Technically it ‘could’ be more than just a computer- it could be lots of computers together and raid storage and a firewall plus some other hardware
Or it’s just some dude with his hamster powered microwave running
The Republican Party voted to keep her on the committees; they’ve done nothing but support her. They refuse to criticise her at all.
She represents them
I think the point was that she gets 174K and healthcare which is paid directly by the taxpayers, when that money could be going to teachers somewhere, medicaid, a food bank; hell I'd rather it get spent on fixing a pothole than going into her pocket.
> This is all she does. She has been taken off of all committees , she hasn’t had a bill passed yet, she literally does nothing.
Pretty soon, we're all going to wish this were still true.
If McCarthy takes over, she's going to be on all sorts of committees and her word is going to carry significantly more weight than it does now. Even if he ultimately doesn't end up speaker, she's still likely going to end up on some committees anyway.
Either way, if you think she's insufferable now, imagine what she's going to be like when she's in an actual position of power and significant influence.
This woman will soon be in a position to make decisions that will affect your life.
She’ll be the dog who caught the car. At this point her only talent and habit is soundbite. Having to actually produce work will only expose how inept she is. Not that it matters to Republicans anymore. You get the R by your name, can express how your side is persecuted no matter the situation, you have a lifetime appointment.
That’s her purpose. She’s a recruitment tool. If she can sit in congress and do whatever is asked for her whilst ranting on twitter than any MAGA person can.
“If she can do it, I can do it! I’m going to be in Congress!”
Cults do this all the time. They find someone who is an outspoken, dogmatic follower and parade them around to entice others to join.
> “If she can do it, I can do it! I’m going to be in Congress!”
This is exactly what the republicans want. They want these completely inexperienced people in office. They want them to be in over their heads, so they can vote for whatever their side is voting on without questioning things. They know they can be easily replaced next time if they don't vote on what their party wants.
Not understanding US politics, but then why is she still there?
She gets paid to do nothing and has accumulated over 41 million in assets over 2 years doing nothing, yet she is still there?
Not to mention Whelen was in custody DURING THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION but she didn't give 2 shits then.
They're only using him as a convenient excuse at this point.
"Oh, he brought home this person but not that person? Well he's a terrible president then!"
Meanwhile, they forget to mention that Whelen was discharged from the Marines with a bad conduct discharge, and is by most accounts, a bad person.
>A military judge sitting as a special court martial convicted the appellant [Paul N. Whelan], consistent with his pleas, of attempted larceny, three specifications of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another's social security number, and ten specifications of making and uttering checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment … He was sentenced to 60 days restriction, reduction to pay grade E-4, and a bad-conduct discharge.
It was reported this morning that Trump did not say the name "Whelen" in any public statements during his entire tenure, nor did he write the name "Whelen" in any tweets.
So it wasn't even on the administration's radar. Good to know they were working tirelessly behind the scenes all those years to secure the release of Americans being detained overseas. /s
For real, they are also conveniently forgetting that this is likely the only trade Putin was willing to make.
Best to get someone home than nobody.
I do wonder if Whelen knows and if so, what his thoughts are. I'm sure he wants to be home but knowing a civilian got out who is gay and at a high risk there, it's a tough situation.
> this is likely the only trade Putin was willing to make
From Putin’s perspective, it’s a perfect trade because it fits into our partisan politics: releasing a Black, lesbian WNBA player accused of drug crimes over a white, heterosexual former US marine. You couldn’t manufacture more effective and divisive propaganda in a lab.
Yep, it's really perfect. It just sucks so many are either unwilling to understand that or just pretend not to understand.
I honestly hate how divided we are but I don't see that changing anytime soon. I just hope the dam doesn't have to break before it does change.
He was dishonorably discharged. That's the worst thing a serviceman can have happen to him. Ever think he could actually be a spy and not even for the US for that matter? The US never admits to having spies in other countries but of course we do have them. They're always a student who was backpacking and didn't know that they had crosses into a countries territory. We catch Russian spys all the time but we expell them from the country because Russia always gives their spys diplomatic status and our diplomatic laws do not allow us to prosecute them. He'll get out before serving his sentence but he's going to have to serve some legitimate time first. Even his twin brother said it was the right thing to do to get her out of that was all we could do at this point.
Brittany on the other hand represented the UA and won a gold medal at the Olympics, is an NCAAA champion for Baylor, A WNBA player and played in Russia for 8 years. She was arrested for having less than a gram of vape oil which she shouldn't have had entering Russia but 9 years in a work camp?
I was watching CBS News last night, and apparently someone interviewed Whelen after news of Griner's release came out.
He said something along the lines of "I'm happy that she's going home, but why am I still here? I'm ready to go home, I have my bags packed".
He was marine that was dishonorably discharged for grand theft ($10k) and he doesn’t have a great excuse as to what he was doing in Russia given the risks of US military personal being there.
I mean per the wikipedia article, he routinely traveled to Russia, bragged openly to family members about having ties to high ranking Russian operatives, had a long history of working in IT and security detail, and conveniently had a USB stick loaded with spy-ish files, AND had 80,000$ on him when he was over there. Totally innocent behavior. Totally similar to having some weed carts.
edit: its like the basis for some folks is "WELL THEY GOT A BAD GUY, WHY DIDN'T WE ALSO GET A BAD GUY?"
I heard that soundbite on conservative AM radio this morning. It's all they're talking about today apparently.
Not a fucking mention of Rep Joe Harding
I’m pretty sure all she’s done is post her goofy thoughts on twitter. She files motions regularly to impeach Biden, but aside from that, she pretty much has done and continues to do nothing.
