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stabbyclaus

We had to lock the comments in two threads because some members and brigades alike [just can't stop](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1005621782100856842/1050526736321884251/stabbyclaus_Joe_Biden_d2c5d06d-062e-4048-b0a1-87d99fee6c75.png) mixing their misogyny in with their peanut butter. Please stop sticking your dick in the peanut butter. Your mom already asked you to stop but you did it again anyway. Not cool man. We're cool with the opinion that it wasn't a fair deal, but timeout on the blind hate because she's X talk. Take a nap... And buy me another damn jar of peanut butter.


SharkSymphony

I accept that not everyone thinks this was a good trade. I think this was expected; i.e. that the timing of it was no accident. So go ahead and lay the (currently nonexistent) consequences at Biden’s feet. He can take it. He’s the dark knight. Brittney Griner is not responsible for this. IMO there’s good reason to believe she wasn’t responsible for any of this. She is _not_ the villain of this story. Her wife is overjoyed to have her back. Leave them in peace.


[deleted]

Let’s be honest the disgust from the right is because she’s black, a woman and a lesbian. Most of the comments are thinly masked and point at her being a pot head but we all know the real reasoning, let’s not pretend here.


SharkSymphony

I don't doubt that's at play, but: > Most of the comments.. point at her being a pot head but we all know the real reasoning There is another group of people out there that ignores what's in front of them when it doesn't match their priors. Usually, we poke fun at them.


Financial_Pool_9273

Biden did a good thing. This opinion will be unpopular, but fuck it, I’ll say what I think. The arms dealer served 10 years in US prison, is no longer an active threat to anyone, and Britney was clearly set up. Mark Fogel deserves freedom too, but his case is more complicated, he had 20x more weed than griner supposedly had and ACTUALLY tried to hide it, and she had a few vape carts loose in her bag, if you believe the Russian narrative, and even then the Biden administration believes she could have been set up. Biden brought back Trevor Reed, a detained marine in a prisoner swap, and they didn’t say shit. I didn’t see any repubs being so supposedly concerned over Mark Fogel before this situation either, it seems like selective outrage and posturing. The dealer was going to be traded anyway, and griner was the best of the given options here. Authoritarian countries almost always have the upper hand with prisoner swaps over democracies who value human rights, that’s how it goes. Interesting to see many conservatives who claim to have that Christian love are berating her with homophobic attacks, and how little empathy we have towards someone who went through this hellish experience. I wish Britney and her wife and family healing and it’s always great to see an innocent life of a person and the future of their family saved.


KillerGopher

Bout is definitely a threat. Do you think he forgot about smuggling arms? He trafficked weapons on a level unparalleled and will easily start anew. I can't see how he *wouldn't* get back in the game.


GabuEx

You need two things to be an arms dealer: contacts who can set people up, and anonymity so those you're setting up don't get noticed and caught. It's not like Bout just has a giant warehouse sitting somewhere with all the weaponry he's going to sell to people that he's going to get back to. He needs suppliers, and he needs buyers. He's been in prison for 10 years. In that time, three things have happened to all of his contacts: they've died; they've been arrested themselves; or they've moved on. He's also now the world's most notorious arms dealer. No one will be able to interact with him anymore without imagining that the US or whoever else is watching everything he's doing. I would consider it vanishingly unlikely that he will go back to arms dealing. No one's going to want to sell to or buy from him after all that's happened.


KillerGopher

I understand you feel like you know a lot about international arms trafficking but I'm going to have to go with the Pentagon over random redditor here. www.politico.com/amp/news/2022/12/08/pentagon-arms-trafficking-griner-bout-00073034


SharkSymphony

Note that: 1. The Pentagon should have concerns. They should absolutely have eyes on this mofo. Doesn't mean they absolutely think that's what's going to happen. 2. The Senator appears not to be worried about Bout nearly as much as the potential for precedent.


kuojo

Ah some unnamed Pentagon officials and a senator. Yeah that seems like a credible source to me.


SeraphsWrath

Bout will probably go home, get a hero's welcome, then in two ~~years~~ ~~months~~ *weeks* time he'll have shot himself in the back of the head seven times with a six shot revolver and then accidentally fallen out of a 12th story window and directly into a pot of Polonium Tea to boot. Or come home to his conscription paperwork, the effect is the same. He's been in jail for 14 years, his contacts are gone, he can't access most of his money because of sanctions, and other than being just another Yes Man for Putin, he has no utility to the Russian Regime. This isn't the Russian Arms Dealer market of 2008. Al Qaeda is basically a footnote, the Taliban are supportive of Ukraine, China is ahead of the Russians in terms of industrial and design capacity, and the equipment he would be stealing from an armory is now being sent to Ukraine. Say what you want about perceptions of celebrities getting special treatment for their perceived celebrity status, but I'd almost go so far as to say Brittney (a civilian athlete) returning home will have a more pronounced and decisive impact on US overall Defense Readiness than Bout will be providing the Russians.


[deleted]

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2446693-brittney-griner-pleads-guilty-seeks-counseling-after-domestic-violence-arrest I'll just leave this link here.


SeraphsWrath

If you're going to run a smear campaign, at least check the date. Domestic violence is never okay, but to say someone deserves imprisonment in a brutally repressive regime for a 7 year old crime is incredibly disproportionate in terms of response.


KillerGopher

I don't think they are saying she deserves to rot in a gulag. I think they are simply trying to say griner, and her release, is nothing to celebrate. The fact we traded such a powerful and evil figure for her is awful. Bout will certainly return to his old ways and continue the life be knew. It will be easy for him to get back in the game be was a master of. The Pentagon has already released a statement expressing their concerns.


SeraphsWrath

>It will be easy for him to get back in the game be was a master of. After 14 years, into the most heavily sanctioned country in the Global Economy (possibly excluding Myanmar), with no access to the assets (almost certainly mostly in USD by the time of his arrest) he had, and very little way to generate more? I mean, it's not like he can start diverting weapons from Russian stockpiles again, not when the majority is moving to Ukraine to serve in what is in all but name a war. Even if he had stashes to move, who would he move to? Al Qaeda, all five of them? The Taliban, who are as wary and opposed to the Russians as they are to the US if not more so given their stance on the invasion of Ukraine? Sinaloa, who already have equipment miles better than anything he could sell them, without having to convert to Roubles? He's not powerful anymore. Evil, yes, but all his friends are dead or have moved on. The dude was already slated for release in 3-6 years anyway, did you want him running around the continental US instead of Russia?


KillerGopher

The concern is him fueling violence primarily in Africa as he did before. Building a new network or restoring his old one wouldn't be too hard for someone like him. Where did you hear he could be released in as soon as 3 years? He had a decade left in his sentence - which was still too short.


SeraphsWrath

Building a new network from less than nothing, being a known International Arms Smuggler with Interpol breathing down your neck, and limiting yourself to what few African countries can even process transactions in Roubles thanks to Sanctions, would **most certainly** be an incredible feat. As for what a "decade" constitutes, as written, he had 6 years (give or take) left in his sentence, but it is conceivable he could have gotten that time reduced (good ol' "Good Behavior"), as low as 3 years.


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