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ACCORDING TO LIZ - The FBI has repeatedly warned about foreign countries meddling in the upcoming election including using artificial intelligence to spread disinformation.
Dominance of all critical media, both traditional and via the internet, shapes voters’ views whether bought and paid for by Russian operatives, trolls in Eastern Europe, or home-grown but overseas-powered influencers. Home-grown because Americans are far more likely to be swayed by people who look, act, and sound like them.
And this process is increasingly difficult to stop, especially given this country’s notorious political and military intervention in the elections of other countries from Vietnam to Chile and from Panama to Iran.
On top of that, there are constant complaints about the barrage of half-truths and lies on social media.
And what about the millions of dollars poured by foreign companies into our elections to support candidates favorable to their business?
Many countries from Canada to Zaire and throughout the Islamic world watched major American companies — Facebook, Google, Amazon — reshape their societies, not always for the better.
And then there are domestic manipulations, undemocratic activities that many of us would deem un-American – action and inaction by partisan county clerks and secretaries of state, mountains of conspiracy theories, increased political pressure, manipulation of electoral districts, and overt threats on voters.
Add to that, those foreign nations directly funding, albeit through patriotic-sounding PACs, candidates favorable to their interests.
Especially when foreign money selectively targets only the most vulnerable to get the most bang for its buck.
Newer Squad members who opposed the genocide in Gaza such as Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush were susceptible to the influx of AIPAC money and lost their primaries.
AIPAC-backed PACs tumbled new progressive challengers like Susheela Jayapal, endorsed by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar, who held a commanding lead in the polls before AIPAC dollars gushed into the contribution pipeline of the lesser-known Maxine Dexter who had indicated that a ceasefire in Gaza was off the table unless Hamas was completely neutralized.
Elsewhere in Oregon, Jamie McLeod-Skinner was defeated by Janelle Bynum, who received nearly half a million dollars from the same AIPAC-backed 314 Action Fund.
Ohio Senator Nina Turner, another one of the posse of up-and-coming transformative progressives who can convey complex ideas clearly and with common sense to the general public, was on track to win a special election in 2022 that was delayed by infamous abortion opponent Ohio Governor Mike DeWine until dark money, ascribed to mainstream Democratic politicians with financial pressure from AIPAC intervened to support a more malleable voice for Congress.
Nina is an articulate and fiery speaker who calls out injustices from racism to Biden’s support for the expansion of military support for Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Israel. Neither Ohio nor America needs another bought-and-paid-for politician in D.C.
Attacking AIPAC is not anti-Semitic; it is the battle necessary to wage war on Israel’s egregiously effective 21st century propaganda to promote candidates that support its interests. It is specifically designed to defeat the progressive movement – one representing people of color, the poor, and those otherwise disenfranchised - a movement that is rightly horrified by the Netanyahu government’s activities in the Middle East, in Gaza and on the West Bank.
Well-known and established progressives including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota ran successful primary campaigns despite the lies, demonstrating that tending to constituents’ needs can trump political cash.
But is that enough? Is it ever acceptable for outside money to even try to tilt election results?
In accepting her primary win, Omar pointed out: “Whether it's universal school meals, student debt cancellation, climate action, or a just foreign policy that reflects our values—the 5th District showed tonight that we want to drive the nation toward a better future.”
But that can happen only if new candidates are given time to prove themselves to the electorate.
What Omar went on to say applies to outside influencers especially deep-pocket money from foreign and deliberately disruptive outliers in Congressional Districts across the country: “This campaign has been one of the ugliest, most disgusting campaigns against me that I have ever witnessed. I hope they reflect in the shameful way they decided to divide our district and the incredible people we are grateful to represent.”
And, away from most people’s eyes, well-heeled special interest groups continue to undemocratically stack the decks. From the promotion of ideologically partisan schoolboard and municipal elections and appointments to the demonization of state and federal regulations designed to protect ordinary Americans from the nefarious practices of businesses ranging from Big Oil to corporate landlords, from the financial industry to proponents of unrestricted A.I. development.
Rich American businessmen like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the boards of the auto industry and other major manufacturing enterprises routinely succumb to the blandishments of foreign powers to offshore good American jobs.
And these ingrates see Donald Trump as the presidential candidate most likely to allow more of the same.
Donald Trump who, according to recent Washington Post articles on an FBI investigation quashed by Trump Attorney General Bill Barr, miraculously loaned his campaign $10 million in 2015 shortly after $10 million in cash left a state-run Egyptian bank.
Is anyone surprised that Trump continued the $1.3 billion annual funding of American tax dollars to the Sisi government to buy U.S.-made weapons to build up its military might so it could violently suppress democratic dissent after the demise of the Arab Spring. Gave our hard-earned money to a government notorious for ignoring human rights and condoning child labor, extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances of opponents and, yes, torture.
Foreign money can push business priorities as well as political prerogatives, easing the way for various ventures that are often contrary to American interests, and elect company boards that favor the benefits of foreign companies, not you and me and our neighbors.
This August, the very few corporate behemoths who will see their unregulated pursuit of profits curtailed if Scott Weiner’s proposed SB 1047 to limit real-world disasters caused by A.I. systems before they can occur passes, are lying and leaning on California politicians with all their might – and Google, Meta, a16z and their industry associations have a lot of might – to stop it in its tracks.
Not that it would drive a great exodus from Silicon Valley because it is carefully crafted to avoid such an outcome, but in protecting the public it places guidelines on the wild-west profiteering of potentially dangerous development. Think The Terminator.
FYI, a16z is a behind-the-scenes venture capital powerhouse with ties to the military promoting American technological dominance.
Over in Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the force behind the premeditated murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and another recipient of an excess of largesse from both the Trump and Biden administrations, is pouring billions into A.I. development and striking deals with companies like Amazon, I.B.M. and Microsoft to make his country a major new hub. To do so, his wealth is certainly finding its way into the pockets of elected officials and advisory boards and their staffers.
And giving players in the Middle East access to technology that could wipe out humanity before the results of global warming this is driving can further impact the United States.
Recently our government began using A.I. chips as political tools. A deal in April gave an Emirati company access to these chips in return for turning away from Chinese technology and submitting to U.S. government – and Microsoft – oversight. Deals with other players are expected to follow.
Rising Sun, Michael Crichton's 1992 novel that did a fictional deep-dive into the political and economic effect of Japanese-American relations, warned that direct foreign investment in the U.S. economy could lead to “economic suicide.” At the time, Crichton called it a wakeup call for America.
Japan may no longer be the country’s worst nightmare. Just substitute Saudi Arabia and Israel, Russia and China.
According to watchdog group OpenSecrets, over a billion with a ‘B’ dollars of outside spending has already flowed unchecked into the 2024 election. So far… much spent on opposing Gaza ceasefire advocates and people of color on behalf of Netanyahu supporters and election deniers.
Americans need to face the truth that our elections are now controlled from beyond our borders and in boardrooms.
Americans must demand that Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruling that opened the floodgates of special-interest money from the wealthy and powerful be gutted.
And Americans must insist that their elected officials ensure that, moving forward, all manner of outside influences be permanently removed from every election in and in the interests of the United States.
(Liz Amsden is a contributor to CityWatch and an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.)