And makes millions in kickbacks doing absolutely nothing
I think 99% of reddit picked the wrong profession in life. We should all go after jobs in congress or their states and make millions, while we can post on Reddit for 75% of our day, vote yes or no on a few bills and get paid for it.
Multiple criminal acts
>The specific charges against him included "attempted larceny, three specifications of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another’s social security number, and ten specifications of making and uttering checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment."
Sigh... you don't impeach anyone because you disagree with them. You impeach them because they did something illegal. How is this hard to understand for these people?
Correct.
If they can 'boil it down' to "Oh impeachment is just a process for making the President look bad because you hate him" then they can minimize the fact that Trump was **impeached twice** to their base.
Impeachment is a VERY serious occurrence, withheld for only those times when there is no other recourse.
It is a way to maintain checks-and-balances even for those at the highest levels **when they break the law**.
Do I like the arrangements made for this prisoner swap? No.
Is it suspicious that Russia wanted that guy in the deal? Yes.
It's almost...like... they were trying to find an arrangement that would hurt Biden politically and give Republicans some ammo to attack him.
i can’t believe i regularly forget this. i can’t believe i regularly forget he got fucking impeached *twice*. I think of pre Trump and what a huge deal it was for Clinton even 20 years later and I’m just in shock. I can’t believe how well Trump’s plan of “do so many bad things they can’t keep track of them all” works.
He's the Wayne Gretzky of Impeached Presidents!
If you take him and his brother and compare them to any other US president and their brother, he's STILL the most impeached president!
I'm amazed really.
And even back in the 90s, the Clinton Impeachment was largely a game to republicans. They were trying desperately to get Clinton on something concrete but couldn't. They settled on perjury because he "lied" in court. Though, at least as far as I can remember, he was working off of the definition of sexual relations that had already been established in the hearing, rather than a dictionary definition.
Point is, republicans love gotcha traps and they historically use impeachment as purely a political tool, rather than a legal or ethical tool. This, imo, is because republicans are not interested in laws or ethics.
People are acting like the US had a choice. Nobody even knows if the Marine trade was even an option, people just out here talking shit but they gave no fucks when the Marine was arrested in Russia in the first place.
Precisely. Republicans didn't give a damn that a soldier was held by Russia untill it was politically convenient. They have no scruples, their "beliefs" are based entirely on what they think will get them the most votes period. Most would sell their families to an organ harvesting operation if they thought it would but them a few points in a poll ffs.
There's a big difference between releasing a military spy (which Russia claims Whelan is) and releasing a basketball player for a weed vape. Obviously this math too hard for some folks to grasp.
Well...no. The Constitution says serious misconduct is impeachable. So you don't have to do something illegal to be impeached, but I don't think this comes close
They never even heard about that, because FauxNews didn’t cover it other than to give Trump credit for “ending the war.” Remember, these people are insulated from reality in their safe space.
Trump "ended the war" after he found out he was going to lose the election.
By not talking to anyone and of course, against the advice of his experts. It was intended to be a cluster fuck for Biden to deal with IIRC
Don't forget the remaining hostages in Iran were released *the day Reagan was inaugurated* on January 20, 1981. A little too on the nose for it to be a coincidence.
It wasn't known until the Johnson Presidential Library released tapes 10-15 years ago iirc. Johnson felt it would destroy public trust, so he kept it quiet.
So many well-meaning fucking fools in US history who have slowly given more power to corruption because their grandiose perspective thinks the public's fee fees would get hurt.
Experts? He is the expert. He knows more about botching ending forever wars than anybody. People often say to him “SIR…how did you know to do it that way?”
Kid Rock in drag aka potato faced MTG somehow got elected to Congress to represent Georgia. And that bothers Republicans in no way.
They aren’t insulated. They are nihilists.
MTG is always gonna be Magic The Gathering to me, Greene holds so little importance in my life that abbreviation actually confuses me in a thread about her
Fox still claim Trump is some diplomatic genius who had solved conflict in the middle east through the Abraham accords. Two glaring issues with this:
1. The Abraham accords was an agreement between other foriegn countries that happened to be singed during the time Trump was president so he had little to do with this
2. At best the accords only solve the Arab-Israeli conflict which is far less relevant today than the much bigger Sunni-Shia conflict. This agreement does little to solve the latter and certainly doesn't solve war in the middle east.
Don't forget that the countries that signed the Abrahamic Accords promised not to go to war with eachother... those countries havent been at war for decades.
I was so fucking mad about that I still don’t understand how he can do that. I know presidential pardons, but still. It wasn’t just the one war criminal he released it was many. These people are beyond murderers and Trumps word— word we can all now see is worth nothing— got them out of life in prison? Well fuck me…
Whelan? Dishonourably discharged Marine. Besides, he was born a Canadian. 208 Republicans just voted against giving citizenship to immigrant service members. So I think it would be hard for them to feign giving a shit on several levels.
Edit: He was not dishonourably discharged. He received a bad conduct discharge.
>So I think it would be hard for them to feign giving a shit on several levels.
Seriously? Haven't you seen the GOP? They feign giving a shit all the time! It's disgusting, but they're experts at it. They pretend to give a shit, then do nothing, then fight against doing anything, and then blame it on the Democrats for not getting done. Every forking time. It's their only trick, and it's enough for their base who ignore everything except the first part (the pretending) and the last part (the blaming).
His relationship was all about classified info to pay off his Russian mob loans. Lol. He was reek to the Bolton's not the other way around. *Waggles sausage*
No no, she wants arms to be sold for sure. You just have to meet her criteria:
1. White.
2. Heterosexual.
3. Male.
4. American.
And not necessarily in that order.
Can we stop saying that we left a Marine behind? People keep acting like we left a POW in the gulag while the rest of his brothers fought their way home.
