On August 1, 2024, the Biden administration on Thursday announced it had secured the release of three American citizens from Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Marine veteran Paul Whelan and Russian-American radio journalistAlsu Kurmasheva. The swap took months to negotiate and involved multiple countries – United Statess, Russia, Germany, Belarus, and others.

There were a total of 24 prisoners swapped, some of which were Russian nationals returned to Russia – 3 in the US, 2 in Slovenia, 1 in Poland, and 1 in Norway. By far, the biggest fish Russia wanted back was Vadim Krasikov, a convicted murderer held in Germany.

While the country hailed the Biden-Harris administration for this swap, Donald Trump naturally denigrated the swap insisting the US paid for the release of the Americans. He has criticized the deal as being bad for the US, while congratulating Vladimir Putin for his part in getting so much. Once again it highlights his admiration for authoritarian dictators over his own country.

The Trump administration (2017-2020) made a few swap deals of its own. Let’s see how good a negotiator Trump really is:

• In November 2019, the Trump administration secured the release of American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, who were being held by the Taliban, in exchange for the release of three senior Taliban leaders being held in jails in Afghanistan. (2 for 3)
• In December 2019, the U.S. did a prisoner exchange with Iran, freeing Xiyue Wang, a graduate student at Princeton University who was serving a 10-year sentence in Iran on espionage charges. To secure Wang’s release, the U.S. freed Masoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist convicted of export violations. (1 for 1)
• In July 2020, the Trump administration secured the release of Michael White, a Marine veteran jailed in Iran on charges of insulting the country’s supreme leader, in exchange for the release of a dermatologist convicted on export violations. (1 for 1)
• In October 2020, a deputy assistant to Trump helped broker a deal to free two Americans being held hostage by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen in exchange for the release of about 250 Houthi rebels being held in Oman. (1 for 250)

Let’s not forget the really BIG ONE – the release of 5,000 Taliban! Yes, 5,000! Trump negotiated directly with the Taliban, leaving the Afghanistan government out of the deal.

“A Feb. 29, 2020, agreement between the United States and the Taliban said that the U.S. and its allies would withdraw their military forces within 14 months of the agreement’s announcement. The deal said that the Taliban would not allow groups, including al-Qaida, in Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies. It also called for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, starting March 10, 2020.

According to the agreement, up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners and up to 1,000 prisoners “of the other side” would be released by a specified timeline. “The United States commits to completing this goal,” the deal said, adding that the Taliban also committed to keeping its released prisoners from posing a threat to the security of the United States and its allies.” (1 for 5) https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/aug/31/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-accurately-says-trump-administration-w/

In my opinion, that disproves Trump’s claim that he never “paid” for the release of American hostages/prisoners.

Biden didn’t secure the release of all Americans being held in Russia. But he has worked tirelessly to secure as many as possible. All of this while he fought COVID (again), ran a presidential campaign, and battled members of his own party calling for him to bow out of the up-coming election! I’d say that was pretty remarkable! It was a tremendous feat to put together the alliances to pull this off. I doubt very much Trump could have accomplished this, no matter what he says. Our allies would not have worked with Trump the way they have with Biden. That’s a fact!

We all owe President Biden our thanks for working so hard to return these prisoners to their families!

IMHO . . .

As a reminder, my keyboard is acting up, so please forgive typos.

What do I feel about the past few weeks? A whole myriad of things have gone through my mind.

First, I haven’t been happy that so many Democrats piled on President Biden, urging him to drop out of the race. I hated that for him – he didn’t deserve it! He has done so much for the country, I only have the highest admiration for him. I know he’ll continue to serve this country until the oath of office is administered to the next president, whoever that will be (please not Trump!). I thank him with my whole heart for his more than 5 decades – yes, 50 years – of public service. You don’t have to agree with his policies or politics to admire and respect the man.

I, too, was worried about the election after the debate. As the days went by and more people were calling on Biden to drop out of the race, I felt we had to s**t or get off the pot. Either pull the plug or drop it! But, it needed to be resolved quickly because we’re getting so close to the Democratic National Convention.

I’m glad Biden stepped up. And I’m glad he endorsed Kamala Harris. I think she will unite us and move us forward – she’s already had a positive impact. So now let’s rally and get this done!!

BTW, clearly Trump and the rest of MAGA world are scared s**tless! He has gone on a two day social media frenzy. I’m loving it! Go ahead, Donald, and sue for the DNC to reimburse you for your media ads/attacks on Biden. Your campaign should be centered on your policies rather than on negative attacks on your opponent!

The shooting – the assassination attempt? I was very upset that this occurred. However, I started being as suspicious as other X (twitter) users. Why hasn’t the treating physician provided the public with specifics? Why hasn’t the Trump campaign provided a photo or description from someone other than fake Rep Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician who proclaimed Trump was the healthiest president in US history? [By the way, how did he know how healthy/unhealthy prior presidents such as Washington, Adams, Jefferson,, etc, were??]

Do I think he got injured? Yes. Do I think he was shot? Not so sure. I’m starting to lean towards glass from a broken teleprompter. But, I’m also wondering just what the injury was – how bad it was.

The day after the shooting Trump apparently went golfing. Pictures taken during that outing revealed no bandage – or, at least not a big bandage like he had on last week. And from those same pictures I was not able to see any swelling, scab, redness, or anything else to indicate an injury.

So, was he really injured? Did he have anything more than a “pin head” size poke? Head injuries tend to bleed A LOT. I suppose ear injuries would too. I had glass fall on my head when I was 10 years old. I bled like my head was cut off! In reality, it was one little pin prick from one piece of glass. So, the blood we saw on July 13th could have been something similar.

All of sudden, though, at last week Republican convention, he has a bandage the size of a maxi pad on his ear! I mean, come on! Clearly, he was going for the sympathy vote! “I took a bullet for democracy.” Images from after the convention, show a smaller, flesh-colored bandage.

If reports are accurate, he was out golfing yesterday again. A clip of a video showed no bandage at all. In fact, you can’t even see a scab or anything on the ear. Rep (Dr) Jackson’s letter indicated the “wound” was 2 centimeters wide and would need constant monitoring because it bleed once in a while! Uh huh! Sure! I’ll buy that bridge!

As for the shooter, I’m not so sure he was actually trying to assassinate Trump. I think he was trying to commit suicide by cop! From all accounts, the shooter researched both Trump and Biden to see what events were coming up and where they would be held. Trump’s was the earliest and the closest to his home.

By researching both candidates, I find it hard to believe his motive was political. Schoolmates have said that he was a conservative and had been for a long time. But, if so, that begs the question why would he target Trump?

No, I think he wanted to commit suicide and make a noise doing it.

Regarding the Secret Service, yes, it was a failure. However, reports coming from a local law enforcement commissioner indicate there were failures (multiple) by local law enforcement who were tasked with covering the building from which the shots came. I hate that the director was made to resign over this. We’re only 10 days out from the incident and the investigations are on-going. I personally think it’s too early to hold Congressional hearings, hold anyone to account, etc. The investigations should be allowed to continue uninterrupted. After we get all the facts, then we can point fingers about incompetence or whatever.

There you go! Just my meanderings from the past few weeks. Again, I’m sorry I was away. Technology is great – until it isn’t!!

Just sayin’ . . .