Putin

[bill4long]

Those supporting Trump still want to glorify Putin in some manner.

I know a lot of Trumpists. NONE of them like Putin, and they totally condemn his war-pig atrocities. All the talking head Trumpists on Fox News are resoundly against Putin. I find it interesting, as Bill Maher pointed out this week, that Putin invaded Ukraine during Biden's presidency, not Trump's. That speaks volumes.

[K Graham]

It speaks volumes?

Putin was building up his army along the Ukraine border throughout Trump's first term and the invasion was predetermined to happen after the China olympics regardless of US political outcomes. There is absolutely zero reason to believe the FOX news BS that Putin was waiting for Biden to get elected. Hell, we already know Russia tried to get Trump elected both times.

And virtually every Trumpist I see on the street or on FOX news is downplaying Putin's brutality the same way Trump did when Bill O'Reilly called him a killer. Tucker Carlson began defending Russia early saying he's even "rooting for Russia."

His argument was that Russia, not Ukraine, had all the natural resources.
So maybe we should drop support of Israel and support Iran.

[Moksha]

I know a lot of Trumpists. NONE of them like Putin, and they totally condemn his war-pig atrocities. All the talking head Trumpists on Fox News are resoundly against Putin. I find it interesting, as Bill Maher pointed out this week, that Putin invaded Ukraine during Biden's presidency, not Trump's. That speaks volumes.

Lest we forget the history from the last month (it fades so fast when we are having fun), Trump called Putin a genius and said he was getting a terrific real estate deal with his invasion, Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Piro, Laura Ingrahm, Margorie Taylor Greene, a right-wing nationalist convention shouting "Putin, Putin", and that Florida Congressman who looks like Butt-Head have all been Putin supporters. If the GOP now wants to kick Putin out of the Republican party, they can always declare that he is a RINO, but please do not offer an alternate history.

[bill4long]

Lest we forget the history from the last month (it fades so fast when we are having fun), Trump called Putin a genius and said he was getting a terrific real estate deal with his invasion,

Huh? Are you replying to me or someone else? I didn't say anything about Trump's utterances. Nor am I defending him.

Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Piro, Laura Ingrahm

Please cite any instances any of these folks making positive comments about Putin's actions.

Margorie Taylor Greene, a right-wing nationalist convention shouting "Putin, Putin"

During her speech some people were chanting Putin. That's their problem. She has clarified her position here. If she is pro-Putin, I do not defend her. At any rate, you're replying to a statement I did not make.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/17/politics ... index.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 39236.html

Being anti-war is not the same things as supporting Putin. If you think it does, we have nothing to discuss.

[K Graham]

Lest we forget the history from the last month (it fades so fast when we are having fun), Trump called Putin a genius and said he was getting a terrific real estate deal with his invasion,

Huh? Are you replying to me or someone else? I didn't say anything about Trump's utterances. Nor am I defending him.

Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Piro, Laura Ingrahm

Please cite any instances any of these folks making positive comments about Putin's actions.

Margorie Taylor Greene, a right-wing nationalist convention shouting "Putin, Putin"

During her speech some people were chanting Putin. That's their problem. She has clarified her position here. If she is pro-Putin, I do not defend her. At any rate, you're replying to a statement I did not make.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/17/politics ... index.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 39236.html

Being anti-war is not the same things as supporting Putin. If you think it does, we have nothing to discuss.

You're using the same lame excuse Marjorie Taylor-Greene used which isn't going to fly. Yes, politicians are responsible for their words but also their actions when they knowingly attend a white nationalist convention. It wasn't just a couple of people chanting Putin, it was the entire crowd who laughed when the speaker made light of the situation over there.

Being pro-Putin is the same thing as supporting Putin. Saying you're "rooting for Russia" is the same thing as supporting Putin. This all plays into the Right Wing propaganda that has been attacking Ukraine for years ever since Russia floated the idea that Ukraine was guilty of attacking our elections. Trump loved that meme so he made it go viral, and then Right Wing media just uncritically accepted it. Now that Ukraine is being attacked by Russia, many on the Right see it as their comeuppance.