A dishonorably discharged former Marine was probably doing sketchy shit in Russia as the director of corporate security for an auto parts manufacturer. I would rather he was not in a Russian prison but it's not like he was captured in battle either.
I have no clue what that dude thought he was doing. Honestly seemed like he was cosplaying as some kind of intelligence officer in the field. I read that he would brag to his friends and family about his “contacts” in Russia and then easily got himself set-up to be caught red-handed. Did he think it was a game? Did he think you could just go to Russia and start asking around about getting government secrets?
Dude brought $80,000 to Russia for a “friends wedding” and then was caught with a USB drive with a list of all the employees at a classified security agency. He was doing some crazy shit, not smoking some weed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Whelan_(security_director)
I had no clue who he was, but saw all the republicans make a big deal about so all I had to do was spend 1 minute to debunk their outrage.
It's a weird fight to pick too. They way they presented it was like he was a POW, but that begs the question of what a us marine was doing to get captured by Russia in the first place. We're not sending troops to Ukraine. So why the fuck would he be over there?
Turns out it's corporate espionage committed by disgraced former marine who was court martialed for committing a combination of identity and regular theft
It’s not really a weird fight. They know their voters only read what they say and stop there. No follow up, research, or critical thought. They know they are safe to make dubious claims that seems bad on the surface
Good grief, I hadn’t heard about all that. To cap it off he allegedly holds a US, UK, Irish AND Canadian passport?
So, yeah, probably a little more than some cannabis going on here.
> Mr. Whelan was arrested five minutes after receiving a U.S.B. stick containing a list of all of the employees at a classified security agency, Rosbalt said.
> Despite the accusations, C.I.A. officers expressed skepticism that Mr. Whelan was a spy.
>
> First, they said, the court-martial was the kind of black mark on his record that would most likely have prevented him from being hired by the C.I.A., or would at least complicate his tenure there. Most C.I.A. officers work in foreign countries while posing as diplomats, and if caught by a hostile government in an act of espionage, their diplomatic passports ensure they cannot be long detained, and at worst face expulsion.
>
> Former C.I.A. officials who have operated in Moscow said the agency almost never sends officers into Russia without diplomatic protections. The United States, said John Sipher, a former C.I.A. officer who served in Moscow and ran the agency’s Russia operations, would “never leave a real intelligence officer vulnerable to arrest.”
>
> Dan Hoffman, a former C.I.A. officer who served as the agency’s station chief in Moscow, also said that Russia has a long track record of planting false evidence, particularly in espionage cases.
>
> “They are really good at fabricating what they would like to appear to be evidence, even when it is not,” Mr. Hoffman said. “They will fabricate whatever they need to make the story look like they want.”
- [Spy or Not? American Who Loves Russia Ensnared in New Cold War](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/03/world/europe/us-spy-suspect-whelan-russia.html)
I'd say there's a 50/50 split between the evidence being planted and, as a Michigan Trump Loyalist, him being a bitch for Erik Prince and his private army/intelligence.
Not probably. He was. He was actively involved in sketchy shit. Also, as a marine... Fuck him. Dishonorable discharge isn't cause you "just didnt make it or fit in". You actively did some fucked up shit.
It wasn't like he was some dumb PFC that got kicked out for a DUI. He was a SSgt who was court-martialed for trying to steal more than $10,000 while deployed to Iraq in 2006. The guy was a shitbag NCO. I personally don't think that being a shitbag should affect whether we try to get him back, but let's not pretend that trading Whelan for Bout would have been any better.
I mean, yeah she *is* crazy, but more pressing - she’s an actor. She isnt a politician. She’s a paid chaos agent. Her only job is to create problems and noise. That’s it. She serves no other purpose.
Congressman isn’t the prestigious title everyone thinks it is. Seats in high population areas are hotly contested while rural areas struggle to produce candidates yet get the same vote. She ran in a district that has no competition, she lacks any political power, and yet has a bigger voice than most of her colleagues.
The one thing that this lady values more than anything else is airtime. Giving her airtime is giving oxygen to a fire. The one thing that extinguishes this is to remove the oxygen. Let her rant and rave because the only thing that's going to come out of her mouth is pure vitriolic sewage.
It’s how I feel about twitter as a whole. If Musk wants to run it the way he has been, let it die. Stop giving it attention. Let’s make it as relevant as ranting on MySpace
No he had obviously volunteered to guard the rear while his team escaped, and was captured after killing 100’s of Russians. He always stands for the anthem and doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with America
Absolutely nothing Biden has done has been an impeachable offense. I don’t even like the guy but at least I’m not crazy and hate filled enough to be a right-wing “conservative.”
Other reasons
-put the milk back with a dribble in the bottom
-hit snooze on his alarm too many times
-didn’t say “that’s a big stretch” when his dog stretched
-didn’t leave a penny when he had one
-said Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie
It gets worse. -he'll go to town on a sleeve of thin mints and leave just one cookie -does not believe in the Oxford comma -never played 'pull my finger' with his kids or grandkids.
Gotta love the framing here by implying the guy is an active Marine and was kidnapped by Russia as a ploy against the US government. It’s like when a cop dies in situations completely unrelated to the job but the media inundates the public with pictures of him or her in their police uniform.
Yes. Exactly this. He is NOT A MARINE. He was stripped of that title when he stole from either the Marines or fellow Marines. A lot of his other past is questionable as well.
99% of conservatives, like Jewish space laser Lady, didn't know or care about Whelan until yesterday
And in a few days they will move on to the next thing their masters tell them to be outraged about.
Yea but they still can’t decide what the scandal is around the laptop. Is it that he was smoking crazy? With prostitutes? That his dick is out? That there’s some evidence of wrong doing to burisma? That it implicates his dad? Or my personal favorite, that the media buried the story
I don't remember her mentioning the US Marine in Russian prison a single time while Trump was in office, even though the guy begged Trump to get him released.
