WNBA player Britney Griner arrested in Russia: updated: wokes expected sellout crowd, nope lol

I know who she is, vaguely, and I think her views are understandable given her background.

My first reaction to this story is it appears that she is being held as a pawn by a hostile, corrupt country, and I feel sorry for her predicament. But, really, I’m just observing that there are people actually cheering for her to be punished to the fullest extent of that hostile, corrupt country’s shitty law, because they don’t like her “woke” politics. Seems indecent to me — a far greater offense, in my mind, than not coming out to stand for a national anthem.

 

Yea, she broke the law. She claims it was an accident. Maybe it was, or maybe she thought she could get away with it and not be caught. So she was careless and/or foolish. That said, I take no pleasure in her terrifying predicament, while it seems many others do because she is too “woke”.

 

I don't think anyone is "cheering" for her to be punished to the fullest extent of Russian law--which would appear to be ten years in prison. What I DO think people (at least in this thread) are doing is mocking her anti-American "I'm just going to sit out the national anthem and throw a great big anti-American hissy fit" posturing from, oh, not too long ago . . . in light of her current position of special pleading that she should now be Priority One™ for Joe Biden when Biden has a lot else going on.

As in . . . "C'mon man, I'm an American. Get me the hell out of Russia!"

 

I am not sure that your “anti-American hissy fit” description is accurate or fair, but whatever.

I see both. People cheering her current situation and also mocking her more recent requests for help from her government after she’s been locked up away from home in a dangerous, adversarial country for months and is facing the possibility of being locked away for many years to come.

 

I really don't see that people want her to spend ten years in Russian jail. I think people here and elsewhere appreciate a certain irony that she was so "loud and proud" about protesting the United States just a few months ago and now seems to be squirming with discomfort at being detained in Russia, where from all accounts she is at least being treated well and is catching up on her reading.

Really. I hope she gets home soon. But I hope her "prisoner exchange" includes the American who has been detained in Russia since 2018. I don't see any threads about THAT guy's plight.

 

I think this thread would be a fine place to talk about that guy’s situation.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-u...and-politics-537c7eb77baee6f0342dbde07c184763

…

Paul Whelan has been held in Russia since his December 2018 arrest on espionage charges he and the U.S. government say are false. He was left out of a prisoner exchange in April that brought home yet another detainee, Marine veteran Trevor Reed. That has escalated pressure on the Biden administration to avoid another one-for-one swap that does not include Whelan — even as it presses for the release of Griner, an Olympic gold medalist whose case has drawn global attention.

For Griner and Whelan, the other’s case injects something of a wild card into their own, for better or worse.

The U.S. government may not agree to a deal in which just one of them is released, potentially complicating negotiations. But Whelan could also benefit from the attention given to Griner, which has cast a spotlight on his case. And though the U.S. may hesitate to give up a high-level Russian prisoner in exchange for Griner, who’s charged with a relatively minor drug offense, it’s possible it would be more inclined to do so if both she and Whelan were part of any deal.
…
​

 

well here's hoping Griner's "sexy wife" gets on Whelan's bandwagon too

 

I prefer Dickeys.

 

there you go. I guess it's always "better late than never"

Biden calls Paul Whelan’s sister after criticism

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brie...en-calls-paul-whelans-sister-after-criticism/

 

The situations aren't exactly the same. The Russian will demand more to let Whelan (vs Griner) go, given that he's accused of a much more serious crime (espionage). This is perhaps an opportunity to bring both back, but the cost will be higher. Discussions regarding Whelan have been happening (last year, see: Paul Whelan returns to Russian labor camp after being sent to medical facility - CNNPolitics), but the current war and geopolitical climate have clearly complicated things.

 

So you know I've been posting here a while. I joined in 2002. I was banned for complaining about an ad in 2013 and returned in 2017. When I was banned Clutch fixed it so I could only see ads.

Anyway it's hilarious that all the members who were here when Trader posted that he dined with Mexican industrialists remembers that

 

Wut?

@Clutch

 

“ Biden can’t even ride a bicycle, he can’t even climb steps” I died at that part lmao those guys are great

 

There’s something I’ve been wondering about since her arrest, it’s about the “hash oil” that has been referred to which makes it sound more illicit, but was she just traveling with a thc vape pen cartridge when she got caught?

Is that all this is about, a vape pen? Or was she caught with something even more potent?