notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, also known as “The Merchant of Death,” for WNBA athlete Brittney Griner, but are now hopeful that a deal can be made. “If anyone can bring Paul home it’s Donald Trump,” said Paul’s twin brother David.
Biden has committed to finishing the book before reopening negotiations with the Russian government, say officials close to the president. The president is reportedly staying up as late as 6 PM to squeeze in some reading time.
“I’m going to be the master of the art of the deal, Jack!” Biden told CBS’ Margaret Brennan. “No one will want to play Monopoly with me after I’m done with this book! Not a joke.”
According to sources, Biden has been honing his new skills by trading Pokémon cards with kids outside the White House. “I traded a Flareon holo card for three Magikarps,” Biden confirmed. “I’m doing it! I’m making deals!”
Go here to read the rest.
Even more emblematic, the Biden crime family’s handlers would choose a to invite to the White House Christmas party an over-the-top drag queen and deny admittance to a Sisters of Charity nun.
Here’s hoping Viktor Bout release is not a strategic release for Russia so they can utilise his “expertise” against Ukraine? The prisoner exchange has just exemplified how weak the current US administration is- I’ll swap you the worlds most notorious arms dealer for 1 x lesbian basketball player and 1 gram of hash oil.
Does anyone expect anything else from this idiot infested administration? The Whelan case has received far less attention than the “basketball player”.
[…] HuffPost Serious Answers to ‘Why the Far Right is Fixated on Drag Queens’ – Jennifer Fitz Like Taking Candy From a Dementia Patient – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American […]
I have no expertise in such matters but I worry that paying off one’s enemies encourages them to misbehave. The Obama Administration did so with Iran and the Biden Administration is doing so with this Griner nonsense.
Besides, Griner broke Russian law. There are consequences to smuggling and I’m not sure it’s good policy to intervene in other than the most ourtrageous cases. Sure, outliers like death penalty for homosexual conduct begs intervention but she smuggled drugs. It feels more like that kid who was threatened with caning in Singapore back during the Clinton Administration. There, he vandalized things and we went to bat for him, on the theory that caning was cruel and unusual punishment. I was just in my twenties back then and I had no sympathy. Heck, I still think that public caning… Public humiliation more generally, is good policy. It’s just hard to get “street cred” when everyone has seen your naked bum being caned, you crying like a little child. Griner bought and paid for her sentence by smuggling drugs into a country with strict laws and with a reputation for brutally enforcing them against foreigners, especially Americans. Perhaps she wasn’t spanked enough as a child.
It feels more like that kid who was threatened with caning in Singapore back during the Clinton Administration.
He was a sometime Singapore resident who received a punishment apposite to his crime. Griner was given a multiyear sentence in a penal colony for possession of < 1 gm of hashish. You would never assume with an amount like that that she was planning to sell it to anyone and it’s easy to imagine she’d thrown it in a kit on a previous trip and tossed the kit in her luggage without checking what was in it. She was a hostage.
That may be a fair distinction, Art Deco. I don’t want to pivot to whether or not the trade was a good one. Instead, I want to ask if you think that visitors to a nation have to take that country’s laws as they are. I don’t think it’s a good thing to require that women wear a head covering but it seems to me that visitors to a nation where that is the law are bound to obey the law. If one cannot, don’t go. I’m not sure where the line is here. As stated above, I recognize that putting someone to death because they have sex cannot be just but drug smuggling, even if the sentence be far more than the U.S. would give, probably is. For the most part, I think foreigners have to take the laws of the country they are visiting as they are because they aren’t part of that nation’s democracy. Stated differently, they aren’t part of the polity and, so, don’t get a say. It’s fundamentally different from protesting unjust laws in one’s own country; or, so it seems to me.
I want to ask if you think that visitors to a nation have to take that country’s laws as they are.
If I’m to believe the newspapers, possession of fewer than 6 gm is usually treated as a minor crime.
And then there’s the question of how familiar she can reasonably be expected to be with the Russian penal code. What she was accused of is a petty vice crime anywhere you’re likely to travel.
I don’t think it’s a good thing to require that women wear a head covering but it seems to me that visitors to a nation where that is the law are bound to obey the law.
That’s a signature feature of life in certain parts of the world and I’ll wager you there are specific advisories issued by the consular service on the question. You’d also notice on your way there in the aeroplane a great many women wearing head scarves.
I agree. Too bad, you have to respect the law of the country you are travelling to. Regardless how “petty” the law is, that is the law. I also agree, if you don’t like their laws then don’t travel there. It’s quite straightforward. And accidentally something illegal in your hand luggage is on you.
Case in point- I won’t be visiting Saudi Arabia in this lifetime because I enjoy the wind in my hair, colourful clothes, singlets and flip flops (being an Aussie I live in them). I also appreciate the presence of Churches every few suburbs and the ability to openly and freely visit them and do The Sign of the Cross inside of them and outside of them. I’m sure my preferences will be breaking their law, hence no trips to Riyadh for me.
agree. Too bad, you have to respect the law of the country you are travelling to. Regardless how “petty” the law is, that is the law. I also agree, if you don’t like their laws then don’t travel there. It’s quite straightforward. And accidentally something illegal in your hand luggage is on you.
I’ll let Mr. and Mrs. Wambier know.
Add North Korea to the list. Otto Warmbier’s death is horrible.
It doesn’t change the fact that if you travel to a foreign country, you are at the mercy of their laws and justice. Whatever that may look like.