That's always been the problem with surveillance, but these twats never seemed to realize it when they brought it up. How fucking stupid can you be before you just forget to breathe for an hour or two?
If what Trump is going to do with the surveillance powers is exactly what it was intended the president could do with them, is it really misuse?
In software engineering, we call this "works as designed."
Yes it sucks more that Trump specifically will weild them. But the real problem is that the office of the presidency has these powers. Not specifically which president had them.
I think non-software people call this getting their face eaten by leopards.
Our "left"-centre government party here in Germany is still trying to pass the next version of a surveillance bill, which has been struck down multiple times for being unconstitutional over the years. All the while, it is getting more and more likely that we will have our own neo-nazis in power next year.
Yeah, I think a good approach to any type of government powers is considering that future presidents/parties you don't like will also have access to these powers.
I would absolutely love it if the threat of the future Trumps is a limiting factor on government overreach.
All Americans who have ever used the internet have violations of the CFAA, since website TOS violations are legally as criminal as hacking NORAD (the CFAA was passed after Reagan saw wargames ) normally letting your twelve-year-old start a Facebook account gets you 25 years, if some prosecutor wanted to enforce it. And they think that's ridiculous and don't.
However, if that prosecutor wants to turn a five month sentence into a ten year sentence, then the suspect's CFAA violation history might be useful after all.
And that is just one of the laws that overreaches and is easily broken and not usually enforced.
Suddenly you may have something to hide after all, say if they're rounding up gay felons and any petty felony would make your gay ass qualify. (The German SD and US ICE both ignore violent felon requirements when they're rounding up folk to be detained and deported)
But expanding executive power helps break legislative gridlock! It's not like Americans will ever elect an unhinged criminal lunatic to the Presidency.
How did all these laws Trump can abuse on day one get on the books, I wonder? They should find the guys responsible for passing them in whatever organism they used to discuss them
Yeah, let’s not pretend this isn’t absolutely a class issue. Snowden, Assange, and Manning happened under Obama. This is an “us” vs the “elites” Trump is just a convenient excuse for the next democrat to abuse these same powers and be like “well Trump was doing it”
Edit: if you don’t think the Biden administration isn’t doing the same thing right now to protect our precious “Healthcare” CEOs from another “getting even” attempt you are sadly mistaken