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The US surveillance state is poised to grow more powerful under a Trump administration.
Though President-elect Donald Trump still has nearly two months until he's sworn in, his picks for Attorney General and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency are a sign that many surveillance reforms could be overturned or changed, such as the NSA's collection of telephone metadata on all Americans — a program that was reformed after it was exposed by Edward Snowden.
Trump recently appointed Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, and Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo for CIA Director. Both have advocated for the increased domestic spying that was implemented by former President George W. Bush after 9/11, according to Bloomberg.
"Congress should pass a law re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database," Pompeo wrote with coauthor David Rivkin, Jr. in a Wall Street Journal editorial in January.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 02 2016, @04:32AM
I think many Trump supporters are simply past the point of caring about people who cry wolf.
As a collective, the left wing media has been shouting, "IDIOT! MISOGYNIST! RAPIST! HITLER!" at the top of their lungs for many months in a row, trying to get him to back down. His movement did not back down. It won.
The left has no REAL strategy to cope with this, seeing as they professed up and down the street that they would REFUSE to find common ground with "LITERAL HITLER!" so they continue to scream - now at issues of REAL concern - but it is too late, everyone who might have cared months ago has already gone deaf. Tragic, but it is the future that was chosen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 02 2016, @04:50AM
Very true sir. I've noticed the left wing really only two talking points these days: free college for everyone and vote for us because the other guy is a racist/bigot. No wonder their party is going extinct.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 02 2016, @07:45AM
After talking to many Trump supporters, I've noticed that they care a big deal about attacking and getting back at "the left", and they give absolutely zero fucks about the country, how its run, or any of the people in it. The only thing on their minds is bullying and retribution for perceived slights (like having a nigger in the White House).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 02 2016, @07:56AM
Cool story bro.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 02 2016, @09:45AM
I've noticed that they care a big deal about attacking and getting back at "the left", and they give absolutely zero fucks about the country, how its run, or any of the people in it.
That is the Silvio Berlosconi model. He used reality-tv level public squabbles with his critics to keep his base distracted as he looted the country. They were so invested in cheering him on against character criticisms that they were totally willing to give him a pass on policy criticisms. The only way to win that game is not to play. Let Trump spew all the bullshit he wants on twitter. But stick to substantive policy criticisms. We've literally elected a twitter troll to be president, and the best (or least worst) way to deal with a troll is simply not to feed it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday December 02 2016, @01:05PM
You're right to a degree. It's another example of why the "left vs. right" ruse is so deleterious. It's the cover under which charlatans and thieves work their nonsense. I reckon it's not actually the "left" the Trump supporters loathe, but the elites; if you listen to them, they do conflate the two. But it's the conflation that is the problem, and deceives them into thinking the "right" is ok. They're not, and during the primaries in fact you did hear the same kind of loathing directed at the elites in the RNC. Now that Trump has won, however, suddenly the RNC and the forces on the "right" are rehabilitated because it feels better to think you won a sweeping victory across Congress and the state houses than to celebrate the triumph of one candidate against the elites who comprise both the "left" and the "right." Such is the pernicious power of that meme.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 02 2016, @07:51AM
It's OK to be White again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 02 2016, @09:29PM
Actually, orange is the new black.