EU Could Sanction Tucker Carlson For His Little Russian Adventure, And MAGA Is SQUEALING
Cry more.
Newsweek is reporting that, according to Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister who is currently in the European Union parliament, Tucker Carlson could potentially get his lilywhite ass sanctioned for his little Russian adventure with his true daddi-mir Vladimir. Verhofstadt wants them to look at a travel ban for Tucker. He says Tucker is Vladimir Putin’s “mouthpiece” and furthermore, that “[a]s Putin is a war criminal and the EU sanctions all who assist him in that effort, it seems logical that the External Action Service examine his case as well."
Sounds fine to us. We don’t know how far such a thing would go or how ultimately realistic it is — it sounds like it might be hard to take to the finish line — but the underlying reasoning seems legit. However:
Luis Garicano, a former MEP, told Newsweek he agreed with Verhofstadt's stance. "He is no longer a newsman, but a propagandist for the most heinous regime on European soil and the one which is most dangerous to our peace and security," Garicano said of Carlson.
The man is not wrong. (Though we might quibble with the phrasing “no longer a newsman,” as it implies a previous time of being a newsman.)
Nor is this man wrong:
"First of all, it should be remembered that Putin is not just a president of an aggressor country, but he is wanted by the International Criminal Court and accused of genocide and war crimes," MEP Urmas Paet, who previously served as Estonia's foreign minister, told Newsweek.
"Carlson wants to give a platform to someone accused of crimes of genocide—this is wrong. If Putin has something to say he needs to say it in front of the ICC. At the same time Carlson is not being a real journalist since he has clearly expressed his sympathy for the Russian regime and Putin and has constantly disparaged Ukraine, the victim of Russian aggression.
"So, for such propaganda for a criminal regime, you can end up on the list of sanctions. This concerns primarily travel ban to EU countries."
More power to them if they try, even if it just serves to a shine a light. But as we said, it sounds like it might be a heavy lift, and the European Union has clarified these conversations are not happening on an official level at this point.
Doesn’t mean MAGA isn’t squeeeeeeealing. They are so easily triggered.
JoeMyGod collected a few. “For what? Asking another human questions?” complained one.
“The same EU globalist scum are trying to bully @elonmusk in to censorship with criminal prosecution threats. Now they are moving in on Tucker! We must stand together for free speech.” That was the wailing of gay frog moron and Tucker fanboi Alex Jones, who apparently can’t read far enough into these articles to find out what they actually say, at least not before his blood pressure spikes into the danger zone.
And then there’s this babbling from some boy named Collin Rugg, one of those MAGA personalities who has 800,000 Twitter followers but it’s still nigh impossible to figure out who he is:
The text:
JUST IN: The European Union is considering imposing a travel ban against Tucker Carlson for interviewing Putin. EU lawmakers are now furious that a journalist flew to Russia to do journalism. They now want to slap Tucker with sanctions for “assisting” Putin. [quotes of the same European officials we quoted above] Being mad because a journalist did journalism makes YOU the propagandist.
Whatever that means.
Of course, is Tucker a journalist? Stop laughing, it’s a real question. (Is Glenn Greenwald a journalist? Was Edward Snowden a journalist? And the smelly one from WikiLeaks? Is he a journalist?)
Tucker claims he’s doing this for journalism, and the ass-licking Putin fanboys who surround him are protesting that the EU would be attacking journalism itself if they banned him from traveling there. This conveniently ignores how Putin murders journalists, how Putin has journalists like the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Alsu Kurmasheva in prison, while Tucker’s playing with his dick at Vkusno i Tochka, AKA Russia’s fake McDonald’s. (Real McDonald’s left when Russia started massacring babies in Ukraine.)
Or is Tucker Carlson the Kremlin’s most effective propaganda dispenser in the Western world (perhaps less so ever since he got consciously uncoupled from his job), who hides behind the pretenses of journalism, but gets his priss up and yelps “Well, I never!” whenever somebody suggests he’s just one of Putin’s loyal spigots?
Hmmmm. What’s Tucker really doing in Russia right now?
He’s helping Putin get the message to Republicans — at a very crucial time for that message, considering what’s happening in Washington — that if you just cut off Ukraine’s aid right now, Putin can complete his murders and annex the country he delusionally believes was given to him by the Russian Orthodox God. (Or maybe Putin won’t be finished murdering and raping and kidnapping children and babies. But that’s not the point.) Today’s MAGA Republicans are fine with all this. They love it, if it’s what you say, especially later in the summer.
Mona Charen writes in The Bulwark about what effect it would have on the world, for Republicans to force the US to abandon Ukraine (and yes, we are still as surprised as anyone that in 2024, we are linking to Mona Charen):
Republicans are well down the path of handing Putin an historic victory in his war of conquest against Ukraine, and so dies the consensus in place since 1945 that aggression must never be rewarded. Think of what this will do to NATO, whose membership has expanded in response to Russian belligerence. Think of what it conveys to China about American resolve on Taiwan. Think of what it says to Iran, whose proxies have been firing at American forces and international shipping for three months. And consider what it conveys to friends who may rethink their relationships with a country so clearly unreliable. The Republicans, who imagine themselves “tough,” are signaling the very opposite—cringing capitulation to a despot.
So that’s what Tucker is helping with, on this trip and in his upcoming interview. It’s not meant for the wider world to see, not really. It’s meant for the MAGA base and the politicians who serve it.
And Tucker knows exactly what he’s doing. Whatever specific term the CIA or MI6 would use to describe Tucker’s relationship with the Russian federation — Agent? Asset? Rentboy? — we’ll leave to the experts. But he’s not confused.
He’s consistently blamed the United States for starting the war in Ukraine, as if Putin is the true victim of Western aggression and had to attack before giant monster Ukraine swallowed his country whole late one night after it got drunk. He blood libels the Jewish president of Ukraine and we’ve seen rumors that in his big interview with Putin, they’re going to talk about the Kremlin lie that the US and Ukraine are together manufacturing bioweapons in secret labs. Tucker’s been all too keen to spread that one.
The Kremlin gave away the game with its first official response to Tucker’s interview, when it corrected Tucker’s lie that nobody else but him would do this interview. No, said the Kremlin, lots of people try to do this interview, but we pick Tucker. Tucker’s our beautiful little baby. He’s our messenger boy to the people in America who can help us finish our rapes and murders in Ukraine.
So fuck Tucker Carlson. Ban him from Europe, ban him from international airspace, ban him from America for all we care. If he loves Putin so much, let him stay in that shithole.
We hear it has electricity sometimes.
[Newsweek]
THIS FUCKING GUY.
Evan Hurst on Twitter right here.
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OT. Hawaii's Supreme Court:
"A free-wheeling right to carry guns in public degrades other constitutional rights," it concludes. "The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, encompasses a right to freely and safely move in peace and tranquility."
On the classified documents: Of course Biden took home classified documents. Everyone at that level apparently does, because our security around classified documents and elected officials is lax and our government classifies fucking everything. That's not the question. The question is, when the relevant agencies realized shit was missing, did he return them, or did he throw a fit, lie about them, hoard them all in a bathroom, and change the locks while inspectors were looking for them?