Oh, So That's Why Biden Took the Deal to Get a WNBA Star Out of Russia

 Townhall

. . .They decided to take it because this collection of officials who bathe in a putrid mix of mediocrity and ineptitude wanted this issue off the table. . .

"As we’ve noted here, when it comes to The Art of the Deal, Biden doesn’t have it, which was painfully exposed when he pulled the trigger on a bad deal to get back WNBA star Brittney Griner who has been detained in Russia for months. In February, Griner was jailed on drug charges, with vape charges containing cannabis oil on her person. It was for medicinal purposes, but it’s illegal in Russia. A months-long legal circus carried allegations that the Biden White House either didn’t know or care that an American was being detained overseas. It also didn’t help that Griner’s detention occurred just as the Biden administration and the rest of the West slapped sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. 

"To complicate matters, a pre-arranged phone call between Griner and her wife, Cherelle, was botched when no one was at the front desk of our embassy in Russia to connect the call. It was on the couple’s anniversary, no less. The Biden administration did apologize for this oversight, citing staffing shortages on weekends, but this call was scheduled weeks in advance. It only added to the narrative that the Biden administration was incompetent, which isn’t necessarily a lie. Since then, Cherelle has been quite critical of how the Biden White House had handled this whole affair, especially since Donald Trump was able to get Lavar Ball’s son out of China when the latter was allegedly involved in a shopfitting incident there. 

"With Christmas time upon us, Griner was released on the condition that arms dealer Viktor Bout, who also goes by the Merchant of Death, would be freed. That was the deal: an arms dealer for a black lesbian WNBA player. On its face, you can’t help but realize that Biden got played. ". . .

Republican Babes-in-the-Woods Will Soon Meet the Democrat Realpolitik

Bookworm

 American Thinker  Along these lines, Biden’s White house recently dismissed the Hunter laptop stories as – Old News.  Old News, while at the same time Democrats continue to go back centuries to find dirt on anyone, including Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson – if it serves their modern socialist propaganda purposes. 

"When they take control of the House, Republicans have said that they will investigate Joe Biden.  

"Democrats will not sit still for this and are already preparing to attack any investigations and any Republicans who are involved. 

"Republicans have made no secret of the fact that in the new Congress, they are planning to use their oversight powers to launch investigations of the Biden clan’s finances, the fiasco at the southern border, and the politicization DOJ/FBI – among other things. . . . 

. . ." At this point it’s good to remember what Paul A. Goble, a former State Department official, said in his article: “How Russian and Soviet Propaganda Differ.” 

The Russians he said, had learned that in an information era they could count on deceiving only those who wanted to be deceived.  Fortunately for them, he continued, these gullible individuals are extremely numerous.  An addition to this would be – and you can count on the American press to keep them gullible and accepting of the socialist messaging. 

There are two considerations here.  First, much of this came out before Elon Musk released the Twitter emails that exposed the collusion between social media, the DNC, the Biden campaign, and possibly government agencies.  But it sure fits the way they have always done business.  Second, the empire is already striking back.  The mainstream press is already working with/for the Democrats trying to downplay the Laptop from Hell scandal.  Additionally, Wikipedia is reportedly considering removing entries on the collusion Twitter Files Elon Musk has released from their site.  One reason they gave was that they were nothing new and had been ignored by the media. 

Ignored by the media.  There you have the Liberal media’s playbook and their most dangerous tool.  First, they ignore an inconvenient story – then they say it never happened because they didn’t report it.  And if you argue the point they (and all their friends) will call you extremists and racists. 

As they say in advertising, if you're explaining you're losing.  Democrats attack.  The Republicans snivel and defend and never attack.  That’s why no one pays any attention to their arguments.  This must change if things have any chance of getting better.

Soros, Biden, and the News media

 

Rich Terrell

Propaganda Czar: Soros Bankrolls 253 Groups to Influence Global Media   "Leftist billionaire George Soros used his charities to build ties with hundreds of media organizations around the world involved in news and activist media. The journalism and activist media groups Soros supports mold public opinion on practically every continent and in many languages. They also insulate him from inquiry because reporters see him as an ally, not a target for investigation.

"The 92-year-old philanthropist’s multimillion-dollar efforts promoting his bizarre “open society” agenda encompass some of the most radical leftist ideas on abortion, Marxist economics, anti-Americanism, defunding the police, environmental extremism and LGBT fanaticism. 

