Bunpocalypse, hehe ^^
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Bunpocalypse is easily one of my Top 3 favorite pocalypses.
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Presidential Security Briefing
Bad People (the worst) are planning things against the United States.
You don’t want to know who, it might worry you.
Please put an extra $2 billion in the slot in your desk to avoