As if the “Russian hacking” scandal — the Dog Bites Man story of the decade! — wasn’t annoying enough, along comes soon-to-be-former Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson to assure us that he’s from the federal government and he’s here to help:
Citing increasingly sophisticated cyber bad actors and an election infrastructure that’s “vital to our national interests,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is designating U.S. election systems critical infrastructure, a move that provides more federal help for state and local governments to keep their election systems safe from tampering.
“Given the vital role elections play in this country, it is clear that certain systems and assets of election infrastructure meet the definition of critical infrastructure, in fact and in law,” Johnson said in a statement Friday. He added: “Particularly in these times, this designation is simply the right and obvious thing to do.”
Under what constitutional authority, one might ask. But, hey, what difference, at this point, does it make? Under the departing Obama administration your business is the government’s business from now unto perpetuity. Never mind that elections, like education, used to be run at the local and state level. But now that the completely compromised Klown Kar tandem of James Clapper and John Brennan have done their laughable best to tarnish the incoming administration at the behest of their boss, Americans have been browbeaten to conflate leaks of John Podesta and the DNC (true) with actual “hacking” of the vote to favor Donald Trump (false).
The determination came after months of review and despite opposition from many states worried that the designation would lead to increased federal regulation or oversight on the many decentralized and locally run voting systems across the country. It was announced on the same day a declassified U.S. intelligence report said Russian President Vladimir Putin “ordered” an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.
And if you think that’s a complete coincidence, you need to return to the third grade.
A 2013 presidential directive identified 16 sectors as critical infrastructures, including energy, financial services, health care, transportation, food and agriculture and communications.
The designation announced Friday places responsibilities on the Homeland Security secretary to identify and prioritize those sectors, considering physical and cyber threats against them. The secretary is also required to conduct security checks and provide information about emerging and imminent threats.
I suppose the only consolation is that it won’t be Johnson or any other Democrat appointee administering the “guidelines” for a while. But it’s just another stumble down the slippery slope that will inevitably lead to federal control of elections — for our own good, of course.
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