Virginia U.S. Senator Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, again last week leveled a stark warning about foreign interference in the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, saying that “in some ways, we are more vulnerable now than four years ago.” He made his remarks in a telephone press briefing.
There are more nations now than then using these tools of disinformation, he said, because they are far cheaper than building up military capabilities for one thing. Moreover, there are more Americans who are believing “crazy conspiracy theories” that hostile foreign governments merely need to amplify rather than create from scratch.

An inability to come to an agreement with 21 major Internet companies set the effort to constrain this back six months, he added, and now, advanced artificial intelligence tools are introducing “deep fakes” that can emulate the voices and images of persons.

The gravity of the situation is underscored by the fact that European parliamentary elections have begun and elections in Great Britain begin July 4. He noted the case of Slovakia, which had been a pro-Ukrainian country, where as a result of such efforts a pro-Russian president has been elected, and now a majority of citizens there believe that it was the U.S. that started the war in Ukraine.

He said there will be a public hearing of the Intelligence Committee with updates on all these efforts this summer.

In another telephone briefing, this one with constituents, this Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr. said he was gravely concerned for Ukraine, given the six month delay in sending severely-needed U.S. military aid due to objections from Republicans in the Congress.

He also said that “there are far too many civilian casualties and displaced lives in Gaza. “The toll is too high, too many children,” he said, blaming Hamas for intentionally using civilians as human shields.
He said he will not attend the scheduled address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Congress coming up, due to his opposition to his policies, which Beyer suggested are aimed more at “staying out of prison” than anything else, and policies which are not in the U.S. national interest.
But Beyer was upbeat about the future, especially touting the “game changing impact” of his favorite subject, controlled thermonuclear fusion energy.

He is a member of the Fusion Caucus in Congress, he said, to press development of the limitless energy source to practical applications beginning in 2032 instead of a decade later, as is now predicted, to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels as an energy source. It “will be a silver bullet, a panacea,” he said.

He noted that when operational, it will “change humanity,” capable of ending hunger for the two billion on the planet who now go to bed hungry every night.

He said that the 34 companies that are working on it in the U.S. are all small businesses, including two in Virginia, but when developed, the power plants involved will be the size of tennis courts, meaning they could be located in places in his district, including Falls Church.

He said amazing gains are also occurring in other alternative energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal.

Major advances in these areas are vital, he said, because of the alarming rise in suicides, on the one hand, and the lowest birth rate in the U.S. ever (at 1.2 per couple, far below the 2.2 need to keep the population stable.

He said the child tax credit implemented on an emergency basis during the pandemic reduced the child poverty rate down to 5.5 percent, but since it expired, it is now back up to 12 percent.

“We need it back,” he said.

He called the U.S. Supreme Court decision to end Roe V. Wade “is the worst decision ever made” by the high court, the first, he noted, to actually take away a right from citizens in this country.

He said he is worried that Virginia Gov. Youngkin will defer to the radicals in his party and attack IVF and contraception, as well.

The Supreme Court, he said, “has now become a landing place for partisan ideologues,” the exact opposite of what it was set up in the Constitution to be. The recent revelations of gifts to and partisan expressions by Justice Alito and Thomas “distress me” and are “embarrassing.”

“This is the most unethical and dysfunctional court in our history,” he intoned, and he said he is surprised that Chief Justice Roberts hasn’t done anything to redress that situation.