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The net effect of this will be small, but the money quote is literally in the first line (emphasis mine) > Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as A

The net effect of this will be small, but the money quote is literally in the first line (emphasis mine) > Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of former President Donald J. Trump, promoting conspiracy theories, stoking domestic divisions and *attacking President Biden* ahead of the election in November, according to researchers and government officials. One must wonder why almost all foreign interests opposed to the United States maintaining our superpower status - the Russians, the PRC - are opposed to a particular candidate (President Joe Biden). The same thing happened in 2016 too, against a particular candidate (Hillary Clinton) by the Russians. As a former President said, "I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made."

rayiner 3y ago
> One must wonder why almost all foreign interests opposed to the United States maintaining our superpower status - the Russians, the PRC - are opposed to a particular candidate (President Joe Biden). The same thing happened in 2016 too, against a particular candidate (Hillary Clinton) by the Russians Because 95% of journalists oppose that candidate, and “our enemies want $CANDIDATE to win” is a comforting and easy to promote notion.
- lancesells 3y ago
  Or maybe it's journalists quoting the candidate: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1GG03P/ https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1GG03P/ > "He's now president for life, president for life. And he's great," Trump said, according to audio of excerpts of Trump's remarks at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida aired by CNN. "And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday," Trump said to cheers and applause from supporters. > It is not clear if Trump, 71, was making the comment about extending presidential service in jest. The White House did not respond to a request for comment late Saturday. > U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, said on Twitter that "whether this was a joke or not, talking about being President for life like Xi Jinping is the most unAmerican sentiment expressed by an American President. George Washington would roll over in his grave."
  - rayiner 3y ago
    That’s a joke. Trump’s superpower is not speaking like a company-wide HR email. And even if taken literally, that doesn’t suggest anything about doing anything favorable for China. Trump was the one who started the recent anti-China trend in American politics, which Biden has run with: https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-36185012 https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-36185012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93United_States_trade_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93United_States_tr... (“An economic conflict between China and the United States has been ongoing since January 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump began setting tariffs and other trade barriers on China with the goal of forcing it to make changes to what the U.S. says are longstanding unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft.[1]”)
    - laidoffamazon 3y ago
      Yeah, it's all a joke until it's not (see: the attempted autogolpe in 2021). It's obvious that the current approach is more threatening to the PRC than the old one...perhaps that's why the PRC wants to bring him back? Seems like his recent flip-flop on TikTok fits into the equation too.
- laidoffamazon 3y ago
  It looks to me that our enemies actually want Trump to win. I wonder why that is. (I don't actually wonder this).
  - forgingahead 3y ago
    Didn't Putin explicitly say he preferred Biden in a recent interview?[0][1] [0] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-says-biden-better-russia-trump-presidency-rcna138942 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-says-biden-better-r... [1] https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-biden-trump-fb2fece0be7685624a3e3e379a8a3bd3 https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-biden-trump-fb2fece0...
    - laidoffamazon 3y ago
      Indeed he did. I care more about actions than words in this respect though (given Biden pushes for massive lethal aid to kill Russian invaders until recent House obstruction).
    - unclebucknasty 3y ago
      You actually take this at face value?
- PreInternet01 3y ago
  > Because 95% of journalists oppose that candidate Well, as do like, 100% of the high-level bureaucrats that served said candidate in their previous presidency. So, given that little tidbit, are those journalists actually unreasonable? And as a followup: if their position is mostly supported by facts, isn't "comforting and easy to promote" a secondary concern?
  - rayiner 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - PreInternet01 3y ago
      The opposition is not based on trade policy (nor Russian influence). In fact, if your assessment of cabinet members in general were even remotely accurate, they would love 60% tariffs on China! After all, escalating that kind of trade war into hot war would be straightforward...
      - rayiner 3y ago
        No, the opposition is based on them being warmonger republicans, and Trump being a 1990s Democrat who doesn’t think it should be “team America: world police.”
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
trelane 3y ago
> One must wonder why almost all foreign interests opposed to the United States maintaining our superpower status - the Russians, the PRC - are opposed to a particular candidate (President Joe Biden). They're not. Your perception is based on selection bias. https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ICA-declass-16MAR21.pdf https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ICA-dec... It may be more informative to wonder why misinformation in support of one candidate is so over-represented in the discourse. It may be related to why the same outlets that share this perspective were participating in disinformation with the Democrat-led federal government to suppress negative news about the Democratic candidate in the 2020 election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden_laptop_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden_laptop_controvers...
- wumeow 3y ago
  As the wikipedia article says, the Hunter Biden laptop story was an obvious October surprise that ended up proving nothing about Joe Biden. There sure was disinfo being peddled during that saga, but not from the Democrats.
  - trelane 3y ago
    "There sure was disinfo being peddled during that saga, but not from the Democrats." Good one. Please pull my other leg. Update: if it's sincerely not clear why the precious comment about "not from the Democrats" was a farce, read the "Reactions" section. The efforts to quash the Post story and characterize it as misinformation are what I'm talking about.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - wumeow 3y ago
      Given the extremely sketchy provenance of the story’s data, the timing of the story’s publishing, the fact it was published by a tabloid and that even the reporters who wrote it questioned its validity, and that two subsequent investigations found no evidence of corruption by Joe Biden, I would say the media was right to treat the Post story as misinformation.

