U.S. Intel report says key gulf ally meddled in American politics | Hacker News Reader

U.S. Intel report says key gulf ally meddled in American politics

washingtonpost.com

27 pointslob_it24 comments

I love this topic how x country “meddled” and “interfered” in our elections.

Go read 1: the Princeton study proving our “democracy” is a sham since the votes of the people have no impact on policy, and 2: the longgg Wikipedia article detailing all the foreign coups we’ve been involved in.

Let’s start with overturning Citizens United and congressional term limits, then we can talk about “meddling” in our politics.

>Go read 1: the Princeton study proving our “democracy” is a sham since the votes of the people have no impact on policy [...]

>Let’s start with overturning Citizens United and congressional term limits, then we can talk about “meddling” in our politics.

What about the studies that show campaign finances have very little effect on election wins? https://freakonomics.com/2012/01/how-much-does-campaign-spen...

If the people have no impact on policy, but our foreign coups can overthrow regimes, and foreign regimes can meddle in our elections... it stands to reason that the only way to overturn Citizens United is to fix a foreign coup and have the new regime turn around and interfere with our elections! There, problem solved.

Citizens United vs FEC is a Supreme Court decision, it will take another Supreme Court decision to revert it. Interfering in elections is done probably more so for influencing foreign policy, it does not guarantee any effect on Supreme Court decisions.

> It reveals the UAE’s bid, spanning multiple U.S. administrations, to exploit the vulnerabilities in American governance, including its reliance on campaign contributions, susceptibility to powerful lobbying firms and lax enforcement of disclosure laws intended to guard against interference by foreign governments

What can you say?

A political system dominated by electioneering, where democratic success is determined by campaign financing, is guaranteed to attract this type of behaviour. Can't really even blame the UAE for doing this, no doubt everyone else with the resources is doing likewise. Got a problem with these outcomes? Plug the holes in the governance, reform the political system.

How? Soon some of their billionaires will figure out they can buy their way to becoming US citizens with HB-5 investor visas. Then their interference on behalf of the UAE becomes just another part of “our hallowed democracy”

> How?

A simple first move would be to repeal the 1929 law that capped growth of House of Representatives. Let it grow according to census, as was wrote in Constitution. This would make each Rep less influential and more of them would be difficult for lobbyists to control. It would be easier for average Jane to get elected and then leave without making a lifetime of groveling for lobbyist donations.

https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/Th...

America is the most powerful country in the world. Billions of people in over a hundred countries depend on the moves that America makes. You'd have to be a fool to think that this is so shocking. In fact, the shocking thing to me is that the US is singling out the UAE here, when it's pretty obvious that basically every country out there is meddling in the same exact way.

But this report is about the UAE, so why try to steer it away? we all know that UAE isn't the only one, there are the obvious ones like China and Russia and there have been reports on them, no reason to hold back and make UAE special and give it special treatment.

What he’s saying is that we’re making them (or China or Russia) special by singling them out with these reports. There’s no country in the world that hasn’t been doing this since at least WWII to the US.

Heck, part of the reason for our entry into WWII was massive British operation to ensure FDR’s relection and his very strong, partisan support of the Allies sometimes verging on acts of war.

If you follow the news, it makes sense on the timing of this:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2022/10/18/payback-for...

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/2/officials-saudis-te...

Its still makes for a valid reason to dump tcp/ip for a modern data network. The 3rd world is gonna 3rd world. The archived data is just feeding more rope :)

Some of us find the interference from the countries we can't talk about more interesting, due to the underlying reasons why.

For instance, I don't even have to name "that country" and we all know who shall not be named. So when we read reports about UAE or China or Russia we just roll our eyes at the stories not being reported on.

If a country was not raised with privacy, the culture divide is more than obvious.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/et-commentary/lac...

I laughed at the caste systems being brought to US companies too, but India's stance on individuals only confirms why dropping tcp/ip makes sense in the 1st world.

WWIII can be between 3rd world countries :)

Ethipopia hosting some UN Internet meeting after cutting off pipes in its own country was a good laugh too.

https://news.yahoo.com/ethiopia-hosts-un-internet-meeting-07...

Sorry I must be too thick and not pick the sarcasm or lack thereof. Could you please reveal the country you all know by "that country" but you shouldn't name it?

I assume it's Saudi arabia. Otherwise, Israel?

Yeah I thought the same two but since I could think of at least two and I'm not so well versed in US politics, I though that clearly GP meant something more specific since it is as so "obvious" which one it was

I remember seeing a 60 minutes episode in the 1980's/1990's about Israel and incendiary devices shaped like toys with bright colors.

As far as culture goes, it looks like incendiary ballons are their new toy in the 2020's ...... That culture divide is obvious too.. Thats some deep seeded mental issues in that region.

I still laugh at all the warning labels on products in the states for obvious reasons. Its nothing compared to those other cultures

We're allowed to criticize Saudia Arabia, even if it goes ignored. We're not allowed to criticize Israel despite their outsized influence on our government and foreign policy. If we do, we are branded.

No other country has their tentacles as deeply embedded and meddles as much.

We do it to ourselves and it was magnified by citizens united which allows unlimited PAC spending by completely anonymous corporations. That's not free speech, that's pure corruption and opening up avenues for things like this to happen. This and basically legal bribery through lobbyist who can buy time with senators and reps.

Everything points to domestic protocols in 1st world countries.

I'm watching the Medibank hacking in Austrailia too, where abortions and other medical procedure data is being sold by the hackers.

I've already laughed at divesting from tcp/ip. Nothing changes in the 1st world without tcp/ip as a domestic protocol :)

This is hardly news. Without an actual report to refer to, one can't help but wonder if this article is part of some kind of narrative building exercise. A few years ago the TV-watching public was introduced to this concept with all of the concern about so-called Russian hacking. All I could think was if you think what our enemies do is bad, you should see what our allies do.

Who needs enemies when you have friends like that /s

Dumping tcp/ip does make online voting and other 21st century conveniences that require privacy a 1st world evolution :p

Oh I must have missed their AEPAC (American Emirates Public Affairs Committee) inaugural address.

Does everyone not remember that it is an tradition for every US President to visit Saudi Arabia near the end of their terms?

The President of the United States of America goes TO SAUDI ARABIA to basically kiss the ass of the Saudi royal family.

There is so much soft money washing around under the surface of Washington. The Trump administration showed where tons of it comes from, because they were so brazen in their corruption compared to previous ones. The inauguration committee, the presidential library, "speeches", soft lobbying, sweet deals for friends and family, etc.

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