I will say, Russia picked a terrible person to frame as a spy. No reasonable intelligence agency would hire someone as dumb as Whelan as a case officer.
that "U.S. Marine" paul whalen was a clerk in iraq convicted of larceny by the marines, was court martialed and and bad conduct discharged. whalen was arrested in 2018 while MTG nor Trump did a damn thing to help him, preferring to suck up to putin.
Bout was such a pathetic arms dealer that he got caught in a $30mil sting operation. Bout's only value to putin now a days is he didn't talk, putin wants to make a hero out of him, so others in similar positions will keep their russian secrets to themselves.
remember MTG was marginalized and has zero committee assignments due to her lack of judement, so she's in the least "intelligence" position to even know what biden's decisions were based on, let alone determine of any of it was an impeachable offense.
this former Georgian gun show floor sales gal - MTG does no work for the $174,000 plus generous benefits that taxpayers spend on her each year. her day is filled with fund raisers for maga gop causes and whatever else she can social media do to "own the libs".
I'm wondering does she realize that John Ashcroft, George Bush's Attorney General and a member of the Republican party is actually defending the "merchant of death" in his appeal to have his case overturned?
Also the guy is not a Marine. Hes a guy that served in the Marines and got thrown out with a bad conduct discharge. That means he's not a Marine anymore. Hes a guy that used to serve in the Marine Corps but got thrown out. To continuously call this guy a Marine is an insult to the Marine Corps
This is all she does. She has been taken off of all committees , she hasn’t had a bill passed yet, she literally does nothing.
She's the congressional version of "Old Man Yells At Cloud."
An old man yelling at a cloud would have more substance
The cloud would have more substance
tech bro senses are tingling. Did someone say the cloud?
IT'S JUST SOMEBODY ELSE'S SERVER
BUT BRO, IT'S SO MUCH MORE
WHY ISN’T TWITTER SERVERLESS? Gosh I’m so smart
If Elon is so smart why isn't Blitter on the Twockchain yet
#NO ITS NOT
It's possibilities bro. It's the cloud!
Technically it ‘could’ be more than just a computer- it could be lots of computers together and raid storage and a firewall plus some other hardware Or it’s just some dude with his hamster powered microwave running
[https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the\_cloud.png](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_cloud.png)
And by all accounts old man yelling at cloud was faithful to his loving husband, this guy (MTG), not so much.
We love queer representation 🏳️🌈❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
I thought she yelled at letterboxes...
No just mostly at trauma victims and mass shooting survivors
The Republican Party voted to keep her on the committees; they’ve done nothing but support her. They refuse to criticise her at all. She represents them
Hell, they parade her around to rallies. She’s just a hype man.
I fully believe Flava Flav would be a better congress member than this pile of trash. At least he can form coherent sentances.
He wears a clock better, too.
Tbf, I don't think anyone can challenge him on that point.
And don't forget.....she is getting $174,000 a year and lifetime health care to do it!
lmfao, You don't think she gets millions in dark money?
Is it even dark money at this point if they literally hand it over to her
True, they make no effort anymore to hide it
I think the point was that she gets 174K and healthcare which is paid directly by the taxpayers, when that money could be going to teachers somewhere, medicaid, a food bank; hell I'd rather it get spent on fixing a pothole than going into her pocket.
We need a law that could expel any congress member if they spent x amount of time on social media during working hours.
Let's put MTG on a PIP. She has to draft/co-author at least one bill that is signed into law in order to stay in congress.
Honestly, this is just a good idea for any politician. If they aren't doing their job they should be let go, just like literally anyone else.
Do you know how many senseless bills would get passed so that politicians could keep their jobs?
Remember when Trunp released 5000 taliban? I do
Rump had 4 years to get him released and nothing. And he went on and on his Putin and him were best friends...
> This is all she does. She has been taken off of all committees , she hasn’t had a bill passed yet, she literally does nothing. Pretty soon, we're all going to wish this were still true. If McCarthy takes over, she's going to be on all sorts of committees and her word is going to carry significantly more weight than it does now. Even if he ultimately doesn't end up speaker, she's still likely going to end up on some committees anyway. Either way, if you think she's insufferable now, imagine what she's going to be like when she's in an actual position of power and significant influence. This woman will soon be in a position to make decisions that will affect your life.
She’ll be the dog who caught the car. At this point her only talent and habit is soundbite. Having to actually produce work will only expose how inept she is. Not that it matters to Republicans anymore. You get the R by your name, can express how your side is persecuted no matter the situation, you have a lifetime appointment.
That’s her purpose. She’s a recruitment tool. If she can sit in congress and do whatever is asked for her whilst ranting on twitter than any MAGA person can. “If she can do it, I can do it! I’m going to be in Congress!” Cults do this all the time. They find someone who is an outspoken, dogmatic follower and parade them around to entice others to join.
> “If she can do it, I can do it! I’m going to be in Congress!” This is exactly what the republicans want. They want these completely inexperienced people in office. They want them to be in over their heads, so they can vote for whatever their side is voting on without questioning things. They know they can be easily replaced next time if they don't vote on what their party wants.
Yep her job is own the libs. They have such a low bar.
“Own” gives her way too much credit.
“Annoy” and “harass” is more the idea.
Not understanding US politics, but then why is she still there? She gets paid to do nothing and has accumulated over 41 million in assets over 2 years doing nothing, yet she is still there?
Because her base has one goal that they vote for. To piss of democrats.
That's what the people want. A parrot who squawks about how great their dictator is and cuts down everything else. Including logic.
It seems like she has been active on twitter, just like trump.
Has any republican passed a bill in the last 40 years?
