Nice to see some hardball, two days in a row! Here’s the link.
Despite the clear assaults on our democracy and our allies in Europe,
the U.S. government still does not have a coherent, comprehensive,
and coordinated approach to the Kremlin’s malign influence
operations, either abroad or at home. Although the U.S.
government has for years had a patchwork of offices and programs
supporting independent journalism, cyber security, and the countering
of disinformation, the lack of presidential leadership in addressing
the threat Putin poses has hampered a strong U.S. response.
In early 2017, Congress provided the State Department’s
Global Engagement Center the resources and mandate to address
Kremlin disinformation campaigns, but operations have been stymied
by the Department’s hiring freeze and unnecessarily long
delays by its senior leadership in transferring authorized funds to
the office. While many mid-level and some senior-level officials
throughout the State Department and U.S. government are cognizant
of the threat posed by Mr. Putin’s asymmetric arsenal, the
U.S. President continues to deny that any such threat exists, creating
a leadership vacuum in our own government and among our
European partners and allies.
Here’s the problem.
Everybody agrees that not one vote was changed by Russian interference or hacking in our 2016 election.
What’s got some people (the establishment mostly) all worked up is the fact that it appears that Russian propaganda is overpowering Capitalist propaganda.
This is a battle between the criminal oligarchs (and the intelligence communities) concerning who has the legitimate right to control what people think in their respective countries.
If our students were taught critical thinking skills in public, private and voucher schools then none of this would be the least bit relevant.
So long as the Republicans don’t control the manufacture and programming of our voting machines.
Machines that should record each of our votes in hard copy form.