so, yeah......

we traded a convicted arms dealer nicknamed 'the merchant of death' for a wnba player with an out of control growth hormone who brought thc oil into a country who imprisons weed dealers pretty much for life?

great trade.

wth people?

and speaking of trades.....contreras, my son thought you were the greatest catcher in the world, and you going to the cards.....he's very upset.

yes, he understands how baseball trading works.

thank God he's not a fan of johnny bench.

net wrote:we traded a convicted arms dealer nicknamed 'the merchant of death' for a wnba player with an out of control growth hormone who brought thc oil into a country who imprisons weed dealers pretty much for life?

great trade.

wth people?

worse than the hershel walker deal
maybe they can get the former marine as the detainee to be named later.

Not as bad as the Russell Wilson trade.

Worst trade for a woman since Coach Ditka gave up the Saints entire draft capital for Ricky Williams.

this guy still in russia. very similar charges to the griner woman. however, he's in a much different demographic (white, male, hetero) than griner.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/10/marc-fogel-russia-brittney-griner-00073363

net wrote:we traded a convicted arms dealer nicknamed 'the merchant of death' for a wnba player with an out of control growth hormone who brought thc oil into a country who imprisons weed dealers pretty much for life?

great trade.

wth people?

The "Merchant of Death" was getting out in six years anyway...the Russian position was (paraphrasing) "we will just wait the six years to get our guy out, take the trade we offer or nothing".

If that is the Russian position then the options suck. Either get the WNBA gal or get nothing and in six years send the guy back to Russia for nothing. We could have kidnapped a few Russian diplomats and charged them with something. Then offer to trade for those guys. That sounds like it might start a kidnapping war.

I went to Mexico City on Halloween weekend. The Day of the Dead, an F1 race and a good friend's son's wedding all rolled into one. I was warned not to raise my hand to hail a taxi because there are kidnappers there looking for someone to voluntarily hop in their car. That would never have occurred to me. Kidnapping is just not something I was trained to fear. I spent four days there worrying about it.

Teetime wrote:

net wrote:we traded a convicted arms dealer nicknamed 'the merchant of death' for a wnba player with an out of control growth hormone who brought thc oil into a country who imprisons weed dealers pretty much for life?

great trade.

wth people?

The "Merchant of Death" was getting out in six years anyway...the Russian position was (paraphrasing) "we will just wait the six years to get our guy out, take the trade we offer or nothing".

If that is the Russian position then the options suck. Either get the WNBA gal or get nothing and in six years send the guy back to Russia for nothing. We could have kidnapped a few Russian diplomats and charged them with something. Then offer to trade for those guys. That sounds like it might start a kidnapping war.

I went to Mexico City on Halloween weekend. The Day of the Dead, an F1 race and a good friend's son's wedding all rolled into one. I was warned not to raise my hand to hail a taxi because there are kidnappers there looking for someone to voluntarily hop in their car. That would never have occurred to me. Kidnapping is just not something I was trained to fear. I spent four days there worrying about it.  

Plus, releasing Griner when that ex Marine Whelan is kept imprisoned in Russia adds to the culture wars and polarization in this country.  Can't tell you how many social media forwarded posts I've seen from people who are dupes for Russian bots claiming/implying that Biden bargained for Griner over Whelan, as if he was given a choice.  

If anyone thinks that Putin and his regime are not above this kind of manipulation, they are not very well informed.