First article that states the four year window that I have read. That makes much more sense to me. I have been saying, to anyone who will listen since the outline of this spying began to be discovered, that it did not make sense that it is limited to Trump and the 2016 election. You don't wake up one day and say "Let's commit a fraud upon the FISA court and spy on the opposing party nominee's campaign for President." This began as spying on smaller fishes and slighter justifications. It is just the nature of evil that it takes time to work the conscience to the point where that step doesn't look like such a leap.
Just my two cents...
“You don’t wake up one day and say “Let’s commit a fraud upon the FISA court and spy on the opposing party nominee’s campaign for President.” This began as spying on smaller fishes and slighter justifications. It is just the nature of evil that it takes time to work the conscience to the point where that step doesn’t look like such a leap.”
It is FAR worse than you suppose - with the entire hierarchy of the Obama Administration (incl. she-who-must-not-be-named), you are dealing with Alinskyites - Alinskyites who believe in their (miserable, dark) souls that they are entitled to rule over all of the rest of us, and that their moment to seize total power was upon them. Thus, they may have started out small, but not because of conscience. No, they started small because they were testing the system, to see what (if any) reaction their corruption caused. Like Lenin’s advice regarding bayonets (if you put it into your enemy and encounter soft flesh, keep pushing, but if you hit bone then pull it out and put it in somewhere else), they were probing for weakness...and when they found it, you got the series of scandals that is coming to light.
These people don’t HAVE a conscience - it is all about power over others, period. These people, with the resources of a modern surveillance state at their disposal, would make Stalin and Beria green with envy - and would be FAR more dangerous than those two monsters ever were. This series of scandals (or, rather, the actions and attitudes underlying them) prove beyond any doubt that if they ever gain power again, our Republic and our liberties will be extinguished in all but name (similar to the Soviet constitution, which sounded fantastic on its face, but in practice was a fig leaf for the lying Communists).
Your comment was worth a lot more than two cents. It was priceless. I totally agree that the FISA abuses were the inevitable result of prior spying activities. It all escalated over several years time and people need to know that. I think the duration and eventual magnitude of the effort will surprise many.