Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/11/09/a-madman-has-been-given-the-ke.html
When the USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law on October 26, 2001, it erased many of the vital checks and balances that stood between the American people and their government. As Bush supporters cheered the unprecedented power that their people in Washington now held, the civil liberties world warned them: “Your president has just fashioned a weapon that will be wielded by all who come after him.”
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I can’t tell you how depressing all of this is today
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There has to be some way out of this.
You just somehow can’t have -Trump- for your President; it’s completely ridiculous.
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Living in denial of substantiated fact is the realm of fools and GOPers. Sorry, you don’t want to go there.
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LALALALALALALALAICAN’THEARYOU
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I know this sounds like a joke, but I mean it sincerely: Please don’t disparage the mentally ill by conflating them with Trump (or other people you don’t like).
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Arguments could be made for megalomania, or at the very least narcissistic personality disorder, though.
But, that point aside, in complete agreement.
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Now that Trump is President, maybe he can order the IRS to finish their audit of him so he can release his tax returns.
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Yep. Which is why I cautioned it’s expansion and use under Bush towards the end and Obama. It is why I don’t support the no fly terror list and other similar things. It is also why I am such a stringent supporter of the 2nd Amendment, and doubled down when it was suggested people on the no-fly list were also placed on a no-buy list.
When you have a system set up with that sort of power, with no oversight and no ability to legally counter it, you are just BEGGING for it to be abused. Q: What constitutes a Terrorist? A: What ever the people making the list thinks it does.
When it comes to these laws or the pet rights I care about, I never look at just the new laws/programs plan on being implemented, but 1) What they open up for future lawmakers, and 2) how they could be potentially abused by the people in power. When I say I am for “smaller government”, this is what it means. Less direct and unchecked power over the people.
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Cory, it’s been 10+ years of reading your bOingbOing and Guardian and to a lesser extent Publishers Weekly stuff… and you still have the ability to scare the shit out of me.
(Don’t stop though)
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We’re hoping to discover Trump’s presidency actually has to be confirmed by a Parliamentary vote.
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Did anyone check the paperwork from the War of Independence - is there any chance that the Crown has final approval of who gets to play with America?
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Fight on? All checks and balances have been removed. Republicans will pack the Supreme Court for a minimum of a generation. The entire destructive wishlist will be enacted in the first 100 days. What do we have left to fight with? Picket signs?
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The pussy. We’ve all been grabbed.
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Dictators die in time. Or so they say…
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not, if Mugabe is anything to go by 
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No fan of the Patriot Act but please remember - it was a bi partisan bill. 98 US Senators voted for it. Both the Republicans and Democrats deserve credit for it.
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Germany now stands on the brink of a far-right, neo-Nazi government
Um, no. not even close.
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Still some people brand you yah
Because you are rasta*
*(or, I guess anything other than WASP)
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