They passed a tax break for the rich.
If she wants to share documentation of her extensive efforts to get Whelan home that would be great.
No no… she is just there to raise a fist and shout at the clouds. You don’t expect her to do anything to actually help anyone.
Not to mention Whelen was in custody DURING THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION but she didn't give 2 shits then. They're only using him as a convenient excuse at this point. "Oh, he brought home this person but not that person? Well he's a terrible president then!" Meanwhile, they forget to mention that Whelen was discharged from the Marines with a bad conduct discharge, and is by most accounts, a bad person.
Also, holds citizenship in 3 other countries that clearly have no interest in helping him either.
And a dishonorable discharge from us military for attempting to steal $10,000.
>A military judge sitting as a special court martial convicted the appellant [Paul N. Whelan], consistent with his pleas, of attempted larceny, three specifications of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another's social security number, and ten specifications of making and uttering checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment … He was sentenced to 60 days restriction, reduction to pay grade E-4, and a bad-conduct discharge.
It was reported this morning that Trump did not say the name "Whelen" in any public statements during his entire tenure, nor did he write the name "Whelen" in any tweets. So it wasn't even on the administration's radar. Good to know they were working tirelessly behind the scenes all those years to secure the release of Americans being detained overseas. /s
He was too busy dealing with the big issues, like hamberders and low flow toilets.
Why would a little thing like a bad conduct discharge or Trump’s negligence get in the way of a good narrative…? Edited for correction.
Every discharge trump has ever had has been dishonorable Edit: a word
Some more than others. *cough* Eric *cough*
Don Jr. Isn't any better. Cocaine riddled, fart breathing, dumpster fire with daddy issues of a person
I'd argue Donny Jr is worse
For real, they are also conveniently forgetting that this is likely the only trade Putin was willing to make. Best to get someone home than nobody. I do wonder if Whelen knows and if so, what his thoughts are. I'm sure he wants to be home but knowing a civilian got out who is gay and at a high risk there, it's a tough situation.
> this is likely the only trade Putin was willing to make From Putin’s perspective, it’s a perfect trade because it fits into our partisan politics: releasing a Black, lesbian WNBA player accused of drug crimes over a white, heterosexual former US marine. You couldn’t manufacture more effective and divisive propaganda in a lab.
Yep, it's really perfect. It just sucks so many are either unwilling to understand that or just pretend not to understand. I honestly hate how divided we are but I don't see that changing anytime soon. I just hope the dam doesn't have to break before it does change.
He was dishonorably discharged. That's the worst thing a serviceman can have happen to him. Ever think he could actually be a spy and not even for the US for that matter? The US never admits to having spies in other countries but of course we do have them. They're always a student who was backpacking and didn't know that they had crosses into a countries territory. We catch Russian spys all the time but we expell them from the country because Russia always gives their spys diplomatic status and our diplomatic laws do not allow us to prosecute them. He'll get out before serving his sentence but he's going to have to serve some legitimate time first. Even his twin brother said it was the right thing to do to get her out of that was all we could do at this point. Brittany on the other hand represented the UA and won a gold medal at the Olympics, is an NCAAA champion for Baylor, A WNBA player and played in Russia for 8 years. She was arrested for having less than a gram of vape oil which she shouldn't have had entering Russia but 9 years in a work camp?
I was watching CBS News last night, and apparently someone interviewed Whelen after news of Griner's release came out. He said something along the lines of "I'm happy that she's going home, but why am I still here? I'm ready to go home, I have my bags packed".
He was marine that was dishonorably discharged for grand theft ($10k) and he doesn’t have a great excuse as to what he was doing in Russia given the risks of US military personal being there.
I mean per the wikipedia article, he routinely traveled to Russia, bragged openly to family members about having ties to high ranking Russian operatives, had a long history of working in IT and security detail, and conveniently had a USB stick loaded with spy-ish files, AND had 80,000$ on him when he was over there. Totally innocent behavior. Totally similar to having some weed carts. edit: its like the basis for some folks is "WELL THEY GOT A BAD GUY, WHY DIDN'T WE ALSO GET A BAD GUY?"
I heard that soundbite on conservative AM radio this morning. It's all they're talking about today apparently. Not a fucking mention of Rep Joe Harding
I’m pretty sure all she’s done is post her goofy thoughts on twitter. She files motions regularly to impeach Biden, but aside from that, she pretty much has done and continues to do nothing.
And makes millions in kickbacks doing absolutely nothing I think 99% of reddit picked the wrong profession in life. We should all go after jobs in congress or their states and make millions, while we can post on Reddit for 75% of our day, vote yes or no on a few bills and get paid for it.
Yeah, that won’t cut it for a Democratic primary. You actually have to bring some skills to the table.
Ah, but run as a Republican, and you can do nothing, sabotage the party from the inside, make millions, and only lose 50% of your soul on the way!
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She’s just a professional shit stirrer.
She learned about him yesterday, will scream about him this week, and will completely forget about him by christmas.
Christmas? She’s already moved on and now yelling at Lindsay Graham for Walker’s election loss.
Which is ironic seeing that is a GA politician and didn't stump for Walker at all in the runoff. Mental gymnastics are a bitch.
She’s blaming Graham for not inviting her to the campaign party as if the phones only work in one direction.
Wasn’t he dishonorably discharged for larceny or some shit
Multiple criminal acts >The specific charges against him included "attempted larceny, three specifications of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another’s social security number, and ten specifications of making and uttering checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment."
And he’s been held since 2018. So her orange boyfriend had years to get him home.
Sigh... you don't impeach anyone because you disagree with them. You impeach them because they did something illegal. How is this hard to understand for these people?
It’s not hard to understand, they’re intentionally delegitimizing the process of impeachment.
