Last week I wrote about how House Democratics leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, people who have been loudly protesting Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, then turned around and lobbied to pass a bill that would continue to give him sweeping warrantless domestic spying powers. The bill then went to the senate and there too Democrats were instrumental in enabling it to pass, as Alex Emmons writes.
A CRITICAL MASS of Senate Democrats voted with Republicans on Tuesday to shut down any further debate on a bill that strengthens the government’s spying powers. The bill would renew a key surveillance authority for the National Security Agency until 2023 and consolidate the FBI’s power to search Americans’ digital communications without a warrant.
…Thirty Democrats opposed it, including minority leader Chuck Schumer, along with eight Republicans, led by libertarian Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mike Lee R-Utah.
Note that with eight Republicans opposing the bill and two not voting, the bill had only 41 Republican votes in support. It could have been defeated if not for the Democratic support. You can see who voted for the bill here.
Here is Matt Bors’s take on it.
Yep, basically what we’re seeing is that the political class acknowledge that they are separate from the rest of us, and what applies to us doesn’t apply to them.
A fun new tidbit is that the Trump whitehouse staff have been using messaging apps that make messages disappear after they are read -- a clear violation of records keeping requirements, AKA “the reason the FBI was investigating Hillary Clinton” (to be fair, Clinton does appear to have lied, because Clinton is never one to pass up a chance to lie). So you have the FBI complaining about crypto exactly like what the white house is using, and the white house having led a pitchforks and torches mob about the other candidate doing something less obviously improper than they are doing. It’s the America Show!