36 minutes ago, lynched1 said:

Trump didn't take the bait.

 

If you were anywhere near me and a rock you'd be the one under it.  😉

Why would I be near you? I don't visit glory holes.

2 minutes ago, Gannan said:

Exhibit A

stop it, i am positive mike would be acting in the same nonchalant way if it were blm protestors that raided the capitol. 

10 hours ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

If Trump did this deal the Left would be outraged

 

Lol, no.

 

10 hours ago, Joe Shades 73 said:

and the right would be saying he is a hero

 

Yes.

12 minutes ago, Gannan said:

It's fox news and right wing radio. While some of my friends can be pretty far left, they don't sit around watching MSNBC all day. On the other hand all of my right wing friends and family watch nothing but fox news (or OAN or Newsmax). They don't read books. The don't watch netflix or other streaming services. Just all right wing politics all the time. It rots their brains. 

Yep.  It becomes their life.

And the saddest part about it all is the strain right wing media puts on families.  I'm really not sure how Tucker, Hannity, etc sleep at night.  They literally ruin the lives of their viewers, telling them their own kids/friends/family members are their enemies.  I can't imagine why anyone would consciously do that to themselves.

2 minutes ago, VanHammersly said:

Yep.  It becomes their life.

And the saddest part about it all is the strain right wing media puts on families.  I'm really not sure how Tucker, Hannity, etc sleep at night.  They literally ruin the lives of their viewers, telling them their own kids/friends/family members are their enemies.  I can't imagine why anyone would consciously do that to themselves.

it's all they want to talk about. no matter where they are, even on vacation and its f'ng weird.

like dude, i'm camping and catching a buzz while i am fishing. stfu with your political BS and your daddy issues. 

20 hours ago, DrPhilly said:

A sheety trade.  Happy for her and her family but not a good move for the country.

This was always going to be the price for a high profile prisoner/hostage, though.

We’re also assuming government officials aren’t glad a prolific arms dealer is released. War supplies have made many of them a lot of money in the recent past.

She just better be Fing grateful for her good fortune.

9 minutes ago, VanHammersly said:

Yep.  It becomes their life.

And the saddest part about it all is the strain right wing media puts on families.  I'm really not sure how Tucker, Hannity, etc sleep at night.  They literally ruin the lives of their viewers, telling them their own kids/friends/family members are their enemies.  I can't imagine why anyone would consciously do that to themselves.

On piles of money. They're entertainers, and they are giving people what they want. Blaming Tucker, Hannity, Alex Jones, etc. is akin to blaming McDonald's for people being fat. 

At some point, personal responsibility has to factor in. 

3 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

On piles of money. They're entertainers, and they are giving people what they want. Blaming Tucker, Hannity, Alex Jones, etc. is akin to blaming McDonald's for people being fat.

Good for them, but they'll still have to answer at some point when the man comes around.

Quote

At some point, personal responsibility has to factor in. 

Not producing a show that literally ruins the lives of the people that watch it would be personal responsibility.  They make the content.  They should be rightly criticized for doing it.

I've been offered jobs in right wing media and I've turned them down; (I've actually used them for leverage to get more money from other shows), but in the end, I always turned them down.  People don't have to work in that industry if they find it reprehensible.  There's plenty of entertainment jobs.

1 hour ago, EagleJoe8 said:

Vikas in 2024!

He ain't taking a paycut.

2 hours ago, vikas83 said:

Once again -- all these things can be true:

1. It was a bad trade from a value perspective. We gave up way more than we received. That's just empirical fact.

2. The Biden administration was boxed in and had no choice but to make this deal. We may not like it, but very few people focused on Whelan until Griner was arrested and imprisoned. Putin is no idiot -- a lesbian, minority athlete = checks a bunch of boxes that Biden needs. Had Biden not gotten her out, this would have hung around him as an issue going into the 2024 campaign. So it was a political calculation, and they made the best deal they could while playing the game at a massive disadvantage. 

3. It's a good thing an American citizen is coming home.

Personally, I wouldn't have done the deal and tried to hold out, but I'm not looking to run for reelection in 2024.

I think it's also a political miscalculation. The cost of not taking this deal was pretty low, but even among the lefties who wanted to get Griner home all I'm seeing is that we way overpaid so to speak.

Biden comes out looking worse all around IMHO.

Good for Griner and her family for sure. Glad to have her home.

4 hours ago, Tnt4philly said:

 

Actually, this puts your "value” comment in a different context.

How so?

 

This is her first tweet ever about Whelan.

 

Really shocking.

3 minutes ago, 20dawk4life said:

How so?

