A mere border dispute
Hours before Putin ordered his forces into Ukraine, Fox News’ biggest star was still praising the Russian president.
Putin’s bellicose threats towards Ukraine and assembling of up to 190,000 troops on the country’s border, was, Carlson said, a mere “border dispute”. Carlson, who played into Kremlin talking points by declaring that Ukraine was “not a democracy”, launched an apparent attempt to humanize Putin.
“Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia?” Carlson said as he then recited a rightwing tip sheet of pet causes.
Putin has never called me a racist either, nor has he called me a terf or a bigot or a CIA agent. Despite that heartwarming generosity and forbearance, I still think Putin’s an evil man and that his invasion of Ukraine is an evil act.
Carlson went on:
“Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity?”
That’s a very far-fetched kind of whataboutery. It’s possible to come up with a long list of bad things Putin isn’t doing, just as one could come up with such a long list for anyone else, but it doesn’t follow that Putin isn’t doing bad things that aren’t on the list. No one can do all the bad things at once.
By the end of the week Carlson’s colorful defense of Putin was being played on Russia 1 and the Kremlin-backed RT television network.
He’s the Lord Haw-Haw de nos jours.
No, but the Republicans do seem to be making a go of it.
Putin never skipped ahead of me in line at the grocery store. He is a saint.
I read a compelling analysis from Fiona Hill. WRT fifth columnists like Tuckums, the following:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/28/world-war-iii-already-there-00012340
I literally posted this 5 minutes before I opened up this thread :)
https://farcornercafe.blogspot.com/2022/03/something-we-can-all-agree-on.html
I wonder what percentage of people who look to Fox for information also believe professional wrestling is real.
Putin didn’t kill my dog. He didn’t stomp on my cat. He didn’t eat up all my food. He didn’t spill coffee on my shirt (I’m perfectly capable of doing that without his help!)
Gee, Putin must be a saint! And Trump never did those things, either! But then, neither has anyone else, except the pit bull that killed my dog, and the me that spilled coffee on my shirt. Only two non-saints in the world.
Putin didn’t steal my bike. He didn’t mug me in the street. He didn’t break my heart, or have his heart broken by me. He’s never poisoned my drink, or forced his way into my house to chop off my hair, or hidden my keys where I couldn’t find them. A saint? No, he transcends saintliness.
Guess Hitler’s fine then.
Thank you, Papito, for providing the link to the interview with Fiona Hill, which is excellent. I have been in state of near-depression these last two weeks. And Tucker Carlson – he is so utterly contemptible that words fail.
I have some friends, nominally liberal, who I don’t think would be enthusiastic supporters of most US/NATO involvement in wars. Some of them are complaining that the US is not engaged in military action against Russia. One even posted a list of leaders successfully or unsuccessfully ousted or assassinated through US overt or covert actions, and wonders why Putin isn’t on this list, what makes Putin special. I find this attitude utterly incomprehensible. I tried discussing it, but it went nowhere; lots of people are being killed, therefore any action is justified, that kind of silly argument. But the list of ouster attempts, that’s truly bizarre; couldn’t we take one look at that list and decide NOT to go down that road? How many of them actually worked out for the better decades later?
People magically got degrees in epidemiology with the onset of COVID-19, now I guess people are magically getting degrees in international affairs or military strategy. I don’t have this knowledge. I do know one person who actually does have significant education in international affairs, and several other people who exhibit significant knowledge in the subject (including several here), and I find their commentary illuminating. But breathless demands that the US engage in high-powered military action, with no justification stronger than “we’ve done these things before” or “things are bad, we have to do something”, seem strange, especially from people who are rarely pro-military.
The important thing here is, what effect will this catastrophe have on the American electorate?
The fact that a country is being invaded by a dictator with dreams of empire? Pfffft.
He’s saying the Democrats/the Deep State did/are doing all those things, therefore his audience must continue to support Donald Trump.
As Trump is buddies with Putin, criticism of Putin suggests that Trump is wrong about something, which could lead to questions about Trump’s judgment, which won’t do.
(What does fentanyl have to do with anything, you ask? Yes, there’s a conspiracy theory for that: https://www.snopes.com/news/2018/06/29/potentially-tainted-flyers-conspiracy-theory-texas-deputies/)