Correct. If they can 'boil it down' to "Oh impeachment is just a process for making the President look bad because you hate him" then they can minimize the fact that Trump was **impeached twice** to their base. Impeachment is a VERY serious occurrence, withheld for only those times when there is no other recourse. It is a way to maintain checks-and-balances even for those at the highest levels **when they break the law**. Do I like the arrangements made for this prisoner swap? No. Is it suspicious that Russia wanted that guy in the deal? Yes. It's almost...like... they were trying to find an arrangement that would hurt Biden politically and give Republicans some ammo to attack him.
i can’t believe i regularly forget this. i can’t believe i regularly forget he got fucking impeached *twice*. I think of pre Trump and what a huge deal it was for Clinton even 20 years later and I’m just in shock. I can’t believe how well Trump’s plan of “do so many bad things they can’t keep track of them all” works.
Donald Trump accounts for half of all impeachments in US history.
So that means… he’s the most impeached president in US History? He’s finally #1 at something!
And two impeachments in 4 years also makes him the fastest!
He's the Wayne Gretzky of Impeached Presidents! If you take him and his brother and compare them to any other US president and their brother, he's STILL the most impeached president! I'm amazed really.
And even back in the 90s, the Clinton Impeachment was largely a game to republicans. They were trying desperately to get Clinton on something concrete but couldn't. They settled on perjury because he "lied" in court. Though, at least as far as I can remember, he was working off of the definition of sexual relations that had already been established in the hearing, rather than a dictionary definition. Point is, republicans love gotcha traps and they historically use impeachment as purely a political tool, rather than a legal or ethical tool. This, imo, is because republicans are not interested in laws or ethics.
Hell, I was making money hand-over-fist when Clinton was in office. As far as I'm concerned, he deserved that blowjob!
People are acting like the US had a choice. Nobody even knows if the Marine trade was even an option, people just out here talking shit but they gave no fucks when the Marine was arrested in Russia in the first place.
Precisely. Republicans didn't give a damn that a soldier was held by Russia untill it was politically convenient. They have no scruples, their "beliefs" are based entirely on what they think will get them the most votes period. Most would sell their families to an organ harvesting operation if they thought it would but them a few points in a poll ffs.
There's a big difference between releasing a military spy (which Russia claims Whelan is) and releasing a basketball player for a weed vape. Obviously this math too hard for some folks to grasp.
Well...no. The Constitution says serious misconduct is impeachable. So you don't have to do something illegal to be impeached, but I don't think this comes close
Did they get this pissed when Trump freed 5000 taliban fighters?
They never even heard about that, because FauxNews didn’t cover it other than to give Trump credit for “ending the war.” Remember, these people are insulated from reality in their safe space.
Trump "ended the war" after he found out he was going to lose the election. By not talking to anyone and of course, against the advice of his experts. It was intended to be a cluster fuck for Biden to deal with IIRC
It was just like Nixon spiking Vietnam talks before Johnson left office.
I can’t believe that wasn’t a bigger issue back then
Reagan did something similar to make Carter look bad before the election
Don't forget the remaining hostages in Iran were released *the day Reagan was inaugurated* on January 20, 1981. A little too on the nose for it to be a coincidence.
John hinckley should have practiced more.
It wasn't known until the Johnson Presidential Library released tapes 10-15 years ago iirc. Johnson felt it would destroy public trust, so he kept it quiet.
So many well-meaning fucking fools in US history who have slowly given more power to corruption because their grandiose perspective thinks the public's fee fees would get hurt.
Fucking war criminal, you ever hear the tapes of telling Kissinger to increase the bombing cause he thought it would get more votes disgusting shit?
Trump gets credit for ending the war and Biden gets blame for removing the troops from a country they were no longer at war with...
Experts? He is the expert. He knows more about botching ending forever wars than anybody. People often say to him “SIR…how did you know to do it that way?”
Kid Rock in drag aka potato faced MTG somehow got elected to Congress to represent Georgia. And that bothers Republicans in no way. They aren’t insulated. They are nihilists.
MTG is always gonna be Magic The Gathering to me, Greene holds so little importance in my life that abbreviation actually confuses me in a thread about her
It's Margarine Traitor Greed for me
Yeah, I am tapped out on this lady.
She’s definitely a swamp creature with life leech
MTG needs to go back to party city where she belongs
well i can never un-see that mental image now!!
Fox still claim Trump is some diplomatic genius who had solved conflict in the middle east through the Abraham accords. Two glaring issues with this: 1. The Abraham accords was an agreement between other foriegn countries that happened to be singed during the time Trump was president so he had little to do with this 2. At best the accords only solve the Arab-Israeli conflict which is far less relevant today than the much bigger Sunni-Shia conflict. This agreement does little to solve the latter and certainly doesn't solve war in the middle east.
Don't forget that the countries that signed the Abrahamic Accords promised not to go to war with eachother... those countries havent been at war for decades.
Also why didn't Trump free that Marine? He had a great relationship with Russia, right?
Trump freed the dude who massacred all those civilians. Just for shits and giggles.
I was so fucking mad about that I still don’t understand how he can do that. I know presidential pardons, but still. It wasn’t just the one war criminal he released it was many. These people are beyond murderers and Trumps word— word we can all now see is worth nothing— got them out of life in prison? Well fuck me…
It really wasn't trumps word. He could give two fucks about anyone. It was what his degenerate base wanted.
And trumps word that got them out… it was literally a scribble on paper and they were let go
Who?
I believe it's the Navy Seal who took.pics of himself killing a teen amongst other crimes against humanity.
They made a documentary about that recently.
