By agreeing to release from Russian prisons Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan, and Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American editor working for Radio Free Europe, a news station funded by the federal government, Putin drove a stake through the ambitions of Donald Trump to be the one who achieved the prisoners’ release. “Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, will do that for me, but not for anyone else,” Trump claimed on his social media account as recently as May. Trump went on to allege that Gershkovich “will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office.”
On mastodon it's been noted that Biden did this when everyone in the press had already decided that he'd outlived his usefulness and had to step out of the race.
There are reports from another source that Biden finalized the deal of the swap just an hour before he announced that he was leaving the race.
Imagine the pressure this man was under-being assailed by everyone to leave a campaign because 'you're not young enough to do this job' and then doing the most delicate negotiating with our biggest opponent with the lives of so many people on the line while doing your day job.
But yeah, Biden was too old. I bet the hostages he just got freed from captivity wouldn't say so.
Tell me another one about how Trump did anything of usefulness besides fart in the water. Trump did nothing, Putin just showed him who is going to win, and Trump is totally done.
I always believed in Biden, and I still think that Biden would have won, but the enthusiasm about Harris is contagious. I hope she wins big because her running is already making Americans feel bolder towards Trump. She is not deferential at all. In fact, her responses to his lies remind me of dealing with 3rd grade students who are still in a make believe state of existence, or have learned to get attention by blurting out fantastical things. I might not be so direct, but I would be saying, I do not see how you are making that connection, explain it to me. Then, questioning each part that does not match I would teach them not to just say things to be saying it. So, we can say Harris is schooling Trump.
The exigencies of politics ended up being too big to ignore, and President Biden got caught in the turbulence. Down ballot Dems in tough races were worried about their chances. The goddamn MSM treat him poorly. Did the MSM call for trump to drop out after the E Jean Carroll verdict? Or after the 34 felony convictions? Or after each time trump rants nonsensically at one of his hate-fests? Joe Biden deserved better treatment, but in the end did something true to his character. He gave up power for the greater good. Contrast that with the sociopath who wants to cling to power perpetually
I'm a little lost about the "value" of farting "in the water" -- at least, as an adult. I remember that as a very small person, those bubbles in the bathtub made me laugh so hard tears came from my eyes. Whoa! Perhaps bathtub farts were the inspiration for whoever created the emoji showing the laughing face with tears coming from its eyes.
It was Biden’s squeeze on Putin’s assets and heavy sanctions on Russia that also got this exchange going also. I watched most of Sullivan’s exchange with reporters this morning and yes, his answer to an obvious Fox or OAN journalist was brilliant.
Trump is a racist ass and proved it yesterday. That’s all we need to seal any deal. #YESWEKAM
Don't forget that for years Drumpf claimed that he was Swedish. His father Fred, who fled Germany to evade the draft, claimed he was Swedish to make it easier to sell his apartments to Jewish refugees after WWII. It was only after investigators went to Germany to trace Fred's background that Drumpf finally started admitting (or who knows, discovering?) that he was German. JD has changed his name five times and his kids are mixed race Indian. All of this posturing on their part is just pointless, Kamala is smart to ignore it.
Oooops, you're right. The grandfather, Friedrich was German, but in America during the Klondike Gold Rush, where he became wealthy running a brothel. Friedrich then returned to Kallstadt Germany, married, and Fred was conceived. Friedrich was then banished from Germany as a draft dodger and settled in the Bronx, where Fred was then born. Fred grew up speaking only German. Apologies for the detour down the rabbit hole.
Yay! I knew when I read that the exchange was happening that Putin was showing that Kamala's popularity intimidated him and he no longer believes in Trump and JD Vance. Yay!
Putin has been on top of it since Glasnost. He has had a whole career of knowing what's going on. Too bad his moral compas has been de-gaused and swings at odds with humanity. He could easily have helped Yeltsin build a democratic republic in the former CCCP.