rayiner 3y ago

> One must wonder why almost all foreign interests opposed to the United States maintaining our superpower status - the Russians, the PRC - are opposed to a particular candidate (President Joe Biden). The same thing happened in 2016 too, against a particular candidate (Hillary Clinton) by the Russians Because 95% of journalists oppose that candidate, and “our enemies want $CANDIDATE to win” is a comforting and easy to promote notion.

lancesells 3y ago
Or maybe it's journalists quoting the candidate: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1GG03P/ https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1GG03P/ > "He's now president for life, president for life. And he's great," Trump said, according to audio of excerpts of Trump's remarks at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida aired by CNN. "And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday," Trump said to cheers and applause from supporters. > It is not clear if Trump, 71, was making the comment about extending presidential service in jest. The White House did not respond to a request for comment late Saturday. > U.S. Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, said on Twitter that "whether this was a joke or not, talking about being President for life like Xi Jinping is the most unAmerican sentiment expressed by an American President. George Washington would roll over in his grave."
- rayiner 3y ago
  That’s a joke. Trump’s superpower is not speaking like a company-wide HR email. And even if taken literally, that doesn’t suggest anything about doing anything favorable for China. Trump was the one who started the recent anti-China trend in American politics, which Biden has run with: https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-36185012 https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-36185012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93United_States_trade_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93United_States_tr... (“An economic conflict between China and the United States has been ongoing since January 2018, when U.S. President Donald Trump began setting tariffs and other trade barriers on China with the goal of forcing it to make changes to what the U.S. says are longstanding unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft.[1]”)
  - laidoffamazon 3y ago
    Yeah, it's all a joke until it's not (see: the attempted autogolpe in 2021). It's obvious that the current approach is more threatening to the PRC than the old one...perhaps that's why the PRC wants to bring him back? Seems like his recent flip-flop on TikTok fits into the equation too.
laidoffamazon 3y ago
It looks to me that our enemies actually want Trump to win. I wonder why that is. (I don't actually wonder this).
- forgingahead 3y ago
  Didn't Putin explicitly say he preferred Biden in a recent interview?[0][1] [0] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-says-biden-better-russia-trump-presidency-rcna138942 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-says-biden-better-r... [1] https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-biden-trump-fb2fece0be7685624a3e3e379a8a3bd3 https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-biden-trump-fb2fece0...
  - laidoffamazon 3y ago
    Indeed he did. I care more about actions than words in this respect though (given Biden pushes for massive lethal aid to kill Russian invaders until recent House obstruction).
  - unclebucknasty 3y ago
    You actually take this at face value?
PreInternet01 3y ago
> Because 95% of journalists oppose that candidate Well, as do like, 100% of the high-level bureaucrats that served said candidate in their previous presidency. So, given that little tidbit, are those journalists actually unreasonable? And as a followup: if their position is mostly supported by facts, isn't "comforting and easy to promote" a secondary concern?
- rayiner 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - PreInternet01 3y ago
    The opposition is not based on trade policy (nor Russian influence). In fact, if your assessment of cabinet members in general were even remotely accurate, they would love 60% tariffs on China! After all, escalating that kind of trade war into hot war would be straightforward...
    - rayiner 3y ago
      No, the opposition is based on them being warmonger republicans, and Trump being a 1990s Democrat who doesn’t think it should be “team America: world police.”

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

trelane 3y ago

> One must wonder why almost all foreign interests opposed to the United States maintaining our superpower status - the Russians, the PRC - are opposed to a particular candidate (President Joe Biden). They're not. Your perception is based on selection bias. https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ICA-declass-16MAR21.pdf https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ICA-dec... It may be more informative to wonder why misinformation in support of one candidate is so over-represented in the discourse. It may be related to why the same outlets that share this perspective were participating in disinformation with the Democrat-led federal government to suppress negative news about the Democratic candidate in the 2020 election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden_laptop_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden_laptop_controvers...

wumeow 3y ago
As the wikipedia article says, the Hunter Biden laptop story was an obvious October surprise that ended up proving nothing about Joe Biden. There sure was disinfo being peddled during that saga, but not from the Democrats.
- trelane 3y ago
  "There sure was disinfo being peddled during that saga, but not from the Democrats." Good one. Please pull my other leg. Update: if it's sincerely not clear why the precious comment about "not from the Democrats" was a farce, read the "Reactions" section. The efforts to quash the Post story and characterize it as misinformation are what I'm talking about.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - wumeow 3y ago
    Given the extremely sketchy provenance of the story’s data, the timing of the story’s publishing, the fact it was published by a tabloid and that even the reporters who wrote it questioned its validity, and that two subsequent investigations found no evidence of corruption by Joe Biden, I would say the media was right to treat the Post story as misinformation.