"His global media clout is massive. An extensive analysis by MRC Business discovered at least 253 news and activist media organizations across the world financed by Soros’ philanthropic organizations. These groups wield massive power over information in international politics. ". . .

openDemocracy Is a Cesspool of Leftist Extremism. OSF gave at least $1,633,457 to openDemocracy between 2016 and 2020. The outlet pushes extreme leftist content masquerading as journalism. It promotes transgender ideology in children, anti-Christian propaganda, calls for the abolishment of the nuclear family, climate radicalism and anti-Semitism. openDemocracy flaunts that it “attracts more than 11 million visits per year” and publishes “in Russian, Spanish and Portuguese as well as English.” . . .

Does Soros hold sway even over Fox News?  Fox News anchor addresses cutting off Gingrich linking Soros to violent protests | The Hill  . . ."On Wednesday, Gingrich argued that money provided by the billionaire progressive activist Soros was helping to fuel riots in multiple U.S. cities throughout the summer following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

"“Progressive district attorneys are anti-police, pro-criminal, and overwhelmingly elected with George Soros’s money. And they’re a major cause of the violence we’re seeing because they keep putting the violent criminals back on the street,” Gingrich said Wednesday.

“I’m not sure we need to bring George Soros into this,” said co-host Melissa Francis.

“I was going to say you get the last word, Speaker,” Faulker said.

“He paid for it. I mean, why can’t we discuss the fact that millions of dollars…” Gingrich said before co-host Marie Harf injected.

“No, he didn’t. I agree with Melissa. George Soros doesn’t need to be a part of this conversation,” Harf said.

“OK. So it’s verboten,” Gingrich replied.". . .

'

Kevin McCarthy Plans to Subpoena Intel Experts Who Signed Letter Calling Hunter Biden Laptop Russian Disinfo

 Legal Insurrection,

“Why did you use the reputation that America was able to give to you more information, but use it for a political purpose and lie to the American public?”

"Mark Moore of the New York Post has more on this:

Former CIA Director John Brennan and ex-National Security Council Director James Clapper were among a group of former intelligence officials who signed a statement days after the expose, claiming it “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

McCarthy questioned the move.

“Why did you use the reputation that America was able to give to you … but use it for a political purpose and lie to the American public?” he said on Fox.

Republicans are preparing to launch a number of investigations into the Biden family as a result of The Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden’s overseas business relationships while his father was vice president in the Obama administration.

"Some conservatives have expressed apprehension about McCarthy as Speaker, but he seems to be working hard to ease those concerns."

“They’re Losing Their Christian Values. They’re Losing Their Families. It Is No Longer the America We Knew” – International Arms Dealer Viktor Bout Gives First Interview Since His Release from US Prison

"The Merchant of Death" thinks America has lost her moral compass!

 The Gateway Pundit   "Victor Bout gave his first interview on Saturday since his release from prison in the US.

"On Friday, Joe Biden traded the “Merchant of Death” for pot-smoking America-hating WNBA star Brittney Griner.

"WNBA star Brittney Griner was found guilty of drug smuggling with criminal intent in a Russian court back in August. Russian prosecutors pushed for a sentence of 9.5 years in a penal colony.

"Russia released Brittney in exchange for international arms dealer Viktor Bout.

"Vikor Bout, known as the “merchant of death,” is a former Soviet military officer, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and provide material support to a terrorist organization. Bout has maintained he is innocent – via CNN.

"Bout armed terrorist groups in some of the most violent conflicts in the world.

"On Saturday Viktor Bout sat down with Maria Butina from Russia Today in his first interview since his release from US prison.

"Viktor Bout told RT: “They’re losing their Christian values." [Emphasis mine,TD] "They’re losing their families. They’re losing literally their country. It is not anymore the same country we knew America used to be, the model for the entire world and lead and be an example. Like they say, you know, a sparkling town on a hill.”

Biden allies move to intimidate witnesses ahead of GOP’s coming Hunter probe

Jonathan Turley  "Just when you thought our politics could not get more poisonous, a recent meeting in California suggests the past is mere prelude. The Washington Post, which revealed the powwow, described it as Biden family “allies” planning an offensive to blunt any investigation into the Bidens’ alleged multimillion-dollar influence-peddling schemes.

"Republicans will see it more like the gathering of the Legion of (Democratic) Doom. Some of the most controversial political operatives are involved in the all-hands-on-deck effort to protect the Bidens.

"The California meeting’s host was none other than Hunter Biden’s friend, agent and lawyer Kevin Morris. After Hunter was placed under investigation for, among other possible charges, tax evasion, Morris reportedly paid off as much as $2.8 million in back taxes for Hunter.

