Griner, Brittney
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 12 22</font></div><div><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Basketball star Brittney Griner is back in the United States after her <a href="https://www.alternet.org/brittney-griner-u-s-basketball-star-caught-up-in-russia-crisis/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">December 8</a> release from a Russian prison. Griner, who spent almost 10 months imprisoned in Russia, was serving a nine-year sentence on a drug smuggling charge but was released as part of a prisoner exchange; the United States agreed to release Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for Griner’s release.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Civil libertarians all over the world described Griner’s arrest and imprisonment as politically motivated, as it came during a time of considerable tensions between the United States and Russia. On February 17, Griner was detained after Russian customs officials found less than a gram of medically prescribed hash oil in her luggage. And in August, Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Griner’s release was applauded by countless civil libertarians and critics of the War on Drugs. But a long list of MAGA Republicans, on the other hand, are furious that the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) player was released. <b>And libertarian/conservative journalist Cathy Young vehemently calls them out in a biting <a href="https://www.thebulwark.com/right-wing-creeps-claim-bringing-brittney-griner-home-was-woke/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">article published by The Bulwark</a> on December 16.</b></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="file:///C:/Users/breas/OneDrive/Documents/Windows%20Files%20(PC)/AlterNet%20Folder%202022%20(PC)/James%20Carville:%20Right-wing%20ire%20over%20Brittney%20Griner%20is%20because%20she%20'is%20not%20white%20and%20is%20not%20straight'" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><strong>James Carville: Right-wing ire over Brittney Griner is because she 'is not white and is not straight'</strong></a></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Since just about everything is potential fodder for culture wars these days,” Young argues, “it’s no surprise that the return to the United States of basketball player Brittney Griner, detained in Russia on a drug charge earlier this year, turned into another such skirmish. What is notable, though, is the extent to which American far-right punditry has been almost literally reciting Kremlin propaganda talking points — and putting identity politics over basic solidarity with a fellow American.”</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Young describes Griner as a former “hostage” of the Kremlin.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Bringing American hostages home — and there is little doubt that Griner, arrested days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was being held hostage — is surely a cause for patriotic celebration,” Young writes. “But many commentators on the right touted the trade as evidence that the Biden Administration was Woke Central: Griner is Black and gay — gay-married, even! — and spoke out against the American anthem being played at WNBA games during the summer 2020 racial justice protests. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That two other Americans, ex-Marine Paul Whelan and history teacher Mark Fogel, still remain in Russian prisons — the former on spying charges, the latter in a marijuana-possession case very similar to Griner’s — became further evidence of wokeness run amok, or a decision based on ‘DEI’ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) policies.”</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Young cites specific examples of anti-Griner comments from the far right. On December 8, <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1600869858689679360" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Donald Trump, Jr.</a> tweeted, “The Biden Admin was apparently worried that their DEI score would go down if they freed an American Marine.” And <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1600877109827710977" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Matt Walsh</a>, that same day, tweeted, “Unfortunately Marc Fogel and Paul Whelan made the mistake of being white men. The rules of intersectionality dictate that the black woman gets freed first. That's one of the primary factors driving this, whether we want to admit it out loud or not.”</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.alternet.org/tucker-carlson-2658910168/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><strong>Tucker Carlson pushes bizarre, racist theory about Britney Griner’s release from a Russian prison</strong></a></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmaxs-benny-johnson-attacks-brittney-griner-drug-addict-america-hating-criminal-who" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Newsmax’s Benny Johnson</a> said of Griner and the Biden Administration, “They knew they had to appeal (to) the left-wing, woke wing of their party. They wouldn’t allow a Black woman, lesbian woman, drug addict, <b style="">America-hating woke</b>, to be kept in prison in Russia. One of ours. Not the Marine. Not the person who served this country. No, no. One of ours. Somebody on the <b>identity</b>-politics spectrum who’s notched every single victory that you could ever hope for inside of the vector of <b>woke</b> politics.”</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Young points out that similar rhetoric has been coming from the Russian media</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. For example, RT’s <a href="https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1601038359626805249" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Margarita Simonyan</a>, during an appearance on Russia’s TV-1 program “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov,” commented, “I found it very amusing, though not surprising, that Bout was finally traded for Griner, not Whelan…. (Whelan) is a hero, a decorated Marine covered in medals. <b>He only has one — no, two — no, three, problems. First problem: He’s white. Second problem: He’s a man. Third problem: It seems he’s hetero.</b> This is something that just can’t be forgiven these days…. American voters were given a choice: A hero who suffered in the service of his country…. or a black lesbian hooked on drugs who suffered for a vape with <b>hash</b>.”</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Young also notes that in the prisoner exchange, the Biden Administration <em style="">didn’t</em> choose Griner over the other American prisoners being held in Russia; the Kremlin’s offer was “Griner or no one” — a fact that “right-wing propagandists in the United States” overlooked when they “recycled Kremlin talking points.