Steve Kelley for December 11, 2022

SKelley would have preferred trading for a disgraced Ex-Marine with a BCD.

All of them hate America!

No doubt Bout is a bad dude. Meanwhile, a $761.681 BILLION Defense appropriation was passed by the House for ONE year. Maybe a bit of self-reflection is in order?

He’s going to be getting back to work? Doing what? Selling surplus Soviet military equipment to other countries like he used to? They don’t HAVE any surplus military equipment anymore. They’re using it all up against Ukrainian forces.

AND all his business contacts are 14 years out of date. For black market weapons dealers that’s a couple of lifetimes.

Well, now, she’ll find it easier getting back to playing on the courts than he will vending weapons. Her game hasn’t changed much in a year, but his arms business has.

You would rather she rot in a Russian gulag.

And likewise the five Al-Qaida field commanders who were traded for the worthless life of Bradley Manning.

It is still a shock Republicans so proudly hate the fact President Biden was able to bring Brittney Griner home. For them, it’s all hate, all the time.

Kelley looks at “2 + 2” and can’t come up with “4” as the answer…

Paul Whelan brother nails the Trump administration as being ‘not interested’ in negotiating for detainees

During an appearance on MSNBC on Saturday morning, the brother of Paul Whelan who is still sitting in a Russian prison after WNBA star Brittney Griner was repatriated back to the U.S. claimed there was “no interest” within Donald Trump’s administration in engaging in negotiations for the return of detainees. Speaking with host Zinhle Essamuah, David Whelan said he is making much more headway with President Joe Biden when it comes to getting his brother freed after being convicted and imprisoned in Russia 2018.

Just the latest Biden blunder.

She should have been left in Russia….

Viktor Bout evidently traded in armament. Bet a doughnut there are American salesmen (and politicians) selling the latest American armament to the highest bidder as well.

Republicans: Why isn’t the Biden administration doing everything possible to bring Brittney back?

Also Republicans: Why did the Biden administration do everything possible to bring Brittney back?

I’m glad she’s free. I don’t follow or care about basketball; nor her color; nor with whom she sleeps. As a side note and warning: there are places in this world where cannabis and it’s byproducts are illegal for any purpose; get caught with any there and you may indeed face a jail sentence. There are also places in this world where same sex marriage is not only not allowed, it’s condemned; crying from your jail cell about how you miss your same sex spouse won’t get you any sympathy in such places.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Bout%E2%80%93Brittney_Griner_prisoner_exchange

Held 8 months on bogus charges, held 12 years on real charges. Granted his 12 years was a cake walk compared to BG’s, but it was still 12 years. It’s not like he’s going to be able to operate as he once did. That is without being arrested and charged in another country.

Then again, BG will be limited to being underpaid in USA Women’s basketball, as any trip near Russia for games would be out of the question for her. So, time for women’s basketball to step up as Soccer did for the women and start paying them what they are really worth.

Next time we won’t incarcerate the merchant. We’ll just blow his a$$ up.

And the Marine was left behind because that’s just how Democrats roll. They have NOT mastered the art of the deal. Remember Obama trading several top Taliban commanders for a deserter? If I hated America and the American people that is exactly what I would do.

A Libyan man suspected of making the bomb that blew up a passenger plane over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988, is in American custody, authorities the U.S. and Scotland said Sunday.Biden immediately contacted Libia to trade for a plate of Ghoribas (Libyan cookies).

Here’s the thing. Viktor Bout was already halfway through his sentence. The US got all the information from him they were going to get. They disrupted his “business” sufficiently to make it quite hard for him to get back into business. AND his usefulness as an exchange was not going to last much longer. He had to be traded eventually if he was to do us any good. The Russians made it clear that they would not trade for Whelan, so that left Griner. Considering how extremely in danger she was — because she is black, a woman, and gay — in a Russian prison, it made sense to get her out of there before they killed her. Her “offense” was one the Russians had ignored for years and only decided to arrest her because she was a convenient pawn at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. I have no problem with getting her back. That’s what our government is supposed to do.

Reminds me when we traded a deserter for some top Taliban commanders. Typical Democrats.

The various right-wing pundits who criticize the Griner-for-Bout swap seem to think that President Biden has abandoned our other victims of Putin’s kidnapping enterprise, especially Paul Whelan. He has not, but was faced with an intransigent Russian kleptocracy that bluntly told him the only way to free Britney Griner was to return Bout — Whelan’s release was not negotiable. Those who disapprove of the swap, even under these unfortunate circumstances, seem to believe that the life of a middle-aged white male is more valuable than that of a younger black, gay female athlete.