Reviewing the Patriot Act

Reviewing the Patriot Act

Senate Dems defending privacy rights move toward the majority, while their opponents stay in the minority.

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Permanent Minority. A group of Senate Democrats, including Jay Rockefeller, supported legislation in the Intelligence Committee that expands the Patriot Act to allow the government to “subpoena records without the approval of a judge or grand jury.”

Toward the Majority. Every Democrat except Oklahoma Representative Dan Boren and two absentees voted for a pro-privacy amendment by Bernie Sanders that prevents the FBI from using the Patriot Act to obtain citizens’ library or bookstore records without a proper warrant. Because of that unity, the amendment passed.

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Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth. 

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