Are We Sure They Were Actually in Russia?

Wow. What a week, eh? The biggest prisoner swap since the cold war. Russia give up 16 prisoners, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, along with dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Murza, in a multinational deal.

Gershkovich, Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist with dual U.S.-Russia citizenship, arrived on American soil shortly before midnight Thursday for a joyful reunion with their families.

According to the Associated Press...

The most infamous of the eight people Russia got back is Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted in Germany in 2021 of killing a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park two years earlier, apparently on the orders of Moscow’s security services. It also received two alleged “sleeper” agents who were jailed in Slovenia, three men charged by federal authorities in the U.S. and two men returned from Norway and Poland.

What's not to be happy about here? This poor schmuck Whelen, who is a former Marine and industrial security expert, was there for five years after going to Russia for a wedding(!) Wait, five years? Now, who was President then?

Germany, Norway, Poland and Slovenia were involved on our side, and even Turkey played interlocutor in this. H-m-m, all NATO countries. You know, just an observation.

So, everyone is celebrating and President Gramps can take a bow.

Oh, please. Grow up. CNN reports on the other guy's reaction...

"Well, as usual, it was a win for Putin…But we got somebody back. So, I'm never going to be challenging that. It wouldn't have happened with us," Trump said on Fox Business. "We wouldn't have had to let some of the great killers of the world go," he said. "Our 'negotiators' are always an embarrassment to us!" he wrote, without elaborating. "I got back many hostages, and gave the opposing Country NOTHING – and never any cash."

And the Hindenburg would still be flying if Trump were in office. Regarding money, the Wall Street Journal wrote...

During the press briefing, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that no money had been exchanged and no sanctions loosened to facilitate the deal.

Trump cabana boy, North Dakota Governor and Charlton Heston cosplayer Doug Burgum, says Putin only agreed because he thought Trump was going to be President and didn't want to deal with him.

One might rightly suspect Burgum is angling for the VP spot when couch potato J.D. Vance finally spouts one witless comment too many and is gone in the space of one Scaramucci, or Eagleton, if you want a more historical reference.

Well, let's do the fact-check, shall we? To be fair, Trump got a guy back from Maduro's Venezuela and a preacher from India without any trades. Can we be a little cynical here and observe that those are not Russia, and Josh Holt, the fellow from Utah held in Venezuela, credited his senator Orrin Hatch for his release.

But, according to CNN,

In 2019, the Trump administration secured the release of Xiyue Wang, a Princeton University PhD student who had been imprisoned in Iran since 2016, by agreeing to free an Iranian medical scientist who had been charged with trying to export biological materials from the US to Iran without authorization.

In 2019, three high-ranking Taliban prisoners, who had been imprisoned by the government of Afghanistan, were released in exchange for the Taliban freeing two professors, American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, who were abducted in 2016. 

In 2020, the Trump administration secured the release of two Americans who were imprisoned by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, aid worker Sandra Loli and businessman Mikael Gidada, in exchange for the release of more than 200 Houthi militants who were being held in Oman. Those Houthis were allowed to return to Yemen.

Trump said in August 2018 that he had personally gotten Israel to free a Turkish citizen who had been charged with aiding Hamas as part of an attempted arrangement in which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would release American pastor Andrew Brunson.

So, there you go. Trump doesn't do swaps, period, end of discussion. And here's what I'm ultimately driving at. It won't matter to his true believers. In fact, we have become skeptical to the point of complete gullibility. If CNN said it, it has to be untrue and there's no need to do some tiresome fact check. Guys like Trump count on that.

Say something simply and provably absurd like, "I'm the best President for black Americans since Lincoln" and the acolytes eat it up. Yeah, looking at you Lyndon, with your silly Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and you Harry, with your integrated military. Say the border was secure, best economy ever, and you don't have to prove it, or answer some pedantic fact-checker. It is swallowed like...like. Well, I was going to make some tacky Stormy Daniels joke here, but I am going to be strong.

Here's an example of the kind of thing that goes unchallenged. At the Andrews AFB reception for the returning prisoners, after greeting the freed detainees, President Biden boarded the jet they flew in on to thank the officials and crew still onboard. But no, that's, of course, not what it was...

This is the Republican National Effing Committee here. And the White House responded. Andrew Bates, White House senior deputy press secretary and deputy assistant to Biden, said...

"[Biden] was personally thanking the flight crew who brought these brave individuals home to their families. Most Americans are putting partisanship aside to welcome this outstanding news for our country. Y'all should join them. Don't be weird." 

I have little doubt, in fact none, that the response, and logical explanation, will be ignored and the MAGA faithful, along with Ted Cruz (R-Cancun), will parrot this until November.

Now, don't get me wrong. Skepticism is basically healthy. That's what journalism, for example, should be about. But we have gone so far to the other side as a people, that no one is trusted, expertise is doubted, those who have worked their entire lives toward a goal, scientific, journalistic or political, are immediately dismissed because some vacuous lamebrain on YouTube made a video. Or some radio talk host spewed some talking points at you. OK, I promised no Stormy Daniels stuff and I'm trying hard to keep my word. OK, I didn't mean trying hard. Oh, never mind.

I took a vacation day on Friday and was perusing Facebook and noticed I was getting a lot of NASA related posts with gorgeous pictures of the Moon and Apollo astronauts up there in the 70's. That's when I realized that the moon landing birthers are still out there. They think it is all fake and the earth is flat. So, Fearthers? Here is a beautiful photo of the earth by Apollo 17 Astronaut Harrison Schmidt and the first comments on it...

For sure. No stars, planets, sun, or moon.....but yeah, it's totally the Earth.... 

Eric Sieverling replied ·That is actually a painting!!!! You need to do some homework!!

So, yeah, guys. I'm now convinced. Do your own research! Don't let NASA and all those scientists, astronauts and reporters do it for you. There's a video I saw about the moon being hollow, so wake up, people!

Actually, now, I have complete sympathy for Buzz Aldrin when he did this...

OK, yeah, West Point grad, Korean War fighter pilot, with two confirmed kills, MIT grad and astronaut who risked his life more than once for the country, but why trust him, right?

So, it appears that if you have a convincing sales pitch, aimed at the wide-eyed and exploitable rubes in the crowd, they'll buy it all. And they won't bother to go beyond the convincing video, or political speech to see if you are simply full of it. It sounds good, and you know we can't trust anyone in charge, so I'm on board.

What worries me is that too many of these folks will be voting. Make sure you're among them.