this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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top 32 comments
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[–] [email protected] 104 points 10 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think we got a reprieve in 2021. There was a time when Trump would send out his stupid newsletters from Florida, and that was the extent of his remaining influence.

Ah, to go back...

[–] elbarto777 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yeah. Sure. That was all the extent of it.

You probably were not looking hard enough.

A headline doesn't need to be something like "Democrats bad, GOP good!" Do you think the whole transgender rights thing happened because of some American bigots only? Plus some other things, like the abortion rights thing, or the border "crisis."

Anything to "divide and conquer" will do.

[–] elbarto777 12 points 10 months ago

No. It never ended.

[–] CaptainSpaceman 5 points 10 months ago

Yeah, as if ANY major power stops their political influence campaigns against other countries just because it isnt an election year......

[–] Rapidcreek 32 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Trump, Putin, mullahs in Iran, and Netanyahu are all working overtime to undermine.

[–] voracitude 8 points 10 months ago

Reads a bit like a Billy Joel song!

[–] elbarto777 2 points 10 months ago

I hate it that it rhymes.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

It began years ago

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Russia is already spreading disinformation in advance of the 2024 election, using fake online accounts and bots to damage President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats, according to former U.S. officials and cyber experts.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that there’s “plenty of reason to be concerned” about Russia’s trying to interfere in the 2024 election but that he couldn’t discuss evidence related to it.

The type of pro-Russia online propaganda campaigns that thrived on Twitter and Facebook ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now routine on every major social media platform, though it’s rare for individual accounts to go as viral now as they once did.

In the 2022 midterm elections, Russia primarily targeted the Democratic Party to weaken U.S. support for Ukraine, as it most likely blames Biden for forging a unified Western alliance backing Kyiv, according to a recently released U.S. intelligence assessment.

A study published Wednesday by the Slovakian cybersecurity company ESET found that a pro-Russia campaign has been spamming Ukrainians with false and dispiriting emails about the war with claims of heating and food shortages.

In a coordinated effort near the start of Russia’s invasion in 2022, cyberattacks temporarily knocked key Ukrainian websites offline, while residents received spam texts telling them that ATMs in the country were down.


The original article contains 1,588 words, the summary contains 218 words. Saved 86%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] ikidd 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Just completely shut them off from the rest of western society. Nothing of value will be lost.

[–] psmgx 1 points 10 months ago

Finish what Yandex and VKontakte were build to do!

[–] Bobmighty 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

They're here too. Watch how you call out fakes if you choose to do so. I already had a comment removed for saying a lot of aggressively political accounts were fake using "uncivil" words like bullshit. They will be looking to get rid of anything calling them out, so I guess do so politely.

[–] hark 3 points 10 months ago

I wish the much more effective interference by big money donors would get anywhere close to as much attention.

[–] moshtradamus666 -1 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Why is it better for Putin if Trump wins? I really don't get it. Can someone explain?

[–] EvilBit 60 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Trump is for sale and under incredible financial and informational stress that Putin can leverage. Putin would basically own the President of the United States, every decision he makes, and all his sway over the hundreds of millions of people he influences. Again.

[–] LordOfTheChia 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

To supplement your point:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/

Russian elite invested nearly $100 million in Trump buildings

...

The tally of investors from Russia may be conservative. The analysis found that at least 703 – or about one-third – of the owners of the 2044 units in the seven Trump buildings are limited liability companies, or LLCs, which have the ability to hide the identity of a property’s true owner. And the nationality of many buyers could not be determined. Russian-Americans who did not use a Russian address or passport in their purchases were not included in the tally.

And

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/eric-trump-russia-investment-golf-course

“So when I got in the cart with Eric,” Dodson says, “as we were setting off, I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks—because of the recession, the Great Recession—have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.’ And this is what he said. He said, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.

AND

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a43329318/russian-investment-trump-media/

Towards the end of last year, federal prosecutors started examining two loans totaling $8m wired to Trump Media, through the Caribbean, from two obscure entities that both appear to be controlled in part by the relation of an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the sources said.

AND

https://www.axios.com/2023/02/18/gop-operative-sentenced-scheme-russian-money-trump-campaign

A Republican strategist was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison for his role in helping funnel illegal foreign campaign contributions from a Russian national into former President Trump's 2016 campaign, per the Department of Justice.

AND

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/trumpinc/episodes/trump-inc-trump-deutsche-bank-its-complicated

The New York Times reported that anti-money-laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank internally flagged multiple transactions by Trump companies as suspicious. (A spokesperson for the Trump Organization called the article “absolute nonsense.”)

