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Expiring Section 702 of FISA Helped US Conclude Russia Hacked Election To Help Trump, NSA Chief Says (reuters.com)
Dustin Volz, reporting for Reuters: A top U.S. intelligence official said Thursday a controversial surveillance law that allows the broad electronic spying of foreigners played a major role in understanding Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election. The statement from Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the U.S. National Security Agency, may bolster efforts by intelligence agencies to fully preserve the authority, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, before it expires at the end of the year. Privacy advocates have for years said Section 702 allows for excessively broad surveillance, including warrantless access to some American communications, and should be reformed to include new curbs. "I would highlight much, not all, much of what was in the intelligence community's assessment, for example, on the Russian efforts against the U.S. election process in 2016, was informed by knowledge we gained through (Section) 702 authority," Rogers said. Rogers said allowing the statute to expire on Dec. 31, unless Congress votes to reauthorize it, would degrade U.S. intelligence agencies' ability to provide "timely warning and insight" on a variety of criminal and national security threats.
Trump is preparing to veto his first bill in defence of privacy!
I stole this Sig
This is why, even though it costs more money, independent oversight of our agencies of government are important.
If you can imagine a political group that you wouldn't trust in power, imagine what you'd want in order to provide responsible checks on their worst abuses of power.
Those checks on power is what we've been getting rid of, along with a proportionally reduced healthy media.
So, now that we have a raving lunatic, a living symbol of arrogance and greed as president, and a fully loyal set of henchmen elected under him, we begin to see the unraveling of what everyone should consider important constitutional boundaries.
What's bizarre is how many folks still support both this dangerous process and the people involved. Folks who spoke exactly the opposite for so long. Constitutional limits are always important, to avoid the path to countless forms of corruption and stagnation.
I don't see how anyone other than Trump benefits from any of this either - even if the corruption stands completely unchecked. Few of the benefits would last in the environment it creates.
Ryan Fenton
Trump to this day won't release his tax returns.
Despite how much I despise Trump, I'm with him on this. Presidential candidates have set a very bad precedent by releasing their tax returns. Your personal tax returns aren't anyone's business but your own, and demanding someone else's is wrong. Period. It doesn't matter what their position is, people should still have rights to privacy.
I'm fine with law enforcement doing an audit of their finances, including past tax returns, but it is not reasonable to insist that the records be released publicly.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Okay, here are facts that matter. I fully supported Bernie Sanders. I contributed several hundred dollars to his campaign. I voted Obama over Hillary the last time she ran. I knew long ago the Clintons were shady and I couldn't support her in 2008.
I was very upset when the DNC pushed Sanders out. I tried to come to grips on voting for Hillary. I thought it was laughable when Trump kept saying to the media to show the crowd. That was until he came to my state and when he came to my area, I went just to see the guy. The stadium held 35,000 some and there were at least 25,000 still wanting to get in. Then when YouTube video after YouTube video showing the possibility of green screening in crowds at Hillary events, and Hillary doing her best to hide her illness and drunkenness, I finally decided that I would prefer someone that would tell me the hard truth than to blatantly lie to my face.
Plus the fact that Trump was an outsider and didn't care whom he pissed off.
The Russians had nothing to do with my decision, nor did the Russians have any affect on my family or friends decisions. The Russian story was created to explain away why so much money was spent on getting Hillary elected and it still went to waste. There had to be something so overwhelming to her getting the office that money couldn't buy its way past. The Russians had to be it.
Hillary was the reason why Hillary was not elected. It had nothing to do with the Russians.