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No government agency should be above Congress. If it consider's itself so, it should be defunded which is for sure the purview of Congress.

jaywalk 6y ago
This is a very important point. Congress is complicit in allowing this, because they have the authority to shut these agencies down.
- bobthepanda 6y ago
  This is kind of a moot point if the portion of Congress which disagrees with this doesn't have control of both houses. Which is how Congress is supposed to work (it's not supposed to be very fast) but I don't think the founders had Congress delegating rulemaking powers to executive authorities in mind.
  - pessimizer 6y ago
    The portion of Congress which disagrees with this doesn't have control of anything. One of them is Warren, and Pelosi was campaigning against Markey just a month ago.
- pessimizer 6y ago
  Their authority to shut down intelligence agencies is purely theoretical. Not only would they be able to discover any effort to do that while it was in progress, but they could threaten or destroy the congresspeople who were most indispensable to that effort. It's slightly scary to think about how total surveillance works on the populace in general, but nobody has any interest in most people (and knowing surveillance is in operation is enough motivation to make people intentionally less interesting.) Politicians and corporate decisionmakers are and will be the most subject to surveillance and control through that surveillance.
  - salawat 6y ago
    Here's the thing though: blackmail only works if you let it. Not everything a Congressperson could have in the closet is going to get them in any way removed from office. Once the intelligence community actually makes any good on any type of threat, congressional representatives no longer have any reason to play ball. In short, blackmail doesn't work on the shameless.
    - newen 6y ago
      What? Blackmail doesn’t reveal itself as some news report saying “CIA reports that Congressman X did blah blah blah, therefore the CIA recommends that you should not vote for him in the next election and other Congressmen should not work with him”. It appears as something like “Leaked photographs reveal scandalous behavior by Congressman X. This scandal destroyed his reputation in Congress leading to him being ineffective in Congress, and made him deeply unpopular with voters, which will lead to him losing his next election”. Blackmail works on anybody.
sieabahlpark 6y ago
False, Congress is not the single godlike power that reins over everything else. It is one of three branches of separate but equal power. Congress has no teeth unless executive enforcement is used.

jaywalk 6y ago

This is a very important point. Congress is complicit in allowing this, because they have the authority to shut these agencies down.

bobthepanda 6y ago
This is kind of a moot point if the portion of Congress which disagrees with this doesn't have control of both houses. Which is how Congress is supposed to work (it's not supposed to be very fast) but I don't think the founders had Congress delegating rulemaking powers to executive authorities in mind.
- pessimizer 6y ago
  The portion of Congress which disagrees with this doesn't have control of anything. One of them is Warren, and Pelosi was campaigning against Markey just a month ago.
pessimizer 6y ago
Their authority to shut down intelligence agencies is purely theoretical. Not only would they be able to discover any effort to do that while it was in progress, but they could threaten or destroy the congresspeople who were most indispensable to that effort. It's slightly scary to think about how total surveillance works on the populace in general, but nobody has any interest in most people (and knowing surveillance is in operation is enough motivation to make people intentionally less interesting.) Politicians and corporate decisionmakers are and will be the most subject to surveillance and control through that surveillance.
- salawat 6y ago
  Here's the thing though: blackmail only works if you let it. Not everything a Congressperson could have in the closet is going to get them in any way removed from office. Once the intelligence community actually makes any good on any type of threat, congressional representatives no longer have any reason to play ball. In short, blackmail doesn't work on the shameless.
  - newen 6y ago
    What? Blackmail doesn’t reveal itself as some news report saying “CIA reports that Congressman X did blah blah blah, therefore the CIA recommends that you should not vote for him in the next election and other Congressmen should not work with him”. It appears as something like “Leaked photographs reveal scandalous behavior by Congressman X. This scandal destroyed his reputation in Congress leading to him being ineffective in Congress, and made him deeply unpopular with voters, which will lead to him losing his next election”. Blackmail works on anybody.

sieabahlpark 6y ago

False, Congress is not the single godlike power that reins over everything else. It is one of three branches of separate but equal power. Congress has no teeth unless executive enforcement is used.