You have to be utterly ignorant of history, in a state of denial, dumb as grits or [View all]

[cali]

partisan to the point of mindlessness, to believe that the 16 major national security agencies aren't to some degree or another abusing their powers.

Furthermore, national security is an 80+ billion dollar a year industry. Yes, that 80 freakin' billion. One of the things that means is that a lot of the employees of private companies are able to do a lot of shit without any oversight. Speaking of oversight, there's vanishingly little of it from Congress over many parts of agencies like the CIA and NSA.

The CIA and NSA have abused their power nonstop since their creations. That's not hyperbole. It's well documented. The difference is that now, they have more funds than ever and more tools than ever.

FISA Courts are weak sauce as far as protection of civil liberties. No matter how often they deny it, they rubber stamp warrant applications. There is no "defense" side in these courts. They grant over 99% of requests for warrants.

You can nitpick, call it all legal, whatever you wish for as how long as you wish, but basic common sense and a bit of knowledge of the past make it clear that abuses in abundance are being carried out.