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| Photo by Money Sharma/AFP/Getty Images via Intercept (I think originally used in The New Yorker). |
Trump has only two ideas about China, both of which are not actually about China but about his election campaign—wanting to get his name on a "deal" to the content of which he is basically indifferent, which will enhance his view of himself as a master negotiator, and wanting to blame China for all the problems of the universe, which the rally crowds adore—and doesn't understand that they contradict each other and that the more abuse he heaps on the country the more difficult it will be for the dictator Xi Jinping to have another playdate with him. But the way he's working the coronavirus into the latter goal, pushing his people to fabricate the case that Chinese scientists created the virus in a Wuhan laboratory, is getting dangerously reminiscent of the kind of fabrication used to set up the Iraq War in 2002-03, and there's something scary about the role Secretary of State Pompeo is playing in the business:
Seems like privatizing intelligence is the way to make sure you get the intelligence the boss wants. https://t.co/86W8YQRKFN— Leaves of Yas (@Yastreblyansky) May 18, 2020
So somebody asked a contractor called "MACE" to come up with it-- pic.twitter.com/n0xWg7vqj1— Leaves of Yas (@Yastreblyansky) May 18, 2020
