Rep. Joe Kennedy introduced a bill to fight back against 'russian meddling' that will establish a 'National Russian Threat Response Center', whose goal will be to fuck with Russia on a regular basis. What is the point of such an idiotic layer of expensive bureaucracy? After all, isn't it the job of the lauded '17 intelligence agencies' to already do this job? I suppose this is the reward for all of this Russian bullshit, a great big payoff that will employee more deep staters, lavishing them with salaries, pensions, and healthcare benefits. They'll stop the Russian hackers, once and for all.
“Russia’s attack on our election was not guided by party affiliation but instead by a deep desire to weaken trust in our institutions and shake the very foundation of our democracy,” Rep. Joseph Kennedy of Massachusetts, the bill’s author, said Thursday. “Without a strong, coordinated response from our government, adversarial assaults on our electoral system, economy and national security will only become more sophisticated and sustained in the coming years.”
The bill is designed to amend the National Security Act of 1947, which would be dedicated to Russian and under the auspices of the DNI. It will commingle officers from the State Department, HLS, Treasury, the CIA, and the Pentagon.
“The Center will be responsible for synchronizing and analyzing information pertaining to Russia from across the intelligence community, diplomatic channels and law enforcement agencies,” Mr. Kennedy’s office said. “Using its broad view across the U.S. Government, the Center will develop policy recommendations and identify gaps in the current collection and collation of intelligence pertaining to Russia.”
The bill's aim, heralded by Kennedy and seven other democratic sponsors, is to disrupt Russian hackers before the elections happen. We must preserve our democracy and its intoxicating hue of abject corruptness, so that future generation of Americans can enjoy it as we have done.
“They do not target Democrats per se, they do not target Republicans per se — they target who they believe will stand up for American interests at the expense of Russian interests,” Mr. Kennedy told the Boston Herald. “We need to make sure that systems are put in place to safeguard our voting systems and our electoral process.
“By uniting our agencies and our allies against this common threat, our Response Center will ensure our government is ready and willing to respond to any future meddling before it takes root,” he said.
Separately, the Senate just passed a bill that would add new sanctions to Russia and strip away the President's power to remove them. Aside from adding new sanctions, the bill will codify old sanctions into law -- making them permanent.
"It’s particularly significant that a bipartisan coalition is seeking to reestablish Congress, not the president, as the final arbiter of sanctions relief, considering that this administration has been too eager — far too eager, in my mind — to put sanctions relief on the table," Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who pressed hard for the strongest possible anti-Russia bill, said in a floor speech. "These additional sanctions will also send a powerful, bipartisan statement that Russia and any other nation who might try to interfere with our elections will be punished."
The rationale for the bill, aside from hacking into John Podesta's email box and stirring up a pizzagate controversy, is in response to their engagement in Syria, helping to defeat ISIS and America's other terrorist allies in the region, the invasion of Crimea, and of course helping elect Donald Trump.
Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders were the only two who voted against the measure.
Here are the details of the sanctions, which are widespread and significant.