1y ago

Secretive White House Surveillance Program Gives Cops Access to Trillions of US Phone Records

www.wired.com Secretive White House Surveillance Program Gives Cops Access to Trillions of US Phone Records

A WIRED analysis of leaked police documents verifies that a secretive government program is allowing federal, state, and local law enforcement to access phone records of Americans who are not suspected of a crime.

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"Lesser evil"
- Yep Obama did jackshit when Snowden came out under his administration and told us all that the US was spying on all Americans.
  Fuck Democrats and Republicans are fine with this unconstitutional bullshit. Especially Biden who voted for the Patriot Act and the Iraq War.
  
  He even wrote the precursor to the Patriot act which it was based off of and bragged about it.
  
  Voted for the Patriot Act? That mother fucker wrote it. When he first wrote it during Reagan's Presidency it was too far to the right for even Reagan.
  
  Have you got some source ? Because as author of the patriot act I found Jim Sensenbrenner
  
  Straight from the horse's mouth
  https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4876107/user-clip-joe-biden-wrote-patriot-act
  
  Thanks I will check it once home.
  
  so he wrote it in 1994 under reagan??? This is based on your whole conversation not this last clip.
  
  His first version was under reagan
  
  Really TIL. Knew Biden was a peice of shit but wow.
  
  I'm betting you dont know half of what he's done. If you did you would never consider casting a vote for him or his party that's allowed it all to happen.
  
  I’ll vote Biden because I know at the end of his term he’ll leave office.
  I’ll take that over the uncertainty of trump who will surely be on the ballot. Not to mention, as a person whose just come out this year, I’m not confident I’d be safe under a trump presidency.
  
  Pure hyperbole. As someone that's been out for 38 years I can confideantly say your safety isn't dependent on who's in the WH.
  
  What's my alternative? Only person on the ballot will be Trump. So if I want retain my right to vote Biden will be my only choice because we got to keep Trump out and all Republicans.
  
  So, let me get this straight.
  Given a choice between evil Pinocchio (this time with international strings!) and a violently orange water balloon filled to bursting with bull's shit, you'd chose the wooden puppet to throw at the massive human rights abuse apparatus currently fucking everyone's data up the ass?
  Let me know how that goes for you.
  
  Your vote makes zero impact on who's in office or what policies they support.
- There are no varying degrees of evil when the outcome is all the same.
  
  What exactly have Dems at the federal level done to insure or expand your protections? Doing nothing to prevent harm is the equivalent of doing harm
  
  Im not young, but the question still remains, what have democrats at the national level done to protect you? All it appears theyve done is use our community as human shields to prevent criticism of their shitty policies.
  Everything in the link you provided is a states rights issue, nothing federal, even marriage was kicked back to the states by dems last year
  
  3rd isnt an option because liberals don't want it to be. They are comfortable with the status quo, the same status quo that keeps everyone oppressed. Both parties intentionally are controlled opposition, to maintain the power structure that they've spent decades building. Republicans provide you a boogeyman, and Democrats proclaimed to be your savior, so that we are constantly fighting each other instead of fighting them.
- I can't wait until some liberal tells me I should have voted harder for something that is continued endlessly under all forms of politics.
  I can't vote harder to a CEO who has no legal requirements to store this data, but does so anyways.
  I can't vote harder to the police of my area or state, or the FBI.
  I can't vote harder to a president who does not give a shit about any citizens, just "slightly not as racist or as horrible of a rapist, but blue". Especially when "constitutional lawyer" Obama started the DAS, didn't do anything when exposed via Snowden but want him arrested for exposing the truth, and Trump and Biden did nothing.
  
  Oh I’m sorry I’m a realist that understands that we have to play the hand we’re dealt.
  Feel free to offer a realistic alternative. My ears over here are open.
  
  Sorry to interrupt, but CEOs may have data retention laws to follow, depending on the industry. It's easier for many companies just to save everything, usually. Do they exploit that data? Yeah, unfortunately. CEOs can be blamed for a lot, but not for rules they may have to follow. You can blame them for shitty security over that data they have to retain. That's a thing! (AI companies are the ones you need to look at now as they are the ones that want everything.)
  To tweak your point a little, you have no voting power over people who are put in charge of government regulatory bodies who create those data retention rules, for example. (Policy and guidelines are distinct things.)
  On second thought, you can vote for the people who control policy or support increased restrictions on police and other feds. You don't have to vote for people who cheer for the abuse of power. You can look at life any way you choose, I suppose.
  Your points are not generally wrong and your individual vote rarely changes your country or the world. Addressing complaints of an individual isn't really what voting is for. However, you can vote in different elections for people who have specific areas of control based on your opinion. That is why I got nuanced with my first bit about data, actually.
  The people telling you to vote "harder" are simply telling you to actually vote. That is the point.
  
  From the article we're commenting on:
  There is no law requiring AT&T to store decades’ worth of Americans’ call records for law enforcement purposes. Documents reviewed by WIRED show that AT&T officials have attended law enforcement conferences in Texas as recently as 2018 to train police officials on how best to utilize AT&T’s voluntary, albeit revenue-generating, assistance.
  And I have voted, I voted for Biden to "not be Trump" and he's doing okay at that. I'm personally still waiting on protections for queer people, major laws against police brutality, higher minimum wages, healthcare reform, decriminalizing cannabis, codifying Roe v. Wade, or anything else that was planned to win over voters but still don't have the time to do anything about.
  But i guess we have the political capital to:
  Violate 26 federal laws to continue building the wall that Trump wanted
  Have bipartisan support to enstate a formal dress code because a Senator wore a hoodie
  And I don't recall ever voting to support Israel's bombing of Palestine, not in 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, or any other election year. There isn't some referendum of "Hey maybe don't play geopolitical chess that gets hundreds killed" that I can vote on. Joe "Nothing WIll Fundamentally Change" Biden said to Congress in the State of the Union, to a nation filled with people protesting police brutality We need to Fund the Police to a roaring clap from both parties.
  Please tell me more to vote harder to stop the genocide of Ukrainians, Palestinians, Yemenis, and everyone other oppressed people. Please tell me to vote harder for milquetoast candidates who pay lip service while they allow fascism to grow openly and easily, because "they need to reach across the isles and compromise".
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  We need to Fund the Police
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

30 comments