Playing With Your Food

 I am fortunate to have a indoor cat. Many of the creepiest behaviors of felines are for the most part avoided because of this confinement. Like the way that some house cats will return from their jaunts outside with nearly dead things that they want to share, sometimes batting their mangled remains about on the kitchen floor in a show of superiority and grandiosity. 

I bring this up, in spite of the fact that our toothless cat is less than likely to exhibit this tendency anytime soon. I had visions of a large predator tossing about its prey that was far too innocuous to be a meal, but still allowed it to celebrate its place on the food chain as I watched Young Tucker Carlson "interview" Vladimir "Felinus Atrocious" Putin. Those of you familiar with Young Tucker's journalistic talents can probably imagine how this went. 

For its part, the Kremlin itself had hyped Carlson's credentials, claiming he was the only Western journalist granted permission to talk to Putin in two years because his position is "in clear contrast to the position of the traditional Anglo-Saxon media." For the rest of us, we can solidly assume that Vlad just wanted someone who would sit there, slack jawed, while Russia's talking points were expounded upon and Putin's own peculiar view of Ukrainian history was laid out for those dim enough to lap it up. 

These pointy heads covered with red baseball caps are just the audience the big cat wants to reach. The ones who stare off into space, waiting to be told more lies. The ones that cheer on congressional Republicans as they continue to block a sixty-six billion dollar Ukraine aid bill. Among the many "facts" that Putin was able to roll out without any pushback from Young Tuck were dubious claims such as the 2014 Maidan protests, in which Ukrainians took to the streets to demand freedom from Russian control, were a CIA plot. Or that the invasion was a bid to "de-Nazify" the country, and not a campaign of revanchist conquest it is in reality. All of this without any kind of response from the dimwit who gave the bad guys two hours to bat him around along with the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who have died since this illegal invasion began. 

Ironically, this will probably boost Young Tuck's online presence. Even more than his last big interview with a conspiracy theorist who goes by the name of (checks notes) Catturd. Which pretty much brings us full circle.