American politics and news media are going ape over Russian Meddling in the 2016 elections. It's not just Democrats. Senator McCain and former Vice President Cheney have called it an "act of war." Okay great, I can get behind a war with Russia that destroys the entire universe, but first I want to find out what exactly this "act of war" actually is. "Meddling" has no strict definition. So perhaps we should turn to specific actions.
Things we know the Russians do and have done include
a. Creating fake Facebook and other social media personalities, in order to spread false information. The Russians are not as good at is the Republicans and Democrats, but that is not the point.
b. Making up fake stories and disparaging information about American politicians. Again, we do a better job of this than the Russians.
c. Hacking different political sites. The feds say that they are the ones that hacked the DNC and released emails from Hillary Clinton, leading to confusion. The emails for the most part are legit, it's just the timing that was objectionable.
What has not happened, as far as I can tell, is Russian sponsored voter registration fraud. Zero fake voters creating fake votes. Zero hacked voting machines or vote counting software. The Russians did not hand the election over to Donald Trump, as implied by Hillary Clinton.
I'm not even sure if any of this is a crime. Possibly hacking is illegal, but spreading lies about political candidates is an American pastime. My favorite was an email alleging that John McCain fathered an illegitimate child with an African American woman. However, this was done by the Bush campaign during the 2000 primaries, not the Russians, and it was totally legal because it was done in the form of a question. Rather than putting Republicans in jail for spreading lies about a candidate, we stand up and applaud.
We used to call obtaining information illegally "spying" and yet Russia does it to us and we do it to them. We even spy on our so-called allies in Europe. In that sense, the US "meddles" in elections of other countries, and probably even hacks computers in other countries, and Russia does that also. But that is not new or out of the ordinary.
Is this really worth starting a war over? Killing a multibillion dollar economic deal? It would be different if it were found that the Russians committed voter fraud in America or hacked the vote tallying process. But that has not occured as far as anyone this side of Hillary Clinton can tell.
a. Creating fake Facebook and other social media personalities, in order to spread false information. The Russians are not as good at is the Republicans and Democrats, but that is not the point.
b. Making up fake stories and disparaging information about American politicians. Again, we do a better job of this than the Russians.
c. Hacking different political sites. The feds say that they are the ones that hacked the DNC and released emails from Hillary Clinton, leading to confusion. The emails for the most part are legit, it's just the timing that was objectionable.
What has not happened, as far as I can tell, is Russian sponsored voter registration fraud. Zero fake voters creating fake votes. Zero hacked voting machines or vote counting software. The Russians did not hand the election over to Donald Trump, as implied by Hillary Clinton.
I'm not even sure if any of this is a crime. Possibly hacking is illegal, but spreading lies about political candidates is an American pastime. My favorite was an email alleging that John McCain fathered an illegitimate child with an African American woman. However, this was done by the Bush campaign during the 2000 primaries, not the Russians, and it was totally legal because it was done in the form of a question. Rather than putting Republicans in jail for spreading lies about a candidate, we stand up and applaud.
We used to call obtaining information illegally "spying" and yet Russia does it to us and we do it to them. We even spy on our so-called allies in Europe. In that sense, the US "meddles" in elections of other countries, and probably even hacks computers in other countries, and Russia does that also. But that is not new or out of the ordinary.
Is this really worth starting a war over? Killing a multibillion dollar economic deal? It would be different if it were found that the Russians committed voter fraud in America or hacked the vote tallying process. But that has not occured as far as anyone this side of Hillary Clinton can tell.
For some "meddling" is so terrible that war with Russia may be the only solution to alleviate our national humiliation. Maybe someday they will get their way. But if by some miracle the world survives a third World War, people are still going to make fake Facebook personalities.
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