Sen. Feinstein, who objected to the government spying on her staff, approved again of the mass surveillance of millions of innocent Americans who are not suspected of any wrongdoing:
http://beta.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-fisa-democrats-20180117-story.html
Also voting in favor of mass surveillance: Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Raul Ruiz and Republican Ken Calvert:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/here-are-the-256-lawmakers-members-who-just-voted-to-reject-privacy-reforms-and-extend-nsa-spying/
For Democrats to give vast powers to the Trump administration to spy on millions of innocent Americans without a warrant is mind-boggling. Democrats have rightly opposed the Trump administration’s authoritarianism and close ties to RussianĀ dictator Putin, but when they had the opportunity to do something about it they failed miserably:
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/12/the-same-democrats-who-denounce-trump-as-a-lawless-treasonous-authoritarian-just-voted-to-give-him-vast-warrantless-spying-powers/
This failure by the Democrats means that the Trump administration can continue to spy on journalists, activists, protestors, professors, students, scientists, environmentalists, progressives, Democrats and anyone else they oppose.
And there were enough votes to reign in Trump’s powers, as many Republicans in the House and Senate supported the changes to the surveillance requirements, but Democrats sank the bills.
It would not be at all surprising for Trump to go over the edge into horrific extremism within a few weeks or months and order the spy agencies to target his opponents with heavy surveillance. And we can then look back at this crucial moment in history when the Democrats had the chance to protect the people, democracy and social justice but instead stupidly squandered it.
We cannot trust that America will always self-correct and secure freedom once again. Democracy and freedom must be earned every day. Democrats, however, voted instead to sacrifice essential privacy. And that vote may have flushed the great experiment that is America down the drain forever.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/01/open-letter-our-community-congresss-vote-extend-nsa-spying-eff-executive-director
https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/members-congress-just-voted-give-trump
https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-comment-passage-senate-surveillance-bill
https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-condemns-house-vote-surveillance-bill