The “independents” are missing the point as usual.

OCKHAM!

This is a classic Shared Lie, two sides arguing over an intentionally irrelevant point.

FISA warrants are a meaningless entity. The FISA “court” ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS gives permission to Deepstate, so the “court” is an unnecessary entity. You can factor it out and nothing will change. You can reform its rules and nothing will change. Foreign vs domestic is a meaningless entity. “Laws” are meaningless entities.

Deepstate does what it wants. PERIOD. NSA reads everything it can physically read. PERIOD. The Web was designed by and for NSA. PERIOD.

None of this is new. Spying is part of Nature. The purpose of language is secrecy, not transparency. Every group spies on competitors, and every SMART group takes steps to block spying. Surveillance tech has dramatically expanded in the last decade, but the basic rules haven’t changed.

The only limit on modern spies is physical access. When two people NOT carrying cellphones are conversing by speech or hand-signs in a building that definitely has no cameras or microphones or web-connected appliances, they are private.

The other practical limit is interestingness. NSA monitors everything electronically but only pays close personal attention to people it finds interesting. If you can remain uninteresting you have a better chance of privacy.

Censorship is about WHO, not WHAT.