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  1. #1021
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    New Bern, NC unless it's a home football game then I'm grilling on Devil's Alley
    Quote Originally Posted by Phredd3 View Post

    I tend to think Griner is a political prisoner, period.
    Yuval Weber, an expert in Russian military and political strategy, told Yahoo Sports last week that he expected Griner to receive the maximum possible sentence or close to it. The way Weber saw it, Russian government officials would dictate the length of Griner’s punishment based on what would allow them to extract the most out of the U.S. in negotiations for a prisoner swap or some other concession.

    ----------------------------

    “The political calculus, which the Kremlin knows, is that Biden cannot let her sit in a Russian prison for that long,” Partlett said.

    The one thing unanimously agreed on by experts is that Griner’s punishment wasn’t the judge’s decision alone. Former State Department foreign services officer David Salvo said high-ranking Russian officials likely dictated Griner’s sentence based on objectives that Russia was seeking to achieve.
    https://www.yahoo.com/sports/brittne...152534083.html
    Q "Why do you like Duke, you didn't even go there." A "Because my art school didn't have a basketball team."

  2. #1022
    I’m starting to dislike this Putin fellow. I don’t think he is very nice.

  3. #1023
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by Skydog View Post
    I’m starting to dislike this Putin fellow. I don’t think he is very nice.
    Skydog going way out on a limb here.

  4. #1024
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    WA State

    Amnesty International Report - Ukraine

    Since this thread previously condemned Russian attacks on civilian areas, I found this interesting - though not surprising in the least. Link

    Not every Russian attack documented by Amnesty has followed this pattern. In certain locations in which Amnesty concluded that Russia had committed war crimes - including in some areas of the city of Kharkiv - Amnesty did not find evidence of Ukrainian forces located in civilian areas unlawfully targeted by the Russian military.

    Between April and July, Amnesty researchers spent several weeks investigating Russian strikes in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions. Amnesty inspected strike sites, interviewed survivors, witnesses and relatives of victims of attacks, and carried out remote-sensing and weapons analysis. Throughout these investigations, Amnesty found evidence of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from within residential areas as well as basing themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages in the regions. Amnesty’s Crisis Evidence Lab analysed satellite imagery to further corroborate some of these incidents.

  5. #1025
    Quote Originally Posted by Acymetric View Post
    Skydog going way out on a limb here.
    I don't like to overreact but I'm not naive. If Putin invades more than a couple more countries, I'm going to have to start questioning his motives.

  6. #1026
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    Quote Originally Posted by Skydog View Post
    I don't like to overreact but I'm not naive. If Putin invades more than a couple more countries, I'm going to have to start questioning his motives.
    Do the various and sundry "Stans" count as countries, or are they more like venues? He could probably scarfle up a couple of those with no one noticing.

  7. #1027
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    Quote Originally Posted by budwom View Post
    Do the various and sundry "Stans" count as countries, or are they more like venues? He could probably scarfle up a couple of those with no one noticing.
    Eminem would not notice until it was too late.

  8. #1028
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Summerville ,S.C.
    Quote Originally Posted by budwom View Post
    Yeah...I don't want to get us into politics, but I've been a bit peeved about the widespread assertions that "the government is doing nothing" to free Griner. The state of U.S.-Russian relations is obvious (or should be) and to make it seem like someone could snap his fingers and get her home is either disingenuous or remarkably stupid.

    For anyone contemplating a test of other countries' drug laws, may I suggest a viewing of Midnight Express, a truly horrifying tale based on a true story. A Turkish prison makes Motel 6 look like the Connaught in London.

    (I once had my car almost completely dismantled by U.S. Customs at the border with Canada during the 1976 Olympics in Montreal)...something I won't soon forget.
    Customs does crazy stuff .




    My beef is we have others in our and various other jails for small amounts of cannabis. Free them all or none .
    If your a super star or a crackhead
    You get the same treatment .
    I'm a pro cannabis person. Even though I don't use it .

  9. #1029
    Quote Originally Posted by wavedukefan70s View Post
    Customs does crazy stuff .




    My beef is we have others in our and various other jails for small amounts of cannabis. Free them all or none .
    If your a super star or a crackhead
    You get the same treatment .
    I'm a pro cannabis person. Even though I don't use it .
    Yeah. The selective outrage about Russia holding a WNBA player while we have thousands in jail for similar offenses AND weed is increasingly legal...

    Just weird.

  10. #1030
    Quote Originally Posted by Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 View Post
    Yeah. The selective outrage about Russia holding a WNBA player while we have thousands in jail for similar offenses AND weed is increasingly legal...

    Just weird.
    I don't understand any of the outrage at actually enforcing the law. If you don't like the law, work to change the law, not condemn the outcomes of enforcement.

  11. #1031
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by Indoor66 View Post
    I don't understand any of the outrage at actually enforcing the law. If you don't like the law, work to change the law, not condemn the outcomes of enforcement.
    Judges have discretion in sentencing for many drug related offenses.

    Prosecutors exercise discretion in who and how to prosecute all the time, it is part of the job.

    Police officers also exercise discretion on when and who to cite.


    This is an awful argument (although I certainly agree that changing the laws is important).

  12. #1032
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont

    best of luck to this guy and his pals...