I will have to add that I am worried for my dear friends in Vladivostok, Vladimir, Souzdal and St Petersburg. Wonderful caring and America loving Soviet scientists that I worked with in Marine Geology on the first Soviet/USA joint scienific project. thirty some years ago. We used to visit back and forth when Aeroflot was easy out of San Fransisxo. For the last fifteen years or so, I dare not call or write to them for fear that they could be put in danger. I miss those wonderful people.
I’m not sure he’s competent enough to do build a democratic republic. The economy he oversees is pathetic and his army is still weak despite all the resources he pours into it. He’s good at propaganda and grabbing power and money by intimidating people with violence. He’s a thug.
Probably the all-time record high GoFundMe campaign: Raise enough $ to convince putin to accept a gift trump. (Of course then we'd have to find a way to get the $ back.)
Putin doesn't want him. He's a destructive Russian asset useful here in the USA. Plus I don't think Vlad wants to be pestered by ass kissing trump all the time if trump lived in Russia
Lucian, totally agree with your writing as always. And it was Biden that got this done. I need to make a comment on Lt. Calley. Your piece was wonderful but I need to correct a some of it. I am an obnoxious pedant, I do know a bit about Calley's later life, as time went on, and just now I looked up more on Calley (wikipedia). After he was freed, he worked as a car salesman for a while, he married (had one son) and then worked for his father-in-law in a jewelry store where he became a gemologist and later a real estate salesperson. He divorced about twenty years ago and lived on welfare, I am pretty sure, until he died.
In 2009 he spoke at the Kiwanis club in Georgia saying this:
There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry
He actually died in April of this year but no one discovered this until now. On his death certificate it is marked NO in the area "served in the military."
Personally, I think that shows the article was not totally fair. He did have empathy, he did have remorse. And for me, as almost always happens in all walks of life, the little guy gets punished and the big guy goes free. The general and on down knew what was happening not just in Mai Lai but in many other horrible slaughters. No real consequence, unless a person thinks a demotion from major general to brigadier general in retirement is a real penalty compared to being convicted and sent to prison (changed to house arrest).
Gives new meaning to: poor man steals, goes to prison, rich man steals, becomes a US Congressperson.
I’m glad to hear he developed some insight- and I’ll say a prayer for him after all.
There’s no doubt that the uppers know how to use the lowers, placeholders for their transgressions always, but you have to understand that whenever his personal remorse arrived, he looked at grandmothers and babies and killed them anyway.
The commander who ordered that horror may go to a deeper circle of hell, but Calley has some reparations to make too.
Forgot to add yesterday that one of the arch murderers of civilians and soldiers on both sides was Robert McNamara. Calculating body counts to determine wins and losses is the pinnacle of depravity.
My father was a dentist and went to New York University! NYU Back in the day McNamara spoke there when my Dad was there. He walked out of the meeting as several other dentists did too! I was very proud of him!
Patris, I am in total agreement with what you wrote here. Calley having remorse is noteworthy but does not change the facts. He...like the Nazis using the excuses...followed orders. Some of his men refused. He could have and should have but did not. Just one more horrible example of the ugliness of war. And as a young fellow, I listened to WWII vets, my six uncles in the Pacific and Europe tell similar ugly stories. Then my couple close buddies back from Vietnam. The inhumanity of men to men.
It’s never-ending. And everywhere. Perhaps we can show our grandchildren that true courage is to act with dignity and kindness, not walk with fists up, expecting attack.
Years ago - obviously when he was still alive - I listened as I drove home from work to an interview of his on NPR in promotion of his memoir. Still recall sitting at a RR crossing, my eyes running with tears of absolute rage, muttering isn’t that nice you fucker.
I knew who I was mourning - the dead who left highschool to blindly enter the meat grinder that the draft was taking them to. Wondering how he hadn’t committed ritual seppuku at the end of the war - the way the Japanese fathers of some of the men I worked with at a Japanese trading firm had when Japan surrendered.
Not sure why you are lost. Lucian wrote a story on Lt. Calley where he had dinner with him before the trial and he covered the trial as a journalist for the Village Voice. He gave us much insight into the trial and his relationship with the actual general who ordered to killings at My Lai. I did not get a chance to write about his story and so I did in this note.