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Also not mentioned: Trevor Reed, another former U.S. Marine and one-time Russian prisoner who happens to be white, male, and heterosexual,” Young writes. “Despite these three strikes, Reed — detained in Moscow in 2019 on probably bogus charges of assault on two police officers — was freed in late April in a swap for Russian pilot and convicted drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko, a highly inconvenient fact for the ‘woke points’ narrative…. For the overwhelming majority, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan are both Americans. You’d think the ‘All Lives Matter’ gang could grasp that.”</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.alternet.org/adam-schiff-americans-political-chip/" target="_self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><strong>Adam Schiff warns Americans risk being captured and 'used as a political chip' in Iran, North Korea, Russia</strong></a></p></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma 12 22</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(58, 67, 78); font-family: bagatela, serif; font-size: 19.7354px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">MATT WALSH (HOST): </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">It is quite -- quite, quite sad that the guy, the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> international arms smuggler </span><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">who we traded back to Russia appears, based on what he said, to love America more than the woman we traded for. </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">OK, those are sentiments that you're never going to hear from Brittney Griner. She wouldn't even be able to express it. Both because she lacks the articulation required but also because she just doesn't see America -- she hates America. She really does.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(58, 67, 78); font-family: bagatela, serif; font-size: 19.7354px;">When you refuse to -- when you say, I'm not going to go onto the court when the national anthem is played, that is -- I mean that can only be driven by pure scorn and resentment for your home country. You would never hear that from Brittney Griner. <b>Instead we hear it from the Russian guy, the guy that we're trading back to Russia. So, we're sending away the person who loves America more and bringing in the person who hates America. </b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; color: rgb(58, 67, 78); font-family: bagatela, serif; font-size: 19.7354px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now, now, look, what you're hearing there -- there's a reason why they did the interview in English, right? Is this, perhaps, a ploy on the part of Russia? Is that, you know, a part of this? That's probably the case. But even so, it's still quite sad that the woman we're bringing in would never say anything like that. And everything he said is true. Whether he really believes any of that, I have no idea. But what he said is true.</span></p></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="font-size: medium;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/not-white-and-not-straight/">https://www.alternet.org/not-white-and-not-straight/</a> cajun</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/following-brittney-griners-release-russian-detainment-right-wing-media-figures-blast-her">https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/following-brittney-griners-release-russian-detainment-right-wing-media-figures-blast-her</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/right-wing-media-echo-russian-state-tv-attacks-brittney-griner">https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/right-wing-media-echo-russian-state-tv-attacks-brittney-griner</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/steven-crowder/blazes-steven-crowder-launches-vile-personal-attacks-brittany-griner-shes-not-best">https://www.mediamatters.org/steven-crowder/blazes-steven-crowder-launches-vile-personal-attacks-brittany-griner-shes-not-best</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmaxs-benny-johnson-attacks-brittney-griner-drug-addict-america-hating-criminal-who">https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmaxs-benny-johnson-attacks-brittney-griner-drug-addict-america-hating-criminal-who</a></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander claims he was “offered a job at Twitter in 2018”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/09/22 9:03 AM EST</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson claims Joe Biden wants Paul Whelan to remain imprisoned in Russia because he's white</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 9:03 PM EST</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News host says hostage exchange for Brittney Griner “should never have been made, ever”</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 8:01 PM EST</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington Post columnist criticizes hostage exchange that freed Brittney Griner, claims it will “create more hostage-taking”</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 7:37 PM EST</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Elon Musk reinstates Twitter accounts of proud Islamophobe Laura Loomer and bigoted conspiracy theorist Roger Stone</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 5:57 PM EST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matt Walsh: Brittney Griner will “return to us more committed to her own self-victimization and personal resentments than ever before”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 4:49 PM EST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Timcast contributor gives full-throttle endorsement of Ye for president</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 3:29 PM EST</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dana Loesch: If other American prisoners in Russia “were as anti-American as Brittney Griner” then “maybe they'd be released a hell of a lot quicker”</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 3:24 PM EST</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charlie Kirk: “If you're a WNBA, pot-smoking, Black lesbian, do you get treated better than a United States Marine?”</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 2:40 PM EST</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing media praised Herschel Walker’s decision to double down on anti-trans attacks before he lost the Georgia Senate election</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 2:25 PM EST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Climate deniers gain traction on Elon Musk's Twitter</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 2:15 PM EST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Blaze's Steven Crowder launches vile personal attacks on Brittany Griner: “She's not the best among us”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/08/22 </font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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