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Jo Jorgensen 2020 🇺🇸
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Chief
Not sure what the concern is about constitutionality.
The plenty of sub-agencies aren't mentioned in the Constitution either but exists because it serves a useful function.
Unless you're saying we shod get rid of DHS in which case I am here for it.
Truthfully, a decade back I would have seen the headline and called this dystopian. Even understanding the mission is very narrow at the moment and focused on substantial problems from foreign menaces who are undermining out security, I would myself have preached about setting a bad precedent, how scope creep could turn this department authoritarian, especially in the wrong hands.
What happened since? The dystopia actually arrived! A good percentage of the country lives inside a disinformation fever dream. Its genisus is traceable. The Republican party let a bullshit machine conman take the reins, and Putin's propaganda machine came to his aid. Social media was unprepared for the flood. The Republican Party was unprepared too. Most of those candidates in the primary, from Rubio to Cruz, so vehemently warned Trump had no connection to reality and lies about everything. Then, instead of fighting it, they saw the power. Right wing media and the GOP are no longer simply biased, they no longer merely spin stories and tell little lies. They saw the usefulness of Putin's tactics and embraced full-on informational warfare as a means to power. Now they're very comfortable elevating any foreign propaganda, anonymous internet troll, or toxicly shameless bad faith argument. It's all quantity, not quality, because the power is in ejecting as many lazy wild lies as possible, because it's impossible to keep up with and debunk. "Flood the zone with bullshit" as Steve Bannon referred to it positively, as a valid political tactic. Same guy who is coordinating the effort to "decertify" a free and fair election in a handful of swing states that gave Biden the Presidency. Now that the Republican Party is engaged in psychological warfare against their own country, and created a mass psychosis that inspired an ongoing insurrection that didn't end on 1/6, the authoritarians (Trump) are indistinguishable from the average corporate stooges just trying to win reelection. The cancer has metastasized, and willingly or not they are all working in concert to end our democracy and seize permanent political power, with Russia as the model. See in the Trump/GOP dystopia, the number one issue you'll be gaslit on is that democratic governance is still real, that all our great institutions are better than ever, that elections are still real and count and democrats COULD one day retake political power, if they'd just stop being pedophiles.
Small anecdote. Putin's rise to power points back to his time as head of Russia's FSB, the successor to the KGB. He won the trust of the President, Yeltsin, by helping him destroy a popular General and opponent by framing him as a pedophile. Yeltsin eventually named Putin as his successor. Since then, Putin has deployed the tactic to destroy many prominent opponents. Everyone who opposes him winds up poisoned or a pedophile. Even with his war of aggression in Ukraine, he tells his people he's ridding the land of Nazis and pedophiles. Saving them.
No coincidence, then, that the Qanon movement, bolstered by Russia's troll farm, made "Democrats run a global cabal of pedophiles" its central thesis. Trump refused to disavow Qanon, even when made repeatedly aware they believed he was secretly working to expose the cabal, feeding this disinformation fever dream, allowing the Qanon playbook to go mainstream. When Josh Hawley attacked Judge KBJ over bad faith disinformation that she was soft on pedophiles, which became the greater GOP narrative, the roots of that nonsense tie back to Qanon, to Trump, all the way back to Putin's rise to power. Russia is the GOP's model now. The tactics have proven effective, and Republicans have wholly embraced them, as part of an authoritarian movement, and they will forever scream and whine and claim authoritarianism when their tactics receive pushback.
I hope the panel is successful. I'd worry about it growing and falling into the wrong hands, but the truth is, we're already doomed if we fall back into this GOP's hands. Again, they are engaged in a full-on power grab and psychological warfare against their own country. Many openly and proudly, Trump being the most open and proud. Until there are consequences and reform, they are the threat, and a panel tasked with fighting disinformation is a necessary experiment.
And do note how, right from the start, Republicans are lying about the panel's job and power.
I already throughly explained why, at this point in time, I'd hand the system this particular type of power. It's fine if you disagree, and I share your skeptism of its effectiveness, but I still support it for reasons already stated. You say we all chose our own billionaires, and it's equally cynical for me to say we all chose our own bad policies. There is no great solution to problems like this, that anyone has convinced anyone of.
Rising Star
Do any of you clowns even know what a governance board is? This is "Death Panels" all over again except you're not even trying to articulate your thoughts, just spamming whatever neocon headline is the scariest to you.
Try reading industry sources before wailing about something you don't have an understanding on https://www.hstoday.us/federal-pages/dhs/dhs-standing-up-disinformation-governance-board-led-by-information-warfare-expert/
🤯
Seriously. Maybe I started my Friday a little too early but I’m flabbergasted at the blind devotion here. This is the most fundamental move by every single authoritarian government.
Enthusiast
That people could be ok with this shows how far we have fallen as a nation. The days are dark and the times are evil. Buckle up.
I remember when senior officials got fired on Twitter because they confirmed 2020 was a free and fair election. Huh.
I don’t know what I’m more shocked by - the fact that this is actually happening or that left leaning journalists are actually cheering this!!
Do they not understand how this ends or do they just not care? What if DeSantis wins in 2024 or 2028?! Are we actually willing to take that kind of risk?
Bahahahah cool cool. It aaalllll makes sense now why you hold the views you do.
Chief
Good. Someone needs to go after the root cause of dangerous conspiracy theory terrorist threats.
