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[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Excerpt:

In his opening statement, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) pointed to the 1976 Church Committee final report that documented decades of “widespread abuse by federal intelligence agencies against U.S. citizens” and expressed his fear that now, almost half a century after this report was published, “our federal government is still undertaking many of the same tactics that the Church Committee found to be unworthy of democracy, and occasionally reminiscent of totalitarian regimes.”

Paul also took aim at the FBI’s “misuse [of] its authority” under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a warrantless surveillance law that the FBI has used to spy on millions of Americans, including a senator, a state senator, and a judge.

Mayorkas framed these meetings as “a public-private partnership to speak of the threats to the homeland so that those companies are alert to them” but Paul noted that the DHS has flagged content about Covid, the Hunter Biden laptop story, and more to social media companies for censorship.

After slamming Wray and Mayorkas for their agencies’ social media censorship pressure, Senator Paul focused on the revelation that the FBI paid Twitter millions of dollars.

The FBI’s payments to Twitter are controversial because they were made in February 2021, just a few months after the 2020 US presidential election where much of the FBI censorship documented in Missouri v. Biden occurred.

[–]Centaurea 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

threats to the homeland

I'm really tired of that dystopic, overly sentimental, emotion-jerking "homeland" label. No one in the US ever referred to the US as our "homeland" until TPTB trotted it out after 9-11. I thought it was creepy the first time I heard it, and it's creepier now, knowing what they've done with it.

Not to mention, it's an inappropriate use of the word. "Homeland" is correctly used by people who have left their home country and set up camp elsewhere. Not by people who have never left home.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Agree. Robin Williams did a terrific riff on the Office of Homeland Security and TSA in this wonderful interview that's hilarious at points but also very serious as he talks about his One-Hour Photo role, He was such a genius, comedic and otherwise.