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/europ...ntl/index.html

    The Russians have arrested their top hypersonic weapons guy, and several others, one of whom allegedly spied for China. This is Vlad's pet project...no new dacha on the Black Sea for these chaps.

  13. #1033
    Quote Originally Posted by Indoor66 View Post
    I don't understand any of the outrage at actually enforcing the law. If you don't like the law, work to change the law, not condemn the outcomes of enforcement.
    I understand what you are saying. But having large numbers of people incarcerated for something that has decreasing penalties in today's world seems incredibly inconsistent.

    I'll say no more on the topic, because it is absolutely PPB material. But I'll happily discuss over PMs if you want.

  14. #1034
    Quote Originally Posted by Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 View Post
    I understand what you are saying. But having large numbers of people incarcerated for something that has decreasing penalties in today's world seems incredibly inconsistent.

    I'll say no more on the topic, because it is absolutely PPB material. But I'll happily discuss over PMs if you want.
    The flaw in your argument, to my view, is that it presumes to impose our view/policies on another society/country. By what right do we do that?

  15. #1035
    Quote Originally Posted by Indoor66 View Post
    The flaw in your argument, to my view, is that it presumes to impose our view/policies on another society/country. By what right do we do that?
    Oh, that's a completely different argument. I misunderstood.

    Yeah, I have said from the word go that it's quite an awkward situation.

    Didn't you say "work to change the law?" How would we do that on foreign soil? I think that's where I got confused.

  16. #1036
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Los Angeles
    Quote Originally Posted by Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15 View Post
    Yeah. The selective outrage about Russia holding a WNBA player while we have thousands in jail for similar offenses AND weed is increasingly legal...

    Just weird.
    Nobody is doing serious time in this country for possession of a small amount of cannabis. It has long been a misdemeanor in all jurisdictions that I’ve ever heard about , or even less, like an infraction. And now of course completely legal in many places. Sales or possession with intent to sell/distribute can be a different story but those typically involve larger amounts. The point is nobody in this country is doing time for what Griner did. What she did may be a big deal in Russia (although I’d bet dollars to donuts that few people in Russia caught with such small amounts are doing 9 years in prison - this is clearly political) but it isn’t here, and hasn’t been for a long time.

  17. #1037
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Vermont
    Quote Originally Posted by tommy View Post
    Nobody is doing serious time in this country for possession of a small amount of cannabis. It has long been a misdemeanor in all jurisdictions that I’ve ever heard about , or even less, like an infraction. And now of course completely legal in many places. Sales or possession with intent to sell/distribute can be a different story but those typically involve larger amounts. The point is nobody in this country is doing time for what Griner did. What she did may be a big deal in Russia (although I’d bet dollars to donuts that few people in Russia caught with such small amounts are doing 9 years in prison - this is clearly political) but it isn’t here, and hasn’t been for a long time.
    yeah, Griner was an opportunistic arrest victim...I just read she'd been warned by U.S. intelligence services not to go there. Of course she did have a million dollar reason to go.

  18. #1038
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by tommy View Post
    Nobody is doing serious time in this country for possession of a small amount of cannabis. It has long been a misdemeanor in all jurisdictions that I’ve ever heard about , or even less, like an infraction. And now of course completely legal in many places. Sales or possession with intent to sell/distribute can be a different story but those typically involve larger amounts. The point is nobody in this country is doing time for what Griner did. What she did may be a big deal in Russia (although I’d bet dollars to donuts that few people in Russia caught with such small amounts are doing 9 years in prison - this is clearly political) but it isn’t here, and hasn’t been for a long time.
    The bar for "intent to distribute" is laughably low to begin with and can be invoked in some cases even with small amounts that are obviously personal use to anyone with a brain (and I'm not suggesting the law enforcement officials involved are stupid, so feel free to extrapolate the rest of my position from there).

  19. #1039
    Quote Originally Posted by Indoor66 View Post
    The flaw in your argument, to my view, is that it presumes to impose our view/policies on another society/country. By what right do we do that?
    What are you arguing with respect to Russia’s policies, putting aside any comment or discussion on the US’s policies? A hallmark of autocracies is having a comprehensive set of crimes and penalties that can be selectively applied to the targets of the regime.

  20. #1040
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
    Location
    Western NC
    Quote Originally Posted by budwom View Post
    https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/europ...ntl/index.html

    The Russians have arrested their top hypersonic weapons guy, and several others, one of whom allegedly spied for China. This is Vlad's pet project...no new dacha on the Black Sea for these chaps.
    This story asks lots more questions than it answers. The biggest one is why the almost wholesale attempt (or success?) to reveal the hypersonic missile secrets to foreign powers. Was it just to China for money? Was it to Western countries as a protest against the Ukraine invasion? Or is this just a sign of Putin's paranoia, who like Stalin, is seeing disloyalty behind every bush?

    If it had been just one person selling secrets, I could believe a financial motivation, but three members of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (conveniently in Siberia, I'm sure right next to a gulag) apparently working together seems to be something more complicated. I wonder what it was? The Hunt for Red October has been on TV a lot lately, and I confess that watching it is a guilty pleasure. Do you suppose that these three scientists were trying to defect with a top Russian military secret to avoid a world war?

    Just one ping please...

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