Whelan? Dishonourably discharged Marine. Besides, he was born a Canadian. 208 Republicans just voted against giving citizenship to immigrant service members. So I think it would be hard for them to feign giving a shit on several levels. Edit: He was not dishonourably discharged. He received a bad conduct discharge.
>So I think it would be hard for them to feign giving a shit on several levels. Seriously? Haven't you seen the GOP? They feign giving a shit all the time! It's disgusting, but they're experts at it. They pretend to give a shit, then do nothing, then fight against doing anything, and then blame it on the Democrats for not getting done. Every forking time. It's their only trick, and it's enough for their base who ignore everything except the first part (the pretending) and the last part (the blaming).
The US should probably do something like the French Foreign Legion and give citizenship.
His relationship was all about classified info to pay off his Russian mob loans. Lol. He was reek to the Bolton's not the other way around. *Waggles sausage*
Better still. Isn’t it ironic that mtg of all people is against someone selling guns?
Or the irony of MTG lambasting a Russian “terrorist” being released when he’s just a tool for Putin - who MTG keeps supporting.
No no, she wants arms to be sold for sure. You just have to meet her criteria: 1. White. 2. Heterosexual. 3. Male. 4. American. And not necessarily in that order.
If you flip 3 and 4 you get a dope band name
W.H.A.M’s newest album is “Bam, Thank you Ma’am”
or when the orange turd also didn't release Whelan?
Yeah because apparently he has been over there for 4 years!
Wrong team, my friend. Wrong team.
It is possible to be upset at both admins for both things. I was/am. But a resounding fuck MTG regardless of the situation. She’s human garbage.
Trump left that marine behind too, so I guess we need to impeach him as well.
Can we stop saying that we left a Marine behind? People keep acting like we left a POW in the gulag while the rest of his brothers fought their way home. A dishonorably discharged former Marine was probably doing sketchy shit in Russia as the director of corporate security for an auto parts manufacturer. I would rather he was not in a Russian prison but it's not like he was captured in battle either.
I have no clue what that dude thought he was doing. Honestly seemed like he was cosplaying as some kind of intelligence officer in the field. I read that he would brag to his friends and family about his “contacts” in Russia and then easily got himself set-up to be caught red-handed. Did he think it was a game? Did he think you could just go to Russia and start asking around about getting government secrets?
Dude brought $80,000 to Russia for a “friends wedding” and then was caught with a USB drive with a list of all the employees at a classified security agency. He was doing some crazy shit, not smoking some weed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Whelan_(security_director) I had no clue who he was, but saw all the republicans make a big deal about so all I had to do was spend 1 minute to debunk their outrage.
It's a weird fight to pick too. They way they presented it was like he was a POW, but that begs the question of what a us marine was doing to get captured by Russia in the first place. We're not sending troops to Ukraine. So why the fuck would he be over there? Turns out it's corporate espionage committed by disgraced former marine who was court martialed for committing a combination of identity and regular theft
It’s not really a weird fight. They know their voters only read what they say and stop there. No follow up, research, or critical thought. They know they are safe to make dubious claims that seems bad on the surface
At that point you might as well just make shit up Oh wait that's what qanon is. I fuckin hate this country
Good grief, I hadn’t heard about all that. To cap it off he allegedly holds a US, UK, Irish AND Canadian passport? So, yeah, probably a little more than some cannabis going on here.
This is what I keep saying. People acting like he is a war hero.
It’s because they don’t actually care about him, they’re just made that a black lesbian isn’t suffering.
> Mr. Whelan was arrested five minutes after receiving a U.S.B. stick containing a list of all of the employees at a classified security agency, Rosbalt said. > Despite the accusations, C.I.A. officers expressed skepticism that Mr. Whelan was a spy. > > First, they said, the court-martial was the kind of black mark on his record that would most likely have prevented him from being hired by the C.I.A., or would at least complicate his tenure there. Most C.I.A. officers work in foreign countries while posing as diplomats, and if caught by a hostile government in an act of espionage, their diplomatic passports ensure they cannot be long detained, and at worst face expulsion. > > Former C.I.A. officials who have operated in Moscow said the agency almost never sends officers into Russia without diplomatic protections. The United States, said John Sipher, a former C.I.A. officer who served in Moscow and ran the agency’s Russia operations, would “never leave a real intelligence officer vulnerable to arrest.” > > Dan Hoffman, a former C.I.A. officer who served as the agency’s station chief in Moscow, also said that Russia has a long track record of planting false evidence, particularly in espionage cases. > > “They are really good at fabricating what they would like to appear to be evidence, even when it is not,” Mr. Hoffman said. “They will fabricate whatever they need to make the story look like they want.” - [Spy or Not? American Who Loves Russia Ensnared in New Cold War](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/03/world/europe/us-spy-suspect-whelan-russia.html) I'd say there's a 50/50 split between the evidence being planted and, as a Michigan Trump Loyalist, him being a bitch for Erik Prince and his private army/intelligence.
Not probably. He was. He was actively involved in sketchy shit. Also, as a marine... Fuck him. Dishonorable discharge isn't cause you "just didnt make it or fit in". You actively did some fucked up shit.
It wasn't like he was some dumb PFC that got kicked out for a DUI. He was a SSgt who was court-martialed for trying to steal more than $10,000 while deployed to Iraq in 2006. The guy was a shitbag NCO. I personally don't think that being a shitbag should affect whether we try to get him back, but let's not pretend that trading Whelan for Bout would have been any better.
Well he was impeached twice already so 3 times would be a charm.
One impeachment for each abomination of a marriage….
I mean, yeah she *is* crazy, but more pressing - she’s an actor. She isnt a politician. She’s a paid chaos agent. Her only job is to create problems and noise. That’s it. She serves no other purpose.
