Patterico's Pontifications

2/23/2022

Russian Invasion of Ukraine Well Underway

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:35 pm



Twitter is alight with news, and some of it may be fake, so beware. That said, multiple correspondents for different television networks have heard explosions in Kyiv. There have been explosions in multiple other cities. The U.S. embassy reports:

Air raid sirens are going off in Kyiv as I write this. People are trying desperately to get out:

Here is video of the debris of a cruise missile in the capital city:

Zelensky has declared martial law, and the Ukrainian government reports that the Russian military has attacked military targets all over the country. The first wave of attacks appears to be targeting air defense. Reports are that all military airports have now been destroyed:

A family friend has a mom in Kyiv. She reports to her daughter: “War.”

Meanwhile, as you have surely read, the repugnant punk Tucker Carlson has gone to town propagandizing for Putin, asking his audience: what did Vladimir Putin ever do to you? Did he call you a racist, or make fentanyl, or eat dogs? Why, no! As stupid as that sounds, I’m not even making it up. I’ll show you the version shown on Russian state television, with subtitles that gleefully proclaim this useful idiot propaganda to the Russian people:

Nor am I making up Trump’s talk tonight to his dullard crowd in Mar-a-Lago as he fanbois for Putin, dreamy-eyed at the thought of a “smart” man who can just waltz in and take over huge tracts of land without repercussion:

Trump is a monster. Tucker Carlson is a sinister propagandist. Now if there is anything they can do for us:

Keep the people of Ukraine in your thoughts. And as to the evil Vladimir Putin and his sinister propagandists in the United States, like the unspeakable cretin at Mar-a-Lago, or Father Carlson, I wish them . . . nothing good.

UPDATE: Russian cyberattacks have taken down Ukranian news sites:

Our friend with the mom in Kyiv told us the same thing tonight.

UPDATE: Russians are firing rockets indiscriminately into the city. The face of a victim:

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

I’m going to bed. I’ll leave you tonight with this message:

Constitutional Vanguard: Yes, the Crazies Really Do Have Influence

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:26 am



Today’s post is another long thumb-sucker, this time on the topic of whether people espousing some crazy views, like Candace Owens or Joe Rogan, really do have influence. We’re often told these days that they don’t. But they have very large audiences — and as I am at pains to show in this piece, that matters:

I think it’s easy to miss just how large an audience 11 million people really is. I think the following question really helps drive it home. What if I were to ask you how many Joe Rogan fans will likely commit suicide in the year 2022? Before moving on to the next paragraph, ask yourself: what would your gut tell you? Close your eyes and muse upon the subject before you read on any further. See if you can come up with an answer. Zero people? One or two? A handful? Don’t read the next sentence until you have your own answer.

What was your answer? Well, given that I am asking the question, you’re probably guessing higher than you otherwise would. Maybe you guessed a dozen? As many as twenty? Surely it can’t be that high!

For the answer, click here and read the whole thing for free. Subscribe here.

P.S. I initially used the term “conservative crazies” in the title, but I have removed the word “conservative” because Rogan is not himself conservative, although the dark aspersions he casts on COVID vaccines are widely embraced by the movement that currently calls itself “conservative.” Truly, we need a new word for the crazy movement — or, possibly, we need a new word for those of us who have always been what we used to call conservative.


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