WTF 2/14/2024

Editorial cartoon: Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024 - The Sumter Item

Carlson gives Putin the podium… 

Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin in “Moscow Interview.”

On February 6th former Fox News host and Trump kiss-ass Republican mouthpiece Tucker Carlson spent more than two hours interviewing Vladimir Putin that was subsequently aired on Carlson’s Web site, a Russian state television channels, and the Kremlin Web site. The prevailing opinion for Carlson’s goal for doing the interview was that he wanted to tweak the nose of Biden and the Democrats; provide a platform to Putin to speak to a select audience of Trump’s most ardent followers as well as provide validation of Carlson opinion that Putin went to war in Ukraine because he feared an imminent attack by the United States or NATO.

But what took place instead was a regurgitation of Putin’s lies and propaganda that Russia has a legitimate historic claim to parts of Ukraine and that he… Putin… is taking a stand to “denazify” Ukraine.  That last point is probably the most blatant, obvious lie of all of the bullshit Putin spewed in the interview since Ukraine is a democracy, and President Zelensky, who was overwhelmingly elected president in 2014, is of Jewish descent, as are other top officials.

Putin’s real goal is to oust Zelensky in favor of a Russian puppet regime so that Russia… Putin and the oligarchs that support his ass… can ensure the continued flow of Russian oil and gas to European markets through Ukraine’s pipelines as well control the Ukraine’s extraordinary resource riches that include some of the largest energy, mineral, and agricultural assets in the world.

As always it… i.e. war…  is always about the other country’s commodities that the invading country desires to take and control to the enrichment its own state. 

What was essentially aired was a one sided monolog/lecture of lies, half-truths and distortions by Putin that he used to attempt to justify his claim that he wants to negotiate with Washington to end the war, which ultimately would mean Ukraine would need to surrender its territory.

War in Ukraine

And the dupe that Carlson is got suckered by Putin so that Putin could reach Carlson’s demographic… i.e. Republican supporters of Trump who for some unfathomable rationale have expressed admiration for the Russian dictator and questioned U.S. support of Ukraine.

Putin used the faux interview to belabor his arguments that Russia is the aggrieved party in the war in Ukraine and is a victim of repeated false promises by the West and despite all of this was ready to negotiate an to end the war but with the United States and not with the Zelensky regime in power in Ukraine.

In fact what Carlson may have achieved by allowing Putin to speak was underscored by pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov who said, “The result of Putin’s interview with Carlson could be that a few million Americans will say, ‘yeah, so Putin is for peace. And Trump is for peace. Only Biden and Zelensky are for war. So we should vote for Trump and against Biden and then there will be peace and no threat of nuclear war.”

Markov added that as a result of the interview, “Trump will convincingly win the election and become president of the United States, Trump and Putin will quickly agree on peace in Ukraine, and the war will be over.”

Which leads me to this… 

Trump says he’d disregard NATO treaty and urge Russian attacks on U.S. allies

At Coastal Carolina University rally Trump says he warned NATO ally: Spend more on defense or Russia can ‘do whatever the hell they want.’

As the Republican Party is debating whether to provide additional foreign aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia the presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump recently came out said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO pact countries he views as not spending enough on their own defense when he said at a rally at Coastal Carolina University Trump said, “One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said, ‘You didn’t pay. You’re delinquent.’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”

Under Article 5, if a NATO ally is attacked, other member countries of NATO will consider it “an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the Ally attacked.”

Now… since NATO’s founding in 1949, that clause has been invoked only once which was on September 12, 2001 the day after the terrorist attacks on targets in the United States that included New York City and Washington D.C.

NATO’s Article 5

In fact in answer to Trump’s unbelievable audacity and temerity Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis told the Washington Post, “NATO isn’t a pay to play set up, as Trump seems to think. It’s an Alliance that is first and foremost about US national security interests to prevent another world war originating in Europe. The US investment in NATO is worth every dollar… the only time that the article 5 collective defense clause was initiated was in response to 9/11. Our Allies came to our aid then, and it would be shameful and misguided to not do the same.”

Trump’s real goal is be re-elected as the leader of the United Sates so he can finish setting up his agenda to establish himself as the country’s de facto premier in as direct  a contradiction as could ever be to everything that that the founders of this country ever intended.

Simply put as White House spokesperson Andrew Bates adroitly put it…

A Trump and Putin Alliance…

“Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged… and it endangers American national security, global stability, and our economy at home.”

I am going to continue hammering home the following to the point of ad nauseum if need be…  

Vote in the 2024 election as if your life and your loved ones lives depend upon it… because it damn well does.

I rather we had much better choices than what apparently looks as if we will have…

But dag rabbit… Vote Blue… Vote Biden.

Another thousand words… 

Today's editorial cartoon