Maybe he just got fed up with Trump repeatedly claiming that Putin would do whatever Trump wanted him to do. I just can't see that going over well with Putin.
Of course everyone thought of this when the news of the release came: Trump saying, "Gershkovich “will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office.” Waaay before, it turns out. I read that Putin really wanted his criminals back, both as sign that he needed their services, and that he would always rescue those caught doing his dirty work. His m.o. is to grab innocent Americans as bargaining chips. (The numbers are uneven, if you'll notice.) I think smart Americans will put off visiting l'Hermitage probably … forever.
I was supposed to go to Russia September 2020 but obviously, that didn't happen and now I can't go. I was supposed to go to St. Petersburg and Moscow. I am half Russian background and would have loved to see where my grandparents on my Father's side lived!
In 1997 l participated in an international women’s conference in St Petersburg. The city was spectacular on the outside and haunting on the inside. I was told horror stories by university graduates who believed they had no future. A group representing the Free Masons spoke quietly about children living in the sewers. When l returned to the US l saw a documentary on TV that validated this. There was even mention of Russian graduates sent to Syria for marriage. Apparently the Russian Orthodox Church is a force to be reckoned with!
This is impressive statesmanship and diplomatic finesse by Biden AND Harris - she supposedly had a one-on-one sit down with Sholz of Germany while there for a security conference, that pushed through one aspect of the complicated transaction. There is absolutely no doubt that she is ready for the Presidency in a way that Trump could not even dream about. There is no time to waste having schadenfreude over what Putin has now done to Trump - time only to get out there for Harris and all other Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. LET'S GO!
That was the first thing I thought when I heard the news of the release….Putin has just signaled to his American puppet that he doesn’t think that he will win this Fall… He’s just a bigoted babbling idiot that he’s always been….Just when you think that Shady Vance can’t sink any lower… He usually does…. What a boot licking sycophant
JD trying to claim that Drumpf should get credit for this just makes him look increasingly, dare I say it, weird. Kamala has handled him perfectly, after his weak attempt to take over the news cycle yesterday with his racist comments she has pretty much ignored them. Starved of media attention the whole cult thing comes off as just recycled outrage by an old out of touch party. Kamala is wise to stay with her theme of the future.
I am doubly thrilled by this because Paul Whelan's sister lives near me and is an *amazing* artist, and I know how hard she and her family have worked to secure his release.
Oh, Susanna. If you think about it, please tell her you know someone (me!) who has been writing monthly notes to Paul for almost two years now. I was prepared to keep writing, but sure was glad to hear it won't be necessary anymore!
Thanks, MP, for acknowledging my efforts! When I started writing, it was hard to find things to say they were apolitical. Then I found short human interest stories that I printed out and attached to my notes. Like designating the bald eagle officially, after almost 248 years, as our national bird. Or Cecil, the dog, who literally ate $4,000 in cash that was sitting on his owners' counter. Or back in the day, Polynesian wayfinders who navigated the Pacific Ocean.
Actually, finding these nonpolitical stories to read helped balance my mental state as much as hoping it brought Paul some feel-good stories to read.
What excellent stories to share! I'm sure it brought him good feelings, a bit of comic relief, and incentive to keep on keeping on. Got me a lot choked up a little more now. Thanks.
Just to get the word out concerning what happened to me, with regard to the prisoner exchange story: On Facebook, I posted the WAPO article that appeared this morning on this subject, and FB CENSORED IT— took it down! Is it now illegal to repost stories from major newspapers???
I wanted to post something on Project 2025 and I received a warning from FB that some of it was false when fact checked by an independent source! What is going on with FB now? I hope I don't get put in FB jail as I have a business on FB.
I am co-administrator of a private group (Liberals is its name) and I have been in Facebook jail twice in the previous week for what I don't know!!! I was only told what I posted did not meet Facebook's community standards!
I wasn't notified immediately-- as I was last year when they banned me for a month for one of my posts. THAT flashed up on the screen as soon as I posted whatever it was. This came in the form of a Notification a couple of hours later. I wish I'd saved the several sentences of opaque prose purporting to explain why my post was taken down.
