No, Taxpayers Shouldn't Bail Out the DNC

A former White House official cautioned that any U.S. government attempt to counter the flow of foreign state-backed disinformation through deterrence would face major political, legal and moral obstacles.

"You would have to have massive surveillance and curtailed freedom and that is a cost we have not been willing to accept,” said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They (Russia) can control distribution of information in ways we don't."

  Reuters

In other words, free speech in America is a hazard. Perhaps it should be further curtailed. After all, it's just one of those freedoms they hate us for. Maybe if we didn't have so much, they would like us.

A defense spending pill passed this month calls for the State Department to establish a "Global Engagement Center" to take on some of that work, but similar efforts to counter less sophisticated Islamic State narratives have fallen short.

I'm pretty sure they don't mean "pill".  Ministry of Propaganda will now be formalized.  I wonder if part of their mission will be to hack other countries' elections.

James Lewis, a cyber security expert at the Center for Strategic & International Studies who has worked for the departments of State and Commerce and the U.S. military, said Washington needed to move beyond antiquated notions of projecting influence if it hoped to catch up with Russia.

"They have RT and all we know how to do is send a carrier battle group," Lewis said. "We're going to be stuck until we find a way deal with that."

Jesus, James, we have Fox, MSNBC and CNN. That's three to one.  Not to mention USAID and the CIA.

Watts, who said he has tracked tens of thousands of pro-Russia Twitter handles since 2014, believes many of the most effective stories stoke fear of war or other calamities or promote a narrative of corrupt Western politicians, media and other elites.

Oh yes, thanks for reminding me. What about our own government's "Cuban Twitter" account?

Also, Watts: we don't have corrupt politicians, media and other elites?

Former workers of the Democratic National Committee, one of the groups infiltrated by Russian-backed hackers, said the U.S. government should consider providing funding for the technological defense of major political parties. They said that once hacked emails began appearing online, party functionaries were constantly behind in responding.

Tell me again, how much money did the DNC and Hillary raise for her campaign?



They couldn't purchase a little cyber security with some of that?  They need taxpayers, many of whom voted against her, to do that for them?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.