The remarkably troubled recent history of Deutsche Bank, its past money-laundering woes — and the bank’s striking relationship with Trump — are the subjects of this week’s episode. The German bank loaned a cumulative total of around $2.5 billion to Trump projects over the past two decades, and the bank continued writing him nine-figure checks even after he defaulted on a $640 million obligation and sued the bank, blaming it for his failure to pay back the debt.

All from just 5 minutes on Google!

Also this:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2022/07/29/donald-trumps-great-escape-how-the-former-president-solved-his-debt-crisis/

[–] EvilBit 4 points 10 months ago

Great work. Thanks!

[–] Candelestine 39 points 10 months ago

Trump is against arming Ukraine. Biden is for arming Ukraine.

[–] the_dopamine_fiend 26 points 10 months ago

Way easier to compromise because there's already mountains of kompromat, plus he just breeds more corruption wherever he goes.

Also a nonzero chance that we nuke Ukraine for him.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Trump said he would encourage Russia to invade NATO countries that don't fund their military at the agreed-on 2%.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-russia-attack-nato-allies_n_65c7e443e4b069b665dfb762

What other president would encourage their rivals to invade their allies?

Trump has already seriously weakened the US' soft power around the world with his trade wars and threatening to break/ignore treaties. Trump winning again is a huge loss for the US, and a huge opportunity for Russia.

[–] Badeendje 3 points 10 months ago

Not to mention that many countries shelter under the US's nuclear umbrella. If the US is no longer guaranteed to actually be there, other countries might spin up a nuclear program themselves.

It won't be thousands of nukes, but then more countries will have a nuclear arsenal to protect themselves, making the chance some conflict will spark it's use bigger.

[–] Alivrah 18 points 10 months ago

Trump is openly talking about instating fascism in the US. If he's elected he'll be a puppet king under Putin's command.

[–] elbarto777 17 points 10 months ago

Because Trump weakened the U.S. in the global landscape during his time as president. Which of course would help Russia. Then Russia shot itself in the foot with the whole Ukraine invasion, of course.

[–] Badeendje 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Something others have not said:
Trump is very fickle, and manages the country like his business empire, like an autocrat. Everything to him must be a direct quid-pro-quo, so if he does not directly see the benefit of something, it's 'the worst ever' and he will not honor earlier agreements.

Wel in international politics, everything is about your reputation as a country and your reliability.

Many countries, EU and APAC have traded on the US as a reliable party, for safety, security and stability (even though plenty of other countries will disagree).

Trump and the Republican congress are showing that when push comes to shove, the US has politicians that would rather play politics than help allies.

This forces these countries to re-evaluate their dependence.

Keep in mind that the US believes a conflict with China is on the horizon and inevitable.

  • But how the US will fare against a (near) peer adversary without their APAC allies, and without the EU cutting economic ties if the conflict erupts is probably not going to be well.

China will have home turf advantage, and is setting up and modernizing its military at beak-neck speed to do 3 things:

  • defend the communist party from her enemies
  • defend china from the US
  • invade and hold taiwan
[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Nobody wants to start a land war in China, that would be insane. Defending Taiwan from Chinese aggression is what it's all about. But China is probably about a decade away from having the capability to make a move on Taiwan.

[–] Badeendje 1 points 10 months ago

Protect the party from the population. And Taiwan once invaded. A landwar is not on the books no.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

It's all about NATO and Eastern Europe.

Putin laid out his plan long ago. He wants to conquer Eastern Europe. NATO stands in the way, and the US is at least half of NATO's strength. He said he'd use internal divisions in the US and other NATO countries to weaken them and to break up NATO.

That's what he's doing.

[–] masquenox -5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Oh look... the Dems are pre-emptively blaming Russia for the fact that they have absolutely nothing to offer the populace except "lesser evilism" that are smelling more rancid every damn day.

[–] Clubbing4198 0 points 10 months ago

its not even lesser of two evils. its just about who profits off of the empire the most.

[–] Clubbing4198 -2 points 10 months ago

👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏

[–] Clubbing4198 -5 points 10 months ago

Disinformation is disinformation. How many elections has the US interfered in? How many governments has the US couped? This isn't whataboutism. I think if we had honest conversations about how the US is also a state power that has been engaged in exactly what the Russian state has been doing we would be able to see how our politicians also use this as a tool to control the populace and silence dissent. They fear monger us into complicity time and time again.