13 Comments

Wow- and everything that happens in the US today happens in the UK tomorrow

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Bitterly disagree with your assessment of Tucker.

He is a Trump supporter and an isolationist.

Between the Russia or the USA you choose either tthe Devil or the deep blue sea.

You can't negotiate with the Devil but these days the deep blue sea can be understood and navigated.

Having experienced both I know which one

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Feb 7Liked by Leah Gunn Barrett

Only bitter people disagree bitterly. What's an isolationist? You mean someone who opposes U.S. imperial wars? The U.S. has invaded, in the last two decades, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Niger, Lebanon, and Yemen, and is now funding further conflicts via its proxies Israel and Ukraine, and regime-change operations in Venezuela and Pakistan. Note that none of these countries share a border with the U.S. I'll take isolationism i.e. caring for one's own citizens, the first and only role of government, over 'engagement' any day

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You'd rather have the Devil than the Deep Blue Sea then...

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deletedFeb 7
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Feb 7Liked by Leah Gunn Barrett

The US and Europe did negotiate with Putin who thought he had an agreement that nato would not expand and Ukraine would not join the eu. The Minsk accord. The US welched on the deal and did not sign it. Fact.

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author

That's right, Duncan. In addition, just after the Russian invasion, Moscow and Kyiv signalled a willingness to discuss Ukrainian neutrality which would have resulted in Russia withdrawing its forces. However, Boris Johnson was sent by the US to Kyiv to tell President Zelensky that he should not negotiate with Moscow but fight and that the west would support him all the way. We now see that the western commitment is faltering after half a million dead and injured Ukrainians and a ruined infrastructure. This war did not have to happen. That's the great tragedy for the Ukrainian people.

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Feb 7Liked by Leah Gunn Barrett

Spot on.

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Horrific statistics, and these will continue to worsen, there, and here in the UK, who is going to change anything?

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Tucker Carlson is not a “journalist”, have you ever seen his shows? Half the time, he’s spreading wild conspiracy theory nonsense about vaccines or denying climate change or being homophobic or transphobic. He’s on the far right of the political spectrum.

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Yes, I have listened to Tucker Carlson and he is a journalist, one you may not agree with but I would not call him right-wing. What happened to the so-called leftwing journalists? Where are their voices distinct from those of the US government? They are in lockstep with the Biden administration's foreign wars. Labels like left- and right-wing only serve to divide us when the majority of people want to live in peace, have good health care, decent schools, affordable housing, clean air and water, good food, and wages they can actually live well on.

In any case, don’t you think we should be free to hear all points of view – left, right, centre, those we agree with and those we may not? We often learn things by listening to alternative voices. That is what freedom of the press is about and these days there isn’t much of it. The press should be holding political leaders to account, scrutinising their policies and particularly when they bang the war drums and spend billions arming other nations when the American people are suffering. There is also supposed to be freedom of speech but that right has also been severely curtailed.

Americans have a right to know why their government is continually funding foreign wars in their name when there are so many vast unsolved problems at home.

A major shift has occurred in the western mainstream media whereby it’s hard to find any dissent to government foreign policy which in the case of the US and its Sancho Panza, the UK, is all about war-mongering and war-making. There is very little to no diplomacy happening. This is extremely dangerous. When the world’s two largest nuclear powers refuse to talk to each other, we should all be very worried. That’s why I welcome any journalist willing to talk to the Russian President.

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Feb 7Liked by Leah Gunn Barrett

OK well, I guess you have a point, Insee it as a broken clock moment for Carlson.

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