We Can’t Trust Trump With Today’s NSA

It would be far too easy for him to take advantage of the agency’s surveillance capabilities.

By John Napier Tye

Donald Trump has shown he’ll stop at nothing to humiliate and intimidate his critics. He published Sen. Lindsey Graham’s personal cellphone number so Trump supporters could harass him. He encouraged the Russian government to hack Hillary Clinton (though he later claimed he was joking) and promised to imprison her. He has tweeted false and embarrassing accusations against Sen. Ted Cruz, former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, and many others.

That’s all bad enough. But if he becomes president, Donald Trump will have a frightening and expansive new tool to persecute his domestic opponents: the National Security Agency, which has access to a huge amount of Americans’ personal communications and data.

Maybe a senator’s “private” bedroom pics will be mysteriously leaked. Or Breitbart will start blogging the details of a journalist’s 3 a.m. Uber rides. Or maybe Trump will find creative uses for five years of email correspondence between a civil rights lawyer and her clients. This might sound like a nightmare that could only happen in China or Russia, but there are simply not enough safeguards in place to protect Americans from our own National Security Agency.

While most NSA operations are directed at overseas targets, the agency can access communications metadata, such as phone numbers and call times, from every American who uses a telephone or email account—more than 300 million of us.

How do I know this is possible? Because while I was a State Department official between 2011 and 2014, I was given top secret briefings on U.S. intelligence activities. (Before I left government service, I filed a complaint alleging that some NSA activities violated Americans’ constitutional rights to privacy. Because I am writing about issues that I worked on when I held a security clearance, I was required to submit this article for prepublication review to the U.S. government, which has no objection to its publication.)

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http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/11/we_can_t_trust_trump_with_today_s_nsa.html

Homeland Security Chairman: Clinton Could Be Impeached If Elected

Source: Talking Points Memo

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee warned Wednesday on Fox News that Hillary Clinton could be impeached if she were elected, essentially delegitimizing Clinton before Election Day.

Reacting to the FBI's announcement last week that it was reviewing a newly discovered batch of emails related to Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) was emphatic that impeachment would proceed if a criminal indictment of Clinton appeared imminent.

"This investigation will continue whether she wins or not, but assuming she wins and the investigation goes forward, and it looks like an indictment is pending, at that point of time in the Constitution, the House of Representatives would engage in an impeachment trial," McCaul said referring to a House investigation into Clinton's e-mails. "It would go to the Senate, and impeachment proceedings and removal would take place."

McCaul then went on to compare Clinton to Richard Nixon who resigned from the White House rather than face impeachment.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clinton-could-be-impeached-if-elected

Oklahoma GOPer Says Hillary Clinton Deserves 'Firing Squad'

Source: Talking Points Memo

An Republican lawmaker in Oklahoma on Tuesday appeared to call for Hillary Clinton’s assassination in a Facebook post, a remark he later brushed off as just sarcasm.

The Oklahoman reported that State Rep. John Bennett (R) wrote “2 words … firing squad” in the post, which linked to a conservative blog criticizing Clinton for the deaths of four Americans in the 2012 Benghazi attacks.

The paper reported that Bennett sent them a text message saying the post was meant to be sarcastic, but also that Clinton “has committed nothing less than treason by leaving fellow Americans to die in Benghazi.”

“If anyone else had done that they would be charged with treason and thrown under the jail at a minimum, and a firing squad likely,” he wrote to the Oklahoman.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/john-bennett-oklahoma-clinton-firing-squad

Obama To Voters: 'The Fate Of The World Is Teetering' On Your Shoulders

Source: Talking Points Memo

Speaking at a Wednesday rally for Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama condemned the normalization of Donald Trump's extreme rhetoric and emphasized the stakes at play on Election Day, which is now less than a week away.

"I hate to put a little pressure on you, but the fate of the republic rests on your shoulders," Obama said at a rally at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "The fate of the world is teetering and you, North Carolina, are going to have to make sure that we push it in the right direction."

He told voters to push away the "noise" of campaign commercials and rapid-fire news coverage, saying that the choice between Trump and Clinton "could not be simpler."

Obama cited Trump's behavior towards women, Muslims and people with disabilities, and said that being elected president would not change Trump's personality. "This office, it's about who you are and what you are and it doesn't change after you occupy the office," Obama said. "It just magnifies it."

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-fate-of-the-world-rests-on-voters

Alabama Secretary of State: Helping More People Vote Would “Cheapen the Work” of Civil Rights Heroes

By Mark Joseph Stern

Automatic voter registration has recently emerged a key tool in increasing the United States’ anemic voter turnout. The process is simple: Whenever an eligible citizen interacts with a government agency (typically the DMV), she is registered to vote unless she declines. Although automatic voter registration is a nonpartisan initiative, it tends to be favored by Democrats and opposed by Republicans, who believe they fare better in low-turnout races; two Republican governors have already vetoed Democrat-sponsored automatic voter registration bills in Illinois and New Jersey. Now Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican, has joined the opposition. Asked a question about automatic voter registration, Merrill declared that the practice “cheapen(s) the work” of civil rights heroes and that “just because you turned 18 doesn’t give you the right” to vote.

