Fake News (the fight we needed to have?)

[cherrypoptart]

TheDrake


"It isn't legal for us to interfere in foreign elections according to most nations' laws. I'm definitely not a fan."

But are we going to make it illegal for Americans to interfere in foreign elections according to our own laws?

And what exactly are we talking about by interfere here?

Facebook posts and internet memes?

[D.W.]

Pete, I don't disagree.  I suppose I missed the point.  You seem to be suggesting that any contact was equivalent.  I (maybe mistakenly) thought Seriati was referring to contact as it related to her job and the hurdles of crafting a law that could account for that.

Investigate the hell out of her.  Fine by me.  But take action.  Focusing on a has-been instead of a sitting president seems like a distraction technique rather than genuine concern, but follow all roads. 

While I felt she would have been marginally a lesser threat to our country's well-being than Trump (and am not sure of it), I was never a fan.  She strikes me as one far more... practiced at keeping her secrets, secret, though. 

[Pete at Home]

Ah equivalents. Thank you for putting your finger on the misunderstanding.

 I’m far more interested in preventing this from happening again then punishing it. I’d be far more interested in the truth and reconciliation approach to the 2016 elections.  Amend the constitution if we have to. No one to be punished for 2016 election crimes that they confess. But clarify that going forward a conspiracy to defraud primary voters is punishable by barring the fraudsters from government employment or service and a 1000 yard restraining order from voting places on election week.

[TheDrake]

TheDrake


"It isn't legal for us to interfere in foreign elections according to most nations' laws. I'm definitely not a fan."

But are we going to make it illegal for Americans to interfere in foreign elections according to our own laws?

And what exactly are we talking about by interfere here?

Facebook posts and internet memes?

I would love to make it a federal guideline to never interfere in a clandestine fashion, including elections. No need to make it illegal, just stop funding. This includes backing coups, rebellions, and such. Arab spring my ass.

[Fenring]

I would love to make it a federal guideline to never interfere in a clandestine fashion, including elections. No need to make it illegal, just stop funding. This includes backing coups, rebellions, and such. Arab spring my ass.

Newsflash - what if those programs already generate their own 'funding'? Do you really think "foment rebellion in Egypt" is actually assign a line budget number? It's illegal already to do such things.

[NobleHunter]

"Pro-democracy outreach to Egypt" might be a line item. Or, going the other way: "Egyptian Stabilization Supports."

[Fenring]

"Pro-democracy outreach to Egypt" might be a line item. Or, going the other way: "Egyptian Stabilization Supports."

Yeah, maybe. But let's just say I don't think the CIA's real books get audited.

[TheDrake]

There's always a trail, but I don't doubt the CIA has independent funding sources based on illegal activity. But since that's already illegal, we don't have to pass a law to make that illegal. Sometimes, though, it's just right out there in plain sight.

On 21 August 1973 the 40 Committee approved a $1 million supplemental budget to increase support for opposition political parties, bringing the total amount of covert funding spent during the Allende period to approximately $6.5 million. In late August the Station requested authorization to provide maximum support for the opposition’s efforts to encourage the entrance of the Chilean military into the Allende cabinet.  The resignation of Army Commander General Carlos Prats (whose actions were strongly constitutionalist) and his replacement by General Augusto Pinochet (not a coup plotter, but apparently willing to concede to a coup) appeared to further unify the Armed Forces and strengthened the institution as a political pressure group.  The UP Government appeared to fear a possible military coup and was unsure how to react to such a development.

[Seriati]

So this one seems like a fairly  dramatic example of fake news, or rather fake controversy, or possibly newly formed politically useful position.  I think we've all heard that a CNN anchor went off on a heckler that called him "Fredo," which Cuomo asserts is an ethnic slur.  I'm sympathetic to that idea, I don't see a good reason to connect an insult to ethnicity.

The problem?  Cuomo apparently doesn't consider it an ethnic slur:

The New York Post unearthed an old video in which Cuomo playfully referred to himself as “Fredo” during a 2010 radio interview and CNN’s Ana Navarro used the moniker to belittle Donald Trump Jr. earlier this year on Cuomo’s very own show. Cuomo didn’t reprimand Navarro for using the term that he now feels is equivalent to “the N-word.” CNN anchor Jake Tapper has also used the term, while CNN legal analyst Paul Callan used it in an op-ed earlier this year.

I can get the self reference, but how is possible he allowed a guest to use it if he deems it a racial slur?

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-cuomo-lemon-ryan

I think he needs to be called out.

[D.W.]

I don't get how a pop culture character (of any ethnicity) has become a (widely understood?) slur...

I get disrespectful. But a slur? 

Is it racially insensitive to call Trump an oompa loompa m'fer?

[Wayward Son]

I don't get how a pop culture character (of any ethnicity) has become a (widely understood?) slur...

Uh, you mean like Uncle Tom or Little Black Sambo...? 

[D.W.]

Hmm good point.  I suppose language can change quickly...
But Fredo?  As a racial slur not a disparaging nickname?  Is this widespread or just someone's jab hitting someone a bit too close to the mark character-wise?

[Fenring]

But Fredo?  As a racial slur not a disparaging nickname?  Is this widespread or just someone's jab hitting someone a bit too close to the mark character-wise?

Yeah, it seems ludicrous that Fredo can be an Italian slur, when every time I've ever heard it referenced it means that someone committed a betrayal to those close, or else perhaps let everyone down and need to be taken out and shot. Even given the context of the scene in the film I don't see what's particularly 'Italian' about that circumstance. I could see how people literally in the mafia wouldn't take kindly to being called Fredo. Maybe that's a clue about why offense is being taken now 

[TheDrake]

Maybe he was thinking of Guido. He really did come unglued.

I think the more interesting part of this is how some guy ran up and harassed him in his private time. I thought that was a bad thing (in fact I know it is). Somehow the "leave people alone" crowd that doesn't like it when people harass administration members are remaining silent on this one.

[Seriati]

TheDrake, while there's some truth to that, most people understand there's a bit of irony in the harassers being harassed, and would see Cuomo as having been part of the national media that's given a forum to those pushing the harassment plan.

Much like we all cheer when the bullied kid in the movie punches the bully.  It's not really because we think it's right to hit people, we just see it as a bit of deserved justice being applied to the person who caused the situation.

I'd love it if we took harassing people and their families off the table, and stopped demonizing people for having a different belief about what's best for the country.