On mastodon it's been noted that Biden did this when everyone in the press had already decided that he'd outlived his usefulness and had to step out of the race.
There are reports from another source that Biden finalized the deal of the swap just an hour before he announced that he was leaving the race.
Imagine the pressure this man was under-being assailed by everyone to leave a campaign because 'you're not young enough to do this job' and then doing the most delicate negotiating with our biggest opponent with the lives of so many people on the line while doing your day job.
But yeah, Biden was too old. I bet the hostages he just got freed from captivity wouldn't say so.
Tell me another one about how Trump did anything of usefulness besides fart in the water. Trump did nothing, Putin just showed him who is going to win, and Trump is totally done.
He just doesn't know it yet but we sure do.
Wonderful comment. Biden is doing an amazing job!
Thank you, Mary. You’ve made me feel better than I have in weeks.
I always believed in Biden, and I still think that Biden would have won, but the enthusiasm about Harris is contagious. I hope she wins big because her running is already making Americans feel bolder towards Trump. She is not deferential at all. In fact, her responses to his lies remind me of dealing with 3rd grade students who are still in a make believe state of existence, or have learned to get attention by blurting out fantastical things. I might not be so direct, but I would be saying, I do not see how you are making that connection, explain it to me. Then, questioning each part that does not match I would teach them not to just say things to be saying it. So, we can say Harris is schooling Trump.
The exigencies of politics ended up being too big to ignore, and President Biden got caught in the turbulence. Down ballot Dems in tough races were worried about their chances. The goddamn MSM treat him poorly. Did the MSM call for trump to drop out after the E Jean Carroll verdict? Or after the 34 felony convictions? Or after each time trump rants nonsensically at one of his hate-fests? Joe Biden deserved better treatment, but in the end did something true to his character. He gave up power for the greater good. Contrast that with the sociopath who wants to cling to power perpetually
She slaps his ass around on a daily basis. Here comes the narcissistic collapse!😈😆😆
Excellent!
It will be a very interesting debate on September 10 if it actually happens!
Yes but we must not get too confident or too complacent.
Amen!
I'm a little lost about the "value" of farting "in the water" -- at least, as an adult. I remember that as a very small person, those bubbles in the bathtub made me laugh so hard tears came from my eyes. Whoa! Perhaps bathtub farts were the inspiration for whoever created the emoji showing the laughing face with tears coming from its eyes.
😂😂
It was Biden’s squeeze on Putin’s assets and heavy sanctions on Russia that also got this exchange going also. I watched most of Sullivan’s exchange with reporters this morning and yes, his answer to an obvious Fox or OAN journalist was brilliant.
Trump is a racist ass and proved it yesterday. That’s all we need to seal any deal. #YESWEKAM
Don't forget that for years Drumpf claimed that he was Swedish. His father Fred, who fled Germany to evade the draft, claimed he was Swedish to make it easier to sell his apartments to Jewish refugees after WWII. It was only after investigators went to Germany to trace Fred's background that Drumpf finally started admitting (or who knows, discovering?) that he was German. JD has changed his name five times and his kids are mixed race Indian. All of this posturing on their part is just pointless, Kamala is smart to ignore it.
Fred Trump was born in the U.S. HIS father fled Germany to avoid military service.
Oooops, you're right. The grandfather, Friedrich was German, but in America during the Klondike Gold Rush, where he became wealthy running a brothel. Friedrich then returned to Kallstadt Germany, married, and Fred was conceived. Friedrich was then banished from Germany as a draft dodger and settled in the Bronx, where Fred was then born. Fred grew up speaking only German. Apologies for the detour down the rabbit hole.
Everything from the Trump family sounds better in the original German.
Du hast rechht!
Wuest recht!
Like grandfather, like grandson (draft dodgers).
What was his father's name? I thought it was Fred too? 🤔
They were both named Fred. But the Fred who dodged the German draft died in 1918.
And that Fred was the pimp.