"Morris, per the Washington Post, called for a “more aggressive” response to those seeking to investigate the alleged influence peddling. That plan includes hitting critics, such as Fox News, with possible defamation lawsuits. (For full disclosure, I appear as a legal analyst on Fox News.)". . .

. . ."Morris could also be taking a real risk. There are already questions about whether he was acting as counsel, agent or friend in reportedly paying off tax debts for Hunter Biden. Rules of professional ethics demand clarity in legal representation.

"The Post described the meeting as a “glimpse into a sprawling infrastructure that is rapidly, almost frantically, assembling to combat Republicans’ plans to turn Hunter Biden into a major news story when the GOP takes over the House next year.” It also discussed an array of well-known lawyers the Biden family has assembled as well as plans by the White House and Democratic National Committee.

"Various Democratic groups plan to attack efforts to disclose the Bidens’ multimillion-dollar efforts by attacking Donald Trump’s family. These include the Congressional Integrity Project, which recently hired Jeff Peck, the chief of staff to Biden when he was a senator. These talking points are already appearing in the media, which are heavily invested in denying any scandal connected to the family."

Viktor Bout Mocks U.S. on Russian TV and Shows How Bad the Griner Swap Truly Was

"He also mocked the U.S. and the “72 genders” with which he said our society was obsessed. What are the LGBTQ people going to think about this guy that Biden just released?"

Image by D Gray.

RedState  "The reactions to the lopsided Brittney Griner/Viktor Bout swap are still coming in.

"Here’s Derek Maltz, former DEA Special Operations Director, talking with Fox News, describing the effort they made to put Bout in jail, what a danger he was to the world, and that he was convicted on serious terrorism charges. He notes that even the Obama administration got how serious this was and Joe Biden was the Vice President at the time, so he had to know what a danger Bout was to the world.

“ 'Putin has just established a new tool,” Maltz said, and others will “take advantage of the weakness” that Joe Biden just displayed with this trade. Maltz also pointed out how Joe Biden is “pro-gun-control.” Yet, Biden just released the biggest arms dealer Maltz had ever seen back to Russia in the middle of the war with Ukraine. 

“ 'How ironic and how disgusting is that?” Maltz said. Maltz notes how Bout is going to be mad at the U.S. for holding him in jail and he’s going to owe Putin for bringing him back home — just the type of guy that Putin needs to help him in his war.

"Russian television is already laughing about the swap, as we reported.

"John Kirby didn’t seem to think that the deal posed any real risk to national security, saying the Biden team thought it was “manageable” and that Bout was going to be let out at some point in the future anyway. Yes, he said that, as a justification for letting him out in exchange for Griner.

"Kirby may want to reevaluate that assessment as Bout is already talking to Russian television and mocking the United States. Bout said he was very supportive of the invasion of Ukraine — indeed, he said he didn’t know why they hadn’t done more earlier, and if he had been around, he said he would have been involved.". . .

Recently freed from jail in the US, the "merchant of death" Viktor Bout tells Maria Butina how horrified he was to learn in America that there are 72 genders

"Not just gay people and normal people, but 72!" pic.twitter.com/nMw7k0hpvl

— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) December 10, 2022 

Brittney Griner, "a basketball player who openly hates our country" - Voz Media

That the Biden Administration went into action over a woman who spat on our flag and anthem, but left behind a Marine who would die for that same flag and anthem, and they see nothing wrong with that? An exchange??. A convicted Russian arms dealer, also known as the merchant of death, in exchange for a drug-addicted lesbian who hates America.

So Michelle Obama was behind Twitter's ban of Trump all along

Monica Showalter

Being good puppets for the Democrats, Twitter did as it was told, and banned the president of the United States, happily leaving Vlad Putin, the Taliban, Hezb'allah, Antifa, child porno purveyors, assorted child groomers, and Iran's mullahs to tweet their tweets without him.

"Michelle Obama, wife of President Obama, was one of the Democrat outsiders who pressed Twitter to make the unprecedented move to ban President Trump, then a sitting United States president, from that company's platform.

"That's the latest revelation from the latest installment of the Twitter files, done by independent journalist Michael Shellenberger.

"According to Fox News:

Former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter the day after former first lady Michelle Obama and others demanded the company "permanently" remove him, according to the newest "Twitter Files" installment.