It made me realize you were talking about her value to Putin and not as a person. 

3 hours ago, we_gotta_believe said:

That denotes value to Putin, not value to us. You're confusing the two. If he's actually guilty, obviously a convicted spy (not at our behest) would be of far more value to Putin than he would be to us. It's pretty straightforward stuff. 

I’m not confusing anything. Putin clearly valued the terrorist enough to not throw him, the marine, in with Griner. We had what he wanted, in the terrorist, and couldn’t use him to get back someone who took weed through an airport. Terrorist vs Weed? Which crime is worse? Who had the upper hand? 

1 minute ago, Tnt4philly said:

It made me realize you were talking about her value to Putin and not as a person. 

Well duh

5 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

I think it's also a political miscalculation. The cost of not taking this deal was pretty low, but even among the lefties who wanted to get Griner home all I'm seeing is that we way overpaid so to speak.

Biden comes out looking worse all around IMHO.

Good for Griner and her family for sure. Glad to have her home.

It just takes it completely off the table for 2024. People have no long-term memory. If she were still in jail, it could have been an issue.

9 minutes ago, VanHammersly said:

Good for them, but they'll still have to answer at some point when the man comes around.

Not producing a show that literally ruins the lives of the people that watch it would be personal responsibility.  They make the content.  They should be rightly criticized for doing it.

I've been offered jobs in right wing media and I've turned them down; (I've actually used them for leverage to get more money from other shows), but in the end, I always turned them down.  People don't have to work in that industry if they find it reprehensible.  There's plenty of entertainment jobs.

If they don't do it, someone will. The customers have to get smarter.

Just now, vikas83 said:

It just takes it completely off the table for 2024. People have no long-term memory. If she were still in jail, it could have been an issue.

Maybe. But now Whelan, who few people had heard about and fewer cared about, will become the rights answer to Griner.

Though if I'm being honest the right will always find some nonsense issue to **** and moan and rally around. So whatever.

Just now, vikas83 said:

If they don't do it, someone will. The customers have to get smarter.

You can't fix stupid. And there is an infinite supply of suckers.

Just now, JohnSnowsHair said:

Maybe. But now Whelan, who few people had heard about and fewer cared about, will become the rights answer to Griner.

Though if I'm being honest the right will always find some nonsense issue to **** and moan and rally around. So whatever.

This. 

Biden was making sure to shore up his base and avoid issues from the left.

Just now, vikas83 said:

If they don't do it, someone will. The customers have to get smarter.

Betting on the intelligence of the American people is a guaranteed loser.

I'm not saying the industry should be shut down or anything.  I'm saying they're morally reprehensible and should be called out whenever possible for the very real damage they do to the people that watch them with regularity. 

3 minutes ago, VanHammersly said:

Betting on the intelligence of the American people is a guaranteed loser.

I'm not saying the industry should be shut down or anything.  I'm saying they're morally reprehensible and should be called out whenever possible for the very real damage they do to the people that watch them with regularity. 

Fair enough. I honestly don't get too upset with them, because they are filling a market demand that exists and will be there no matter what. I just lament the stupidity of the general populace. 

This is one of the reasons I don't have kids. Idiocracy is real.

EDIT: Said another way, you say "betting on the intelligence of the American people is a guaranteed loser" -- and you're 100% right. I've just accepted we can't win.

Just now, vikas83 said:

Fair enough. I honestly don't get too upset with them, because they are filling a market demand that exists and will be there no matter what. I just lament the stupidity of the general populace. 

This is one of the reasons I don't have kids. Idiocracy is real.

So is human trafficking.

5 minutes ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

Maybe. But now Whelan, who few people had heard about and fewer cared about, will become the rights answer to Griner.

What happens when/if a deal is eventually made for him too? 

1 minute ago, VanHammersly said:

So is human trafficking.

There's a law against that. There isn't one against preaching to morons. If there were, a lot more than Fox News would be gone.

2 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Fair enough. I honestly don't get too upset with them, because they are filling a market demand that exists and will be there no matter what. I just lament the stupidity of the general populace. 

This is one of the reasons I don't have kids. Idiocracy is real.

EDIT: Said another way, you say "betting on the intelligence of the American people is a guaranteed loser" -- and you're 100% right. I've just accepted we can't win.

Weird to think that broadly speaking human beings have never been more intelligent than now, and yet here we are.

The bar is ... not high. 

2 minutes ago, Tnt4philly said:

What happens when/if a deal is eventually made for him too? 

The right will complain that we overpaid for a disgraced dishonorably discharged veteran who defrauded the military. Which is pretty much what they would have said had Biden gotten Whelan out instead of Griner.