Do you really think the Kremiln would be praising FOX News unless they were also a wing of their propaganda? Just last wee Russia started this nonsense about how the US is engaged with Ukraine in developing chemical weapons on Ukraine soil. FOX news couldn't wait to relay that BS to their viewers.

Putin’s denunciation of what he called “national traitors,” Russians who live supposedly elitist lifestyles that put them out of touch with the Russian nation, was remarkably similar to Tucker Carlson’s fake populism.

Multiple Fox News personalities attacked President Joe Biden for banning Russian oil, accusing him of deliberately wanting to raise gasoline prices on American consumers — after those same Fox commentators had previously attacked Biden for not placing sanctions on Russian oil, branding it an act of moral cowardice. Fox News hosts then pivoted to accusing Biden of using the sanctions to divert the blame for high gas prices away from himself, and to make Putin into his “fall guy.”

On the February 28 edition of The Faulkner Focus, Fox host Pete Hegseth minimized the importance of the ongoing war in Ukraine in comparison to problems at home in America: “I was at CPAC this weekend talking to conservatives and young people, and they said yes, what is happening in Ukraine is important. But it pales in comparison to the crime I see in my streets, to the wokeness I see in my culture, to the inflation I see at my pocket book, to the real border I care about, which is the southern border, which is wide open. On every single issue, the quality of life of average Americans has gone down.”

On the February 18 edition of Jesse Watters Primetime, shortly before the war began, the host complained that “you know how the news cycle moves, you'll hear ‘Ukraine’ and then, once the bombs start dropping, you'll never hear about inflation, critical race theory, the open border, crime, anything.”

On the March 15 edition of Jesse Watters Primetime, the host wondered whether Russia’s war was instead “engineered as a distraction” by the Biden administration, to distract from any scandals surrounding the president’s son Hunter Biden.

On the March 11 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, the host also put forward the idea that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was really the product of a conspiracy by American elites to keep their own power: “At exactly the moment when the emergency powers they awarded to themselves to fight COVID started to wane, our leaders began pushing for conflict with Russia.”

On the February 22 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, just before the war began, Carlson alleged that the coming sanctions on Russian energy were really a plot to benefit Democratic donors: “Maybe they're not against rising oil and gas prices. Maybe they are for them. Maybe expensive energy would be good for the many renewable deals their friends and donors are invested in.”

And on February 16, when Russia had been putting its troops in position to attack Ukraine, Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo repeatedly claimed that the entire Russian threat against Ukraine was really an elaborate hoax by the U.S. State Department, in order to distract from supposed scandals related to 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.


Tucker Carlson’s history of pro-Kremlin, anti-Ukraine propaganda

[honorentheos]

The idea that Putin didn't attack Ukraine during the Trump administration but did during the Biden administration because the former was strong while the latter is weak is problematic. I do think that what happened in Afghanistan confirmed to Putin that the Biden administration, and NATO as a whole, lacked will or collective goals. But that should also be understood as the aim Putin has had for NATO for a long time and which Trump was aiding in creating. Trump was facilitating NATO weakness and was likely to have pulled out entirely had he been elected to a second term. Marcon and Merkle had been public and privately planning for what to do when the US did so, with the recognition Europe would no longer be able to count on the US as an ally.

But the Biden administration threw Putin's calculations into the shredder. For example, in this article from January 28, 2022, Russian dissident journalist Yulia Latynina gave an op ed in the NYT where she laid out the miscalculation that Putin made in assuming the Biden admin would ignore his posturing around Ukraine -

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/opin ... raine.html

Outright conflict — as opposed to sudden swoops, covert operations or hybrid warfare — isn’t really Mr. Putin’s style. It’s probable that the troop buildup in November was an attempt to force the West to relinquish any claims over Ukraine. That would be a great P.R. victory at minimal cost.

But the West called his bluff. In the past week especially (add: Late January 2022), the United States and NATO have taken a markedly sharper tone when discussing Russia — and have, more important, sent military hardware across Eastern Europe and put troops on standby. The message is clear: If Russia won’t de-escalate, then neither will the West.

Instead of trapping the United States, Mr. Putin has trapped himself. Caught between armed conflict and a humiliating retreat, he is now seeing his room for maneuver dwindling to nothing.