Donnie's strange obsession

So what is the deal with Trump and TikTok? The only thing I can figure is, he wants to show how tough he is on China, and TikTok is a lot more visible than boring tariffs.

But millions of Americans love TikTok. They go there for a laugh or a smile to get their minds off the horror show that is America 2020. What does Orange Caligula have to gain by coming off as banning that little bright spot in people's harried lives?

There must be money in the controversy somehow for him or his cronies. There sure don't seem to be votes.

What am I missing?

Comments

  1. I’ve lost track of who posted this and where, but the gist was that Oracle is full of Trumpanzees and the whole thing was a grift to lavish money on Trump’s donor base. I will look for the posts where I saw it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here’s one such article:
      https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/09/oracle-one-of-donald-trumps-favorite-companies-wins-tiktok-deal/

      Delete
    2. And this fits the m.o. of the semi-comatose Commerce Secretary
      https://twitter.com/Public_Citizen/status/1306959248593768448

      Delete
    3. Not that he's necessarily on this for the right reasons, but tiktok, as with any other Chinese company of any size and importance, has direct ties to the CCP and the military. Along with the laws that require any company at all to share all information with the government and deny doing so publicly. It's a safe bet that any Chinese tech product has built in features that advance state goals. I don't know that tiktok is any more of a danger to people's privacy than dozens of other apps that are on their phones, but generally speaking, I don't want any part of Chinese tech, and think it's good policy to take a hard line against its proliferation, given the immense amount of soft-power fuckery that China is up to.

      Delete
    4. Just for fun, I went looking for an explainer on this, and found something very recent (paywalled).

      https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/opinion/tiktok-china-strategy.html?searchResultPosition=13

      Delete
    5. Oh, and I was intending to reply to Jack's post, not yours, Walker. I think you're right about the explanation for the thing landing at Oracle fitting right in to the Trump grift mill.

      Delete
  2. He hates Sarah Cooper and her spot on mimics of him. She's on TikTok.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

The platform used for this blog is awfully wonky when it comes to comments. It may work for you, it may not. It's a Google thing, and beyond my control. Apologies if you can't get through. You can email me a comment at jackbogsblog@comcast.net, and if it's appropriate, I can post it here for you.