These people fought—some of them were beaten, some of them were killed—because of their desire to ensure that everybody that wanted to had the right to register to vote and participate in the process. I’m not going to cheapen the work that they did. I’m not going to embarrass them by allowing somebody that’s too sorry to get up off of their rear end to go register to vote … because they think they deserve the right because they’ve turned 18.

A hot mic, groping charges and sexting: 2016 has not been a good year for men

By Mary Jordan November 2 at 2:19 PM

This presidential election has been downright embarrassing to men. In its closing days, that’s how a lot of men, including Ken Oldham, see the 2016 campaign.

So many of its lowest moments involved men and sex: Donald Trump’s vulgar boasts on the “Access Hollywood” video about kissing women and grabbing their crotches. Women, one after another, accusing Trump of groping them. Women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct showing up at a presidential debate. And now, a new FBI inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails — triggered by, of all things, an investigation of illicit texts allegedly sent to an underage girl by the husband of a Clinton top aide.

“It’s disgusting,” said Oldham, 40, president of the United Way in Frederick, Md. “Men have not looked good in this election.”

“The vast majority of men are decent, civil human beings, and I don’t think we can be silent anymore,” said Oldham, who joined the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes fundraiser in downtown Frederick on Sunday to raise money to help survivors of sexual assault.

To make a point, Oldham and two dozen men did the walk in high heels. “It was the first time I had the guts to put on a pair of pumps and walk publicly through town,” he said.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-hot-mic-groping-charges-and-sexting-2016-has-not-been-a-good-year-for-men/2016/11/02/280d1694-a042-11e6-8832-23a007c77bb4_story.html?wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1

The FBI is politically tainted: Comey must go - by Jennifer Rubin

By Jennifer Rubin November 2 at 1:24 PM

We have gone from well-established practices that keep the FBI insulated from politics to a political free for all where agents and the director feel free effectively to engage in opposition research.

We had FBI Director James B. Comey’s ridiculously vague letter suggesting there might be something relevant to a case dropped on grounds, not of lack of evidence, but of lack of the requisite intent.

The Post now reports:

Judy Shepard worries that we’re S.I.C.: Silent, indifferent, complacent

By Jonathan Capehart November 2 at 3:18 PM

For the past 18 years, Dennis and Judy Shepard have worked hard to try to cure hearts of hate. To try to get people to see beyond their differences to exhibit the compassion, empathy, understanding and civility we expect from others. It was a task they didn’t ask for, but one they embraced after their openly gay son, Matthew Shepard, was lured to his death by bigots who robbed, beat and left him to die on a prairie fence outside Laramie, Wyo., in October 1998.

But before Judy Shepard presented me and actor Sean Hayes with our “Making a Difference” awards at the annual dinner of the Matthew Shepard Foundation in Denver last month, she expressed " target="_blank">concern. “The rise in hate crimes, I think, I would (attribute) to the incivility of what’s going on in our political scene the past few months,” she said.

What’s going on in our political scene is a Republican presidential nominee who has run a racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and otherwise intolerant campaign for the White House. And the horrifying tenor and tone of his bid have polluted political discourse and torn at the fabric of this nation.

Hate crimes against Muslims are up 78 percent, according to a study by California State University, San Bernardino. A survey released in April by the Southern Poverty Law Center showed that the presidential campaign was producing a troubling trend. Not only is it “producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom,” but also “Teachers have noted an increase in bullying, harassment and intimidation of students whose races, religions or nationalities have been the verbal targets of candidates on the campaign trail.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/11/02/judy-shepard-worries-that-were-s-i-c-silent-indifferent-complacent/?utm_term=.24ea00f5e054&wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1

Trump bullies female reporter who needed Secret Service protection in front of 4,000 people

Teen in Weiner sexting case calls Comey her newest ‘abuser’ in scathing open letter

Source: RawStory

02 NOV 2016 AT 13:41 ET

The teen girl who was allegedly sent sexually oriented text messages by former NY Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner lashed out at the FBI on Wednesday and objected to being used as “political propaganda” in the 2016 election.

According to TheHill.com, the unnamed 15-year-old spoke to BuzzFeed.com against the wishes of investigators, but felt she could not keep quiet in the wake of recent events.

“The FBI asked for me to speak to the media as little as possible. I have tried to stay quiet, but Comey has upset me,” she said. “The last thing I wanted was to have this become political propaganda.”

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The teen girl and her father told BuzzFeed that they had no warning that their case was about to be thrust into the national spotlight. She had just completed a draining, hours-long interview with FBI agents on Friday when her phone rang with a reporter calling for a response to Comey’s letter. Her response was to write an open letter to the FBI director which was published in full by BuzzFeed News.



Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/teen-in-weiner-sexting-case-calls-comey-her-newest-abuser-in-scathing-open-letter/