Ooh I love that!!! ❤️ #YesWeKam. Whooo-hooo. So happy for all those coming home!! Trump who? 😆 🤣
Yay! I knew when I read that the exchange was happening that Putin was showing that Kamala's popularity intimidated him and he no longer believes in Trump and JD Vance. Yay!
He knows way better than the natioanl media when an asset is no longer an asset.
Putin has been on top of it since Glasnost. He has had a whole career of knowing what's going on. Too bad his moral compas has been de-gaused and swings at odds with humanity. He could easily have helped Yeltsin build a democratic republic in the former CCCP.
I will have to add that I am worried for my dear friends in Vladivostok, Vladimir, Souzdal and St Petersburg. Wonderful caring and America loving Soviet scientists that I worked with in Marine Geology on the first Soviet/USA joint scienific project. thirty some years ago. We used to visit back and forth when Aeroflot was easy out of San Fransisxo. For the last fifteen years or so, I dare not call or write to them for fear that they could be put in danger. I miss those wonderful people.
I’m not sure he’s competent enough to do build a democratic republic. The economy he oversees is pathetic and his army is still weak despite all the resources he pours into it. He’s good at propaganda and grabbing power and money by intimidating people with violence. He’s a thug.
The oil, the oil …
That's the only thing that props Putin up.
Maybe Putin will do a prisoner swap for Trump in 6 months. Or maybe we can just give him to Russia.
I say just send him now.
Me too Patris!!! ✋️
If he needs help packing, I'm available
I’ll buy him a ticket
That's an excellent idea.😈😆
Trade him for a "player to be named later" and a bucket of baseballs
Why do you think Putin would want *Rump?
Just a gift.
He could always re-gift him.
We can throw him a Bon Voyage party, or better yet, throw a Bon Voyage party for ourselves.
why would they want him?
Probably the all-time record high GoFundMe campaign: Raise enough $ to convince putin to accept a gift trump. (Of course then we'd have to find a way to get the $ back.)
If dumpy losses big I think he may go to Moscow voluntarily.
We could build a catapult
He wouldn’t fit in it, and if it were large enough, it would be too heavy to launch.
😂😂😂
🤣🤣🤣 You guys are cracking me up!!
Putin doesn't want him. He's a destructive Russian asset useful here in the USA. Plus I don't think Vlad wants to be pestered by ass kissing trump all the time if trump lived in Russia
I would cough up money to give them to take him!
yup, so would I. And I'm betting Trump mightn't dare stand next to any windows on upper floors.
Or be careful of that mug of tea.
Donald meets Polonium Man.
Oooh, good one!
😂😂😂
I'll vote for that!
Joe Biden once again proved that he's a great president. Bravo Mr. President, bravo!
Lucian, totally agree with your writing as always. And it was Biden that got this done. I need to make a comment on Lt. Calley. Your piece was wonderful but I need to correct a some of it. I am an obnoxious pedant, I do know a bit about Calley's later life, as time went on, and just now I looked up more on Calley (wikipedia). After he was freed, he worked as a car salesman for a while, he married (had one son) and then worked for his father-in-law in a jewelry store where he became a gemologist and later a real estate salesperson. He divorced about twenty years ago and lived on welfare, I am pretty sure, until he died.
In 2009 he spoke at the Kiwanis club in Georgia saying this:
There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai. I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry
He actually died in April of this year but no one discovered this until now. On his death certificate it is marked NO in the area "served in the military."
Personally, I think that shows the article was not totally fair. He did have empathy, he did have remorse. And for me, as almost always happens in all walks of life, the little guy gets punished and the big guy goes free. The general and on down knew what was happening not just in Mai Lai but in many other horrible slaughters. No real consequence, unless a person thinks a demotion from major general to brigadier general in retirement is a real penalty compared to being convicted and sent to prison (changed to house arrest).
Gives new meaning to: poor man steals, goes to prison, rich man steals, becomes a US Congressperson.
I’m glad to hear he developed some insight- and I’ll say a prayer for him after all.
