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Congress Is About To Vote On Expanding the Warrantless Surveillance of Americans (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: On Tuesday afternoon, a handful of U.S. Representatives will convene to review an amendment that would reauthorize warrantless foreign surveillance and expand the law so that it could include American citizens. It would, in effect, legalize a surveillance practice abandoned by the NSA in 2017 in order to appease the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which found the NSA to have abused its collection capacity several times. If it passes Tuesday's review, the bill may be voted on by the U.S. House of Representatives as early as Thursday. Drafted by the House Intelligence Committee last December, the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 is an amendment to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It is one of six different FISA-related bills under consideration by Congress at the moment, but by far the most damaging to the privacy rights of American citizens.
FISA was enacted in 1978, but Section 702, referred to by former FBI Director James Comey as the "crown jewels of the intelligence community," wasn't added until 2008. This section allows intelligence agencies to surveil any foreigner outside the U.S. without a warrant that the agency considers a target. The problem is that this often resulted in the warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens as well due to two loopholes known as "backdoor searches" and "about collection." Backdoor search refers to a roundabout way of monitoring Americans' communications. Since intelligence agencies are able to designate any foreigner's communications as a target for surveillance, if this foreigner has communicated with an American this means this American's communications are then also considered fair game for surveillance by the agency.
FISA was enacted in 1978, but Section 702, referred to by former FBI Director James Comey as the "crown jewels of the intelligence community," wasn't added until 2008. This section allows intelligence agencies to surveil any foreigner outside the U.S. without a warrant that the agency considers a target. The problem is that this often resulted in the warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens as well due to two loopholes known as "backdoor searches" and "about collection." Backdoor search refers to a roundabout way of monitoring Americans' communications. Since intelligence agencies are able to designate any foreigner's communications as a target for surveillance, if this foreigner has communicated with an American this means this American's communications are then also considered fair game for surveillance by the agency.
Do me a favour. Why on earth would that man veto this? A man who thinks it's OK for a president to try to stop a mean nasty book being published, who complains about how the law stops him doing what he wants with the FBI, who thinks it's the job of the attorney general to protect him?
This is comedy. You're saying a GOP-controlled congress will pass it, and then you're saying a GOP president should veto it, and then saying if he doesn't the Deep State (by which I can only conclude from your other tone you mean Obama holdovers) will remove him from office?
The only people who can impeach him at this point are the GOP. They will have to lose in a landslide to lose power over whether impeachment happens (Congressional Dems are barely even talking about it and many of them would chicken out.)
The only people who can remove him from office with any other legal power are his Cabinet.
As to the ongoing, never-ending farce story bit: The FBI had a whistleblower. From inside either The Trump Organisation or the Campaign. Get to grips with this: it's at least not a nothingburger.
Donald Trump isn't interested in knowing everything every American does every second of every single day
Then I guess we can expect him to refuse to sign such a law and protect our freedoms and liberties. Which is, by the way, pretty much part of his job...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Apparently the U.S. is no longer a democracy. Numerous mostly hidden agencies have control, and want more control.
Links about Trump
from 18 different organizations
Trump moving toward starting a nuclear war:
> Trump Says His "Nuclear Button" Is "Much Bigger" Than North Korea's (Jan. 2, 2018, New York Times)
Two unstable people threaten each other.
> How Does Trump Trump Trump? Start a War. (Jan. 6, 2018, Huffington Post)
> Cartoon: "My nuclear button is bigger than yours!" (Jan. 4, 2018, Gary Varvel at ArcaMax.com)
Trump's lies:
> In 298 days, President Trump has made 1,628 false and misleading claims (Nov. 13, 2017, Washington Post)
> President Trump's Lies, the Definitive List (Dec. 14, 2017, New York Times)
> In a 30-minute interview, President Trump made 24 false or misleading claims. (Dec. 29, 2017, Washington Post)
> 10 Falsehoods From Trump's Interview With The Times (Dec. 29, 2017, New York Times)
> Trump takes credit for zero aviation deaths worldwide. (Jan. 2, 2018, Trump's Twitter account)
Replies:
"I'm gonna take credit for puppies being cute..."
"Guess who's responsible for designing the cute kangaroo pouches that keep little Joeys safe? That right, it was Me. ME. ME!"
"That's a job well done, thank you, but don't forget I gave dolphins their blowholes! Without me, they would've drowned!"
Books about Trump:
> Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff (Published Jan. 5, 2018)
Four days after publication, there were 1,432 customer reviews; 82% were 5-star reviews.
> Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic by David Frum (Published Jan. 16, 2018)
> Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency by Joshua Green (Published July 18, 2017)
> Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win by Luke Harding (Published Nov. 16, 2017)
> It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America by David Cay Johnston (Published Jan. 16, 2018)
Sexual abuse:
> The 19 Women Who Accused President Trump of Sexual Misconduct (Dec. 7, 2017, The Atlantic.com)
Mental instability:
> Incoherent, authoritarian, uninformed: Trump's New York Times interview is a scary read. (Dec. 30, 2017, CNBC) Quotes:
"President Donald Trump tells a
The United States and its people, are who is responsible for enforcing the limits of the US government's power in China, North Korea, North America, and on the planet Mars. If the US Congress tries to pass a law that abridges the freedom of the press on the moon, or a law that infringes the right to bear arms on Alpha Centauri colony 3, we are responsible for striking down or otherwise nullifying that law.
The purpose of the Bill of Rights is to protect people's freedom. But the mechanics of the Bill of Rights is to deny power to an entity considered particularly at risk of violating peoples' freedom. To enforce the Bill of Rights is to enforce the limits of US government power. You can do that to the US government, no matter where the victim happens to be. It's just a question of whether or not we want to, is a good idea, is practical, etc.
That last part is what it's really about: you can enforce the law which limits the US government's power to infringe peoples' rights in China, but doing so doesn't have a really practical effect on how freely Chinese citizens can exercise their rights. So of course, we all have reason to be lax about enforcing the law, despite our responsibility as US citizens.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump