Congress is our law-making body on the federal level. If you reach back into your memory bank from grade school Social Studies class, you’ll recall that Congress is bicameral, meaning it’s made up of two houses, the United States Senate, and the United States House of Representatives. All states have two Senators that represent them in the US Senate, whereas states can have varying numbers of representatives in the House, as that is based on a state’s population. If a state loses too many citizens, then it will lose a member (or a few) in the House. Conversely, if a state has an influx of citizens, then it will gain a member (or a few) in the House. For example, New York has lost hundreds of thousands of citizens to other states the past few years, as fed-up New Yorkers seek less overbearing state government, safer streets, and more bang for their disintegrating buck. Formerly one of the largest states in the nation (population wise), New York is now trailing behind “freer” states like Florida. Shocker. (Side note: the out-migration plaguing New York state mysteriously coincides with the one-party, super-majority Democrat rule that we have had here for the past five crippling years. I’ve written on the toxicity of one-party-rule many times. Just peruse my Substack roster of articles to get more details. Recent articles are available to all, whilst archived articles are available only to my paying subscribers. I thank and love you folks for your support, by the way!)
Getting back to Congress, recent polls show that Congress’ approval rating is at historic lows. The percentage of Americans that approve of Congress and think the 535 politicians that make up the legislative body are doing a good job, is hovering around 12%. Twelve percent! That number is abysmal. And yet, I think it’s a little high. (You can read sarcasm into that last statement if you like, but I wasn’t intending to be sarcastic).
As I often like to take the abstract and make it more concrete, let me give you a wonderful example of why almost all Americans think Congress is horrendous.
The other day, a majority of the members of the House of Representatives voted to extend section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”) for another two years. Many refer to this law as the spy act, because it allows the US government to read, collect, store, track the phone calls, emails, texts, etc. of (supposedly) only non-citizens located outside the country. The propagandists, oh wait sorry, I meant to write the “government,” yes the government will say that section 702 of the law is “a critical tool for protecting our national security.” They will tell you that, “It enables the U.S. Intelligence Community to collect, analyze, and share foreign intelligence information on individual terrorists, weapons proliferators, hackers, and other foreign intelligence targets.” And of course they say that there are strict safeguards to ensure that the rights of Americans are not infringed upon, and don’t worry, they have it all under control. Uh huh.
Now, for all those who just love to twist my words and parse them so they don’t sound like mine any more, I’ll get out in front of you and say that I fully support our intelligence agencies doing their jobs to keep America safe. However, I do not support, and indeed it is 100% unconstitutional, for the government to spy on its citizens, particularly without a warrant (which means the government successfully asked permission to and actually proved to a court - before spying - that it has a probable cause to do so).
That being said, there was a proposed amendment to section 702 that was put to a vote last week (before the extension of section 702 was voted on), and that amendment would have required the government to obtain a warrant before spying on Americans. Did it pass? Nope! It failed in a tie vote of 212 to 212.
If you want to see who voted Yea and who voted Nay, you can see that here.
That proposed (failed) amendment came about largely due to the fact that section 702 is so often abused and misused by the government against Americans. Specifically, over the past year, U.S. officials have revealed a series of abuses and mistakes by government agencies, such as the FBI, improperly using the intelligence repository for information about Americans, including about a member of Congress, and Americans who were in D.C. January 6, 2021, when the riot took place at the U.S. Capitol.
So, why am I saying that section 702 is unconstitutional? Well, let’s take a look at the 4th Amendment to our US Constitution. It says:
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
It’s rather clear language, I think. If you need further evidence, despite pushing for its renewal now, over fifteen years ago Biden himself voted against the passage of section 702 when it was first created back in 2008! As the ACLU points out, Biden explained his “No” vote by saying 702, “would be a breathtaking and unconstitutional expansion of the President’s powers and it is wholly unnecessary to address the problems the administration has identified.” Biden insisted, back then, that he would “not give the President unchecked authority to eavesdrop on whomever he wants in exchange for the vague and hollow assurance that he will protect the civil liberties of the American people.” Wow. And yet here he is today, shamelessly violating his own position. Again, shocking.
Speaking of the left-leaning ACLU, it has taken a strong position against section 702 since its inception. The ACLU has been very vocal, has brought lawsuits and authored amicus briefs against the section, but to no avail. According to a recent statement, the ACLU says, “In the last year alone, the FBI conducted over 200,000 warrantless “backdoor” searches of Americans’ communications. The standard for conducting these backdoor searches is so low that, without any clear connection to national security or foreign intelligence, an FBI agent can type in an American’s name, email address, or phone number, and pull up whatever communications the FBI’s Section 702 surveillance has collected over the past five years.”
You may be thinking, how else is the government violating my 4th Amendment rights today without my knowing it? Well, how about all of those cameras that populate our streets, thoroughfares and sidewalks today? The government can absolutely track you. Where you are going. When. How. With whom. We are living in a surveillance state, and it’s wholly unconstitutional.
Coming back around to section 702 of FISA and its final fate… it passed the House the other day 273 in favor to 147 opposed. I’m sure the Senate will follow suit before section 702 expires on April 19th, but let’s hope I’m wrong.
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The joke is that they had no problem getting warrants in their kangaroo court.
Now they don't want to do that game?
It's bullshit either way and the legal system needs reform where any judge that violates the Constitution should be removed and replaced.
If they had tested them for traits of psychopathy/sociopathy there never would be a problem. They can test you for drugs and all that to get licenses, but politicians and judges that deal with 100,000x more responsibility than me has no testing besides the degrees that come out of the shitty universities that are bought by big corporate.
Because, our so called Reps ain't there to represent the general public. Most, especially in Blue states, are selected/elected by the big cities and who controls the big cities. Some states, it's a little more subtle, but still the same graft and grift.
As others have said...follow the money. Theorize on why a supposedly Republican Speaker suddenly has a change of heart to vote for yet more, unconstitutional surveillance. Yeah, he had an epiphany...right in the middle of his 'confidential' briefing.