There’s no doubt that the uppers know how to use the lowers, placeholders for their transgressions always, but you have to understand that whenever his personal remorse arrived, he looked at grandmothers and babies and killed them anyway.
The commander who ordered that horror may go to a deeper circle of hell, but Calley has some reparations to make too.
Forgot to add yesterday that one of the arch murderers of civilians and soldiers on both sides was Robert McNamara. Calculating body counts to determine wins and losses is the pinnacle of depravity.
My father was a dentist and went to New York University! NYU Back in the day McNamara spoke there when my Dad was there. He walked out of the meeting as several other dentists did too! I was very proud of him!
Good man your father. 🌹
Patris, I am in total agreement with what you wrote here. Calley having remorse is noteworthy but does not change the facts. He...like the Nazis using the excuses...followed orders. Some of his men refused. He could have and should have but did not. Just one more horrible example of the ugliness of war. And as a young fellow, I listened to WWII vets, my six uncles in the Pacific and Europe tell similar ugly stories. Then my couple close buddies back from Vietnam. The inhumanity of men to men.
It’s never-ending. And everywhere. Perhaps we can show our grandchildren that true courage is to act with dignity and kindness, not walk with fists up, expecting attack.
FWIW, McNamara was conscience-stricken—the documentary, etc.
Years ago - obviously when he was still alive - I listened as I drove home from work to an interview of his on NPR in promotion of his memoir. Still recall sitting at a RR crossing, my eyes running with tears of absolute rage, muttering isn’t that nice you fucker.
I knew who I was mourning - the dead who left highschool to blindly enter the meat grinder that the draft was taking them to. Wondering how he hadn’t committed ritual seppuku at the end of the war - the way the Japanese fathers of some of the men I worked with at a Japanese trading firm had when Japan surrendered.
It all was what it was. You'll get no rationalizations or argument from me, Patris.
I apologize - this was more emotional than it needed to be perhaps, not a challenge to you in the least. Just memory.
Mea culpa.
No apology needed. Those times were so emotional, feelings that can't be lived down, out-lived. Starting to tear up, I quickly banish the memory.
Not sure why you are lost. Lucian wrote a story on Lt. Calley where he had dinner with him before the trial and he covered the trial as a journalist for the Village Voice. He gave us much insight into the trial and his relationship with the actual general who ordered to killings at My Lai. I did not get a chance to write about his story and so I did in this note.
Maybe he just got fed up with Trump repeatedly claiming that Putin would do whatever Trump wanted him to do. I just can't see that going over well with Putin.
Good point! The actual Diktater showing the wannabe Diktater who's the boss
New spelling: Dicktator
The ship is leaving the sinking rat.
Nice one!
😂😂
Of course everyone thought of this when the news of the release came: Trump saying, "Gershkovich “will be released almost immediately after the Election, but definitely before I assume Office.” Waaay before, it turns out. I read that Putin really wanted his criminals back, both as sign that he needed their services, and that he would always rescue those caught doing his dirty work. His m.o. is to grab innocent Americans as bargaining chips. (The numbers are uneven, if you'll notice.) I think smart Americans will put off visiting l'Hermitage probably … forever.
I had a cab driver in St Petersburg pull into an alley to try to exchange currency. Scared me to death.
I was supposed to go to Russia September 2020 but obviously, that didn't happen and now I can't go. I was supposed to go to St. Petersburg and Moscow. I am half Russian background and would have loved to see where my grandparents on my Father's side lived!
I've been. I doubt you would have seen where they lived. Most things are different.
I think it's best to stay outta those places with dictators. Not just Russia but China, N. Korea, Venezuela, etc
Yep....my ancestors are from Pennsylvania, Indiana and (western) Kentucky.
In 1997 l participated in an international women’s conference in St Petersburg. The city was spectacular on the outside and haunting on the inside. I was told horror stories by university graduates who believed they had no future. A group representing the Free Masons spoke quietly about children living in the sewers. When l returned to the US l saw a documentary on TV that validated this. There was even mention of Russian graduates sent to Syria for marriage. Apparently the Russian Orthodox Church is a force to be reckoned with!
