> the FBI is refusing to cooperate with the general public who own iPhones. Which I think is a perfectly rational thing for the FBI to do in the absence of a l

> the FBI is refusing to cooperate with the general public who own iPhones. Which I think is a perfectly rational thing for the FBI to do in the absence of a law stating that they must do so. I don't think it's the best thing for democracy, but if I were a senior-level FBI official, I'm trying to give my organization as many tools as I can get to do their job. He's a man with a small, narrowly defined scope: investigate crimes as effectively as possible. It's not his job to think of the repurcussions. Which is why our current decade-long legislative deadlock is fucking killing us. The world today is nearly unrecognizable from the one in 2006 - and in the lack of leadership by Congress, the executive branch (which includes the FBI and most other non-military law enforcement agencies) has to step in and take control. Really, the problem is that a lack of leadership from congress has created a power vacuum that Obama has been publicly very reluctant to fill. But the gap exists, and people in the executive branch under Obama have had no such qualms expanding their power into areas that Congress just hasn't addressed because they're too buy trying to defund Obamacare or ban abortions. Our legislative process at work, folks.