Steve Rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
heroic_jawline) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2019-09-20 11:57 am
heroic_jawline) wrote in fandomhigh2019-09-20 11:57 am
Entry tags:
Practical Civics, Friday, September 20, 2019 [3rd period]
"The upside of having such a trainwreck of a government right now," Steve began, making a face, "is that it provides wonderful opportunities for you to expand your civics-related vocabulary. This week, for instance, we've been hearing about whistleblowers, which is a much nicer term than 'informant' or 'snitch', but basically means the same thing. It's someone who sees something that is unethical, against policy, or hugely, blatantly illegal, and tells someone in authority about it."
"In many cases, the people who are in authority can be the very ones committing the crimes or offenses," Tony said. "In those instances, people may go to the media in order to get the story out there. The Watergate scandal,for example."
Steve nodded. "There have been a couple of famous whistleblowers recently who went to the press instead of to their departments' inspection offices and got a lot of finger wagging about 'doing things the right way' as though their information was less true because of it. In this latest scandal--which is still unfolding--the whistleblower went to their internal department with what they feel is a huge national security risk. Their inspector general agreed--and then their boss sat on it, which isn't supposed to happen. Whistleblowers have enormous protections under the law, and in this case, because the inspector general agreed that it was a national security risk, the complaint was supposed to be sent to the intelligence committee of the House of Representatives. There's a lot of screaming about this on television right now, because the complaint seems to be revolving around the President of the United States threatening the nation of Ukraine's development funding money unless they interfered with our upcoming election in his favor. And the argument the acting head of the intelligence agency made for sitting on completely illegal and horrifying thing is that the President is outside the intelligence community and therefore doesn't fall under the same rules. Which is, and pardon my language, some horse pucky."
Excuse Tony for having to pause and hide a smile behind his hands at the 'language' being used.
"So, today we'll be discussing the importance of these individuals," he said once he got himself under control. "Or, on the other end of things, why you think they are a detriment to a functioning government or business."
Since there were Some Opinions in this class.
"We're very interested in what you think," Steve agreed.
"In many cases, the people who are in authority can be the very ones committing the crimes or offenses," Tony said. "In those instances, people may go to the media in order to get the story out there. The Watergate scandal,for example."
Steve nodded. "There have been a couple of famous whistleblowers recently who went to the press instead of to their departments' inspection offices and got a lot of finger wagging about 'doing things the right way' as though their information was less true because of it. In this latest scandal--which is still unfolding--the whistleblower went to their internal department with what they feel is a huge national security risk. Their inspector general agreed--and then their boss sat on it, which isn't supposed to happen. Whistleblowers have enormous protections under the law, and in this case, because the inspector general agreed that it was a national security risk, the complaint was supposed to be sent to the intelligence committee of the House of Representatives. There's a lot of screaming about this on television right now, because the complaint seems to be revolving around the President of the United States threatening the nation of Ukraine's development funding money unless they interfered with our upcoming election in his favor. And the argument the acting head of the intelligence agency made for sitting on completely illegal and horrifying thing is that the President is outside the intelligence community and therefore doesn't fall under the same rules. Which is, and pardon my language, some horse pucky."
Excuse Tony for having to pause and hide a smile behind his hands at the 'language' being used.
"So, today we'll be discussing the importance of these individuals," he said once he got himself under control. "Or, on the other end of things, why you think they are a detriment to a functioning government or business."
Since there were Some Opinions in this class.
"We're very interested in what you think," Steve agreed.
Re: Discuss!
There were always enemies.