This is impressive statesmanship and diplomatic finesse by Biden AND Harris - she supposedly had a one-on-one sit down with Sholz of Germany while there for a security conference, that pushed through one aspect of the complicated transaction. There is absolutely no doubt that she is ready for the Presidency in a way that Trump could not even dream about. There is no time to waste having schadenfreude over what Putin has now done to Trump - time only to get out there for Harris and all other Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. LET'S GO!
That was the first thing I thought when I heard the news of the release….Putin has just signaled to his American puppet that he doesn’t think that he will win this Fall… He’s just a bigoted babbling idiot that he’s always been….Just when you think that Shady Vance can’t sink any lower… He usually does…. What a boot licking sycophant
Trump is a ‘has been’ in Putin’s eyes. Love it!
I won’t be truly easy in my mind until he’s dead, but I’m enjoying his current spate of losses.
JD trying to claim that Drumpf should get credit for this just makes him look increasingly, dare I say it, weird. Kamala has handled him perfectly, after his weak attempt to take over the news cycle yesterday with his racist comments she has pretty much ignored them. Starved of media attention the whole cult thing comes off as just recycled outrage by an old out of touch party. Kamala is wise to stay with her theme of the future.
JDminiMe.
I am doubly thrilled by this because Paul Whelan's sister lives near me and is an *amazing* artist, and I know how hard she and her family have worked to secure his release.
Oh, Susanna. If you think about it, please tell her you know someone (me!) who has been writing monthly notes to Paul for almost two years now. I was prepared to keep writing, but sure was glad to hear it won't be necessary anymore!
I'll tell her for sure!
Thank You for your service, Lynell! Choked me up. Such important work!
Thanks, MP, for acknowledging my efforts! When I started writing, it was hard to find things to say they were apolitical. Then I found short human interest stories that I printed out and attached to my notes. Like designating the bald eagle officially, after almost 248 years, as our national bird. Or Cecil, the dog, who literally ate $4,000 in cash that was sitting on his owners' counter. Or back in the day, Polynesian wayfinders who navigated the Pacific Ocean.
Actually, finding these nonpolitical stories to read helped balance my mental state as much as hoping it brought Paul some feel-good stories to read.
What excellent stories to share! I'm sure it brought him good feelings, a bit of comic relief, and incentive to keep on keeping on. Got me a lot choked up a little more now. Thanks.
Indeed, Putin has voted and he just dumped his former ass-kissing asset, Trump, and gave the Democrats --all Democrats--a big win.
Just to get the word out concerning what happened to me, with regard to the prisoner exchange story: On Facebook, I posted the WAPO article that appeared this morning on this subject, and FB CENSORED IT— took it down! Is it now illegal to repost stories from major newspapers???
I wanted to post something on Project 2025 and I received a warning from FB that some of it was false when fact checked by an independent source! What is going on with FB now? I hope I don't get put in FB jail as I have a business on FB.
They never explain adequately or in a comprehensible way, WHY a post is taken down!
All part of their opaque bureaucratic charm.
This is the same Facebook that allows millions of posts from flat-earthers even they don't believe.
I am co-administrator of a private group (Liberals is its name) and I have been in Facebook jail twice in the previous week for what I don't know!!! I was only told what I posted did not meet Facebook's community standards!
Right—and then try to figure out what those mysterious “standards” actuality ARE!
Horrible!
Wow. If this is AI at work, I'm worried.
😡
Yikes, Judith. This is horrifying news. I posted Biden's press conference about it but didn't hang around to see if it got rejected.
I wasn't notified immediately-- as I was last year when they banned me for a month for one of my posts. THAT flashed up on the screen as soon as I posted whatever it was. This came in the form of a Notification a couple of hours later. I wish I'd saved the several sentences of opaque prose purporting to explain why my post was taken down.
Still, taking down a WaPo story? Ridiculous. Who knew that Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerburg weren't on speaking terms!
Facebook is a cesspool. I'm done with it.
I go on FB to listen to Heather Cox Richardson's weekly chats.