Qanon is a clear an present danger to the American republic, and it was founded in disinformation.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fbi-warns-lawmakers-frustrated-qanon-conspiracy-followers-turn/story?id=78288191
Disinformation should be eliminated. But from the government side, not the population side
Progress is being made in Afghanistan (also in Vietnam)
WMD in Iraq
Benghazi started because people watched a movie
Russia has compromising material on Trump and that he is a Russian asset
NSA director giving the “least untruthful answer” to harvesting phone data
You don’t need to wear a mask-Fauci
Covid will just go away-Trump
Inflation will be transitory
Anything insinuated and then wrapped in a cloak of being classified for nation security is disinformation
I truly do not understand what is the problem with this
K1, oh the National Review. Gasp. Oh, that unverified hacked information wasn’t embraced until authenticated. Gasp.
You’ve been radicalized.
Visual Storyteller
A lot of noise coming from the people who gave us the Patriot act.
Enthusiast
Pretty sure The Ministry would disapprove of my new research.
Pro
The ministry of truth!
Pro
What's that from? Who wrote about that again?
Enthusiast
This is really gonna win over the moderates who make up the bulk of the population 😂
Libs are just weird
Pro
I also love the whole "ministry of truth" criticism from all of the conservatives who are now resorting to referencing the work of an avowed socialist in order to make whatever point they think they are making lol. But such is conservative rhetoric and logic. They only know how to deploy info (whether it is correct or has a proper context or not) as a weapon and not as a tool for
discovering truth.
It depends who is in charge. Look what happened to the CFPB and campaign finance oversight.
Pro
Conservatives: we are being INvaded at the southern border. bRANDON is a total failure.
Biden Admin: *tries to do something about it*
Conservatives: this is tyranny. Just like 1984
What is the enforcement mechanism going to be? They say it to stop human traffickers. OK, great. Is the plan to run TV ads in El Salvador? Aggressively go after the platforms the traffickers are on? I think we’re already going after the traffickers, but maybe not.
Then what? Turn the lens internally looking for people they don’t agree with? All for the “common good?”
Rising Star
...you clearly didn't read anything then. Dope 🤟
Enthusiast
Lol. "national review".
So for anyone wondering what the actual announcement was and is interested in forming their own opinion on the merits of the proposed program, here you are:
https://www.hstoday.us/federal-pages/dhs/dhs-standing-up-disinformation-governance-board-led-by-information-warfare-expert/
“Board intended to ‘coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia.’”
“A new board at the Department of Homeland Security will focus on countering misinformation and disinformation, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told lawmakers today, with Wilson Center fellow Nina Jankowicz separately confirming that she would be executive director of the board.
During a hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security to discuss the president’s fiscal year 2023 budget request, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ohio) stated that disinformation is a ‘huge threat to our homeland’ and said Mayorkas has ‘noted that it’s a concern of yours at the border with human smuggling organizations peddling misinformation to exploit vulnerable migrants for profit.’ Citing the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on tactics used in the 2016 election campaign, she added that ‘foreign adversaries attempt to destabilize our elections by targeting people of color with disinformation campaigns.’
‘A newer trend that we saw in the 2020 election and already in the 2022 midterms is that disinformation is being heavily targeted at Spanish-speaking voters, sparking and fueling conspiracy theories,’ Underwood said to Mayorkas. ‘DHS and its components play a big role in addressing myths and disinformation in Spanish and other languages. Can you share what steps you’ve taken and what future plans you have to address Spanish-language myths and disinformation through a department-wide approach?’
Mayorkas replied that DHS has ‘a number of different offices engaged in this critical effort’ as part of their mission set including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which recently published infographics explaining information manipulation and how bad actors use social media bots as well as an update of the Disinformation Stops With You infographic set.
‘Our Undersecretary for Policy Rob Silvers is co-chair with our Principal Deputy General Counsel Jennifer Daskal in leading a just recently constituted misinformation/disinformation governance board,’ the secretary said.
Politico Playbook reported that DHS is standing up a new Disinformation Governance Board “to coordinate countering misinformation related to homeland security, focused specifically on irregular migration and Russia.”
Nina Jankowicz, who studies the intersection of democracy and technology in Central and Eastern Europe as a Wilson Center global fellow, has advised the Ukrainian government on strategic communications, and is the author of How To Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict, confirmed on Twitter that she would be executive director of the board.
‘Honored to be serving in the Biden Administration @DHSgov and helping shape our counter-disinformation efforts,’ Jankowicz tweeted, adding that ‘a HUGE focus of our work, and indeed, one of the key reasons the Board was established, is to maintain the Dept’s committment [sic] to protecting free speech, privacy, civil rights, & civil liberties.’
‘More to come as we dig into the big job ahead,’ she added. ‘For now, thanks for the support.’
In February, the latest National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin assessed that the converging factors of disinformation, persistent calls for violence against critical and often-soft targets, and recent calls by foreign terrorist organizations for attacks on the United States have ‘increased the volatility, unpredictability, and complexity’ of the threat landscape.
Disinformation and misinformation propagated and disseminated by both domestic and foreign actors were listed as the first key factors influencing the heightened threat environment, with grievances stoked by unsubstantiated widespread election fraud conspiracy theories and COVID-19 mis/disinformation noted as inspiring violent extremist attacks during 2021.
The bulletin said that calls for violence have been notably targeting ‘U.S. critical infrastructure; soft targets and mass gatherings; faith-based institutions, such as churches, synagogues, and mosques; institutions of higher education; racial and religious minorities; government facilities and personnel, including law enforcement and the military; the media; and perceived ideological opponents.’Violence against these locations or groups could stem from anti-government extremism, racially or religiously motivated extremism, and/or disinformation or conspiracy theories; for example, ‘COVID-19 mitigation measures—particularly COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates—have been used by domestic violent extremists to justify violence since 2020 and could continue to inspire these extremists to target government, healthcare, and academic institutions that they associate with those measures.’”
BCG1, our intelligence community.