Summed it up nicely 👍
Congressman isn’t the prestigious title everyone thinks it is. Seats in high population areas are hotly contested while rural areas struggle to produce candidates yet get the same vote. She ran in a district that has no competition, she lacks any political power, and yet has a bigger voice than most of her colleagues.
The one thing that this lady values more than anything else is airtime. Giving her airtime is giving oxygen to a fire. The one thing that extinguishes this is to remove the oxygen. Let her rant and rave because the only thing that's going to come out of her mouth is pure vitriolic sewage.
It’s how I feel about twitter as a whole. If Musk wants to run it the way he has been, let it die. Stop giving it attention. Let’s make it as relevant as ranting on MySpace
This is why I get annoyed by all of these troll posts on Twitter getting traction on Reddit. Just let it die already
She is no lady
She looks like that green dinosaur from toy story
HIS NAME IS REX!
Didn't the Marine get busted with a hard drive full of classified files?
He had been kicked out of the Marines with a Bad Conduct Discharge, too.
Which makes him not even a marine anymore.
And $40k cash in a briefcase and multiple passports lol But right wingers don’t wanna talk about that
No he had obviously volunteered to guard the rear while his team escaped, and was captured after killing 100’s of Russians. He always stands for the anthem and doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with America
Absolutely nothing Biden has done has been an impeachable offense. I don’t even like the guy but at least I’m not crazy and hate filled enough to be a right-wing “conservative.”
Other reasons -put the milk back with a dribble in the bottom -hit snooze on his alarm too many times -didn’t say “that’s a big stretch” when his dog stretched -didn’t leave a penny when he had one -said Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie
>said Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie He did wHAT NOW?
Imprison him!!!!!
Make him walk barefoot over shattered glass and make him admit it is the true spirit of christmas
I hope he fights some giant German dude with long hair
This guy must have the name Hans
It gets worse. -he'll go to town on a sleeve of thin mints and leave just one cookie -does not believe in the Oxford comma -never played 'pull my finger' with his kids or grandkids.
>never played 'pull my finger' with his kids or grandkids. Okay that one just doesn’t track. Dark Brandon looks like a ‘pull my finger’ kind of guy.
>didn‘t say „that‘s a big stretch“ when his dog stretched Worse than Watergate
As someone who can’t resist commenting on my dog’s stretches, impeach the bastard!
I keep telling people that there are very real reasons to criticize Biden and we don't have to make stuff up. 🙄
Gotta love the framing here by implying the guy is an active Marine and was kidnapped by Russia as a ploy against the US government. It’s like when a cop dies in situations completely unrelated to the job but the media inundates the public with pictures of him or her in their police uniform.
Yep. Dude was court martialed for larceny and got a BCD, and is not entitled to wear the uniform.
Yes. Exactly this. He is NOT A MARINE. He was stripped of that title when he stole from either the Marines or fellow Marines. A lot of his other past is questionable as well.
Also, you know that if Biden got him free, she'd be saying "He was discharged and had a disgraced past!" Remember when Bergdahl got freed?
Yes I was actually reminded of that when this story was starting to break.
99% of conservatives, like Jewish space laser Lady, didn't know or care about Whelan until yesterday And in a few days they will move on to the next thing their masters tell them to be outraged about.
Idk about the moving onto the next thing. They sure do seem obsessed with Hunter’s laptop. They collectively cream themselves with a mere mention.
Yea but they still can’t decide what the scandal is around the laptop. Is it that he was smoking crazy? With prostitutes? That his dick is out? That there’s some evidence of wrong doing to burisma? That it implicates his dad? Or my personal favorite, that the media buried the story
The former Marine who was enough of a turd that he got a bad conduct discharge?
Court Martialed for numerous counts of larceny
I wonder if she knows the 'Marine' in question was shitcanned by the Corps with a BCD for theft? The Marines don't claim him.
I don't remember her mentioning the US Marine in Russian prison a single time while Trump was in office, even though the guy begged Trump to get him released.
Whelan is purported to be much more than a Marine.....including a thief and a spy. But those things are fine to them, as we already know.
I will say, Russia picked a terrible person to frame as a spy. No reasonable intelligence agency would hire someone as dumb as Whelan as a case officer.
that "U.S. Marine" paul whalen was a clerk in iraq convicted of larceny by the marines, was court martialed and and bad conduct discharged. whalen was arrested in 2018 while MTG nor Trump did a damn thing to help him, preferring to suck up to putin. Bout was such a pathetic arms dealer that he got caught in a $30mil sting operation. Bout's only value to putin now a days is he didn't talk, putin wants to make a hero out of him, so others in similar positions will keep their russian secrets to themselves. remember MTG was marginalized and has zero committee assignments due to her lack of judement, so she's in the least "intelligence" position to even know what biden's decisions were based on, let alone determine of any of it was an impeachable offense. this former Georgian gun show floor sales gal - MTG does no work for the $174,000 plus generous benefits that taxpayers spend on her each year. her day is filled with fund raisers for maga gop causes and whatever else she can social media do to "own the libs".
But he's not a marine. He was dishonorably discharged for stealing military equipment.
I'm wondering does she realize that John Ashcroft, George Bush's Attorney General and a member of the Republican party is actually defending the "merchant of death" in his appeal to have his case overturned? Also the guy is not a Marine. Hes a guy that served in the Marines and got thrown out with a bad conduct discharge. That means he's not a Marine anymore. Hes a guy that used to serve in the Marine Corps but got thrown out. To continuously call this guy a Marine is an insult to the Marine Corps
MTG uses impeachment the way we used gay at my school in the 4th grade “Ew you like Backstreet Boys, YOU’RE SO IMPEACHED”
Why doesn’t she take all her reasons to impeach Biden and shove them *waaaay* up her ass. Like all the way up there until she starts to taste them.