Here we go again
Oct. 25th, 2020 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
garoteInterested in catching up on some political news, I began a google search with the word "Biden". Before I could get any farther than that, google autocompleted that to a New York Times article called "Questions And Answers About The Bidens And A Deal In China".
The Times article was paywalled but on the first paragraph, in the first sentence, the writer declared that the rumors about Biden receiving payments from China were categorically false.
The next autocomplete was "Biden laptop".
Curious, I followed "Biden laptop." All the search hits on the front page:
It's not Russia.
Here's how this is going to play out, based on how it played out in 2016:
A fake story with sensationalist elements, and a lot of cooked-up copy about a humble computer repair technician (who is a loyal Trump supporter naturally) appears on the cover of some third-rate "news" publication, and as soon as it appears, the President himself begins to scream about it constantly in every press interview he gives - debates and rallies included - and so do his children and campaign staff.
Legitimate news providers - defined as any provider, regardless of political stripe, with any journalistic practice whatsoever - notice the story and address it as maliciously fake, or at the very least totally unverified, causing the story to get repeated all over the country for weeks, and make its way into every corner of the discourse.
Publications that refuse to even speak about the story get counted up by Trump's campaign staff (and children), who then scream to the heavens on social media that those publications are "corrupt and shilling for Biden". (Right now the latest round of this is Don Junior trying to marshal followers on Twitter for a hashtag to "cancel NPR".) So then, instead of the story being the story, the fact that some publications aren't carrying the story becomes the story. Which amplifies the original story just as well.
Folks, it's not Russia. The corruption is coming from inside the house. It's Trump. It is the president of the United States himself who approved this fake story, got one of his friends to publish it, then began banging the drum about it.
Let that sink in: He's repeating it louder than anyone even though he knows it's a lie; and he knows it's a lie because he himself created it. Every single day, hours a day, he is roaming around the country demanding "justice" and "more investigation" into his own fake story, in front of hundreds of thousands - millions - of US citizens.
I abhor this. He may get enough people angry enough in the swing states to turn the tide again, you know. And it will be the same tactic he used four years ago all during his primary run, and all during the campaign, and on an ongoing basis since. We all collectively will have learned nothing.
Let me follow this up with an additional prediction:
If Trump wins, he will stop talking about the Biden story instantly, and it will vanish from the news cycle overnight. Some whistleblowers will stick their heads up and demand an investigation into Rudy Giuliani, claiming he's a Russian tool. Trump will feel too much heat from that, and will throw him under the bus. Rudy's defense will be muddled by questions about his mental health and sanity. A few people will claim that the story was fabricated by Trump and his lawyers, but it won't matter. It's not exactly treason and Trump was never under oath when he told all the lies. Four more years of train wreck will ensue, but worse.
If Trump loses, he will fire Rudy immediately. Trump's legal team will go on a document-purging spree. Trump will spend the next three months screaming that the country is about to be run by a Russian plant who intends to jail him for "made up crimes". No one will care about the origin of the Biden story, since lawyers will be too busy gearing up other suits. An ugly legal brawl will start next spring and drag on for the next two years and Trump will lay all of it at the feet of Biden, attempting to sabotage and distract as much as possible. It's not going to be pretty.
The Times article was paywalled but on the first paragraph, in the first sentence, the writer declared that the rumors about Biden receiving payments from China were categorically false.
The next autocomplete was "Biden laptop".
Curious, I followed "Biden laptop." All the search hits on the front page:
- Daily Beast: "Chris Wallace Grills RNC Chair: You Have Any Proof That Biden Took Foreign Money?"
- Politico.com: "Former Giuliani associate raises questions about Hunter Biden’s ‘hard drive from hell’"
- The Hill: "White House lawyer helped shop controversial Hunter Biden story to Wall Street Journal"
- Fox News: "Biden rips Hunter Biden email leak as 'smear campaign,' says Russia trying to spread disinformation."
- Fox News: "Rep. Jim Jordan on reviewing and authenticating purported Hunter Biden emails"
- The Atlantic: "You’re Not Supposed to Understand the Rumors About Biden"
- The National Review: "The Media’s Shameful Hunter Biden Abdication"
- Washington Post: "Insisting that the Hunter Biden laptop is fake is a trap. So is insisting that it’s real."
- New York Times: "What We Know and Don’t About Hunter Biden and a Laptop"
- The Chicago Tribune: "What we know and don’t know, so far, about Hunter Biden’s laptop."
- CNN: "FBI says it has 'nothing to add' to Ratcliffe's claim on Russian disinformation."
It's not Russia.
Here's how this is going to play out, based on how it played out in 2016:
A fake story with sensationalist elements, and a lot of cooked-up copy about a humble computer repair technician (who is a loyal Trump supporter naturally) appears on the cover of some third-rate "news" publication, and as soon as it appears, the President himself begins to scream about it constantly in every press interview he gives - debates and rallies included - and so do his children and campaign staff.
Legitimate news providers - defined as any provider, regardless of political stripe, with any journalistic practice whatsoever - notice the story and address it as maliciously fake, or at the very least totally unverified, causing the story to get repeated all over the country for weeks, and make its way into every corner of the discourse.
Publications that refuse to even speak about the story get counted up by Trump's campaign staff (and children), who then scream to the heavens on social media that those publications are "corrupt and shilling for Biden". (Right now the latest round of this is Don Junior trying to marshal followers on Twitter for a hashtag to "cancel NPR".) So then, instead of the story being the story, the fact that some publications aren't carrying the story becomes the story. Which amplifies the original story just as well.
Folks, it's not Russia. The corruption is coming from inside the house. It's Trump. It is the president of the United States himself who approved this fake story, got one of his friends to publish it, then began banging the drum about it.
Let that sink in: He's repeating it louder than anyone even though he knows it's a lie; and he knows it's a lie because he himself created it. Every single day, hours a day, he is roaming around the country demanding "justice" and "more investigation" into his own fake story, in front of hundreds of thousands - millions - of US citizens.
I abhor this. He may get enough people angry enough in the swing states to turn the tide again, you know. And it will be the same tactic he used four years ago all during his primary run, and all during the campaign, and on an ongoing basis since. We all collectively will have learned nothing.
Let me follow this up with an additional prediction:
If Trump wins, he will stop talking about the Biden story instantly, and it will vanish from the news cycle overnight. Some whistleblowers will stick their heads up and demand an investigation into Rudy Giuliani, claiming he's a Russian tool. Trump will feel too much heat from that, and will throw him under the bus. Rudy's defense will be muddled by questions about his mental health and sanity. A few people will claim that the story was fabricated by Trump and his lawyers, but it won't matter. It's not exactly treason and Trump was never under oath when he told all the lies. Four more years of train wreck will ensue, but worse.
If Trump loses, he will fire Rudy immediately. Trump's legal team will go on a document-purging spree. Trump will spend the next three months screaming that the country is about to be run by a Russian plant who intends to jail him for "made up crimes". No one will care about the origin of the Biden story, since lawyers will be too busy gearing up other suits. An ugly legal brawl will start next spring and drag on for the next two years and Trump will lay all of it at the feet of Biden, attempting to sabotage and distract as much as possible. It's not going to be pretty.
no subject
Date: 2020-10-26 03:30 pm (UTC)Don't limit yourself by googling. Google is exremely political. Try bing and duckduckgo, you'll see a wider view of things.
(And I'm still amused by Giuliani taking "another computer" to cops in another state... is he trafficking child porn?)