On Saturday, CEO Elon Musk and journalist Michael Shellenberger released the fourth batch of Twitter documents that show internal communications by the company’s executives between Jan. 6-8, 2021, including and shortly after the riot at the Capitol Building.

Among the files, Shellenberger reported "internal and external pressure," including from the former first lady, fell onto the company calling for Trump to be banned from using Twitter. . .

Karl Rove Who Ran PAC Ads Supportive of Top Democrat Candidate and Held a Fundraiser for Adam Kinzinger Blames Trump for Midterm Losses

 The Gateway Pundit

The Daily Mail reported:

Kinsinger, of Cheney- Kinsinger

Karl Rove, a senior White House adviser during the Bush Jr. presidency, squarely put the blame on Donald Trump for the GOP not taking the Senate and falling short of the predicted ‘red tsunami’ in the 2022 midterms.

The top GOP strategist explained on the Cats Roundtable radio show that Republican voters didn’t vote a straight red ticket because there were candidates endorsed by Trump for which they couldn’t in good conscience cast their ballot.

‘We had a lot of candidates, who, at the end of the day, Republicans… couldn’t vote for,’ Rove told host John Catsimatidis.

‘The reason was we ended up with some knuckleheads who were endorsed by President Trump without proper vetting,’ he continued.

Rove, who was former President George W. Bush’s deputy chief of staff, listed some examples of candidates that Trump endorsed who he deemed unelectable.

‘Quality of candidates matters,’ Rove insisted. . .

UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER: Biden’s catastrophic legacy in Afghanistan

 Bare Naked Islam

“So the whole world just became vastly more dangerous. The U.S. government – President Biden humiliated the United States. He humiliated the United States Army,”

"Fox News contributor Gen. Jack Keane (Ret) slammed the Biden administration for the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the damaging effects the U.S. absence has had in the region.

“It’s a year later, and it’s still hard to fathom what we did here. And now we have the Taliban in charge doing what they were doing 20-plus years ago: providing sanctuary to al Qaeda.”

BEYOND TRAGIC: Brother of U.S. Marine, who was killed in Afghanistan due to Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal, commits suicide at memorial for his fallen little brother

. . ."China is also poised to use Afghanistan’s wealth of minerals and natural resources as a way to “hit against the West,” he said.

“So the whole world just became vastly more dangerous. The U.S. government – President Biden humiliated the United States. He humiliated the United States Army,” Kemp argued.". . .

Headlines you never would have seen just a few short years ago

  Eric Utter  . . .All but two of these headlines were gleaned from one day's worth of perusing the news.  That's correct: ten of the twelve were from reports of December 1.  Any one of them illustrates a profound change in society from not so long ago and portends potentially dire consequences.

"Taken together, they are quite a snapshot of America (and the West in general) circa 2022.  None of these would have been thinkable in 1972.  Or 1982.  Probably not in 2012, either.

"So-called progressives are winning the culture wars in a rout.  But this doesn't look like "progress" to me.  It looks like a harbinger of chaos and disaster."

For example:

*In too deep: John Fetterman's wife claims that swimming is 'very racist' —MSN      

That's correct.  Every time I go for a swim, I'm really trying to stick it to BIPOCs!  You've gotta be kidding me.  Mrs. Fetterman can go jump in the lake!  (Except that would be racist.) 

Tucker Carlson's onetime 'Liberal Sherpa,' Cathy Areu, is arrested and in jail in Miami

  Peter Barry Chowka  

 "In the early days of Tucker Carlson’s prime time Fox News show (from shortly after its premiere in 2017 until around 2020), before it found its current footing, a frequent guest, dubbed the “liberal sherpa,” was Cathy Areu. She served as an outrageous foil for Carlson, who debated her on her outrageous claims of support for a variety of bizarre radical left positions.

"On Friday, December 9, Areu was arrested and jailed in Miami, Florida, according to the Daily Mail which broke the story, for “kidnapping her own mom TWICE and scamming her out of $224,000.”

"The Daily Mail article, published on December 9, goes into detail about the alleged crimes of Areu – felonies – which landed her in jail in Florida.

"According to the Daily Mail, which often breaks stories in the U.S. that other media fail to report:

Cathy Areu, 51, was arrested on Friday in Miami and faces numerous charges

Prosecutors say she defrauded her own 88-year-old mom for at least $224,000

Areu allegedly tried to drag her mother to a nursing home against her will. . .

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who has covered national politics, the politics and economics of health care, popular culture, and media for over five decades.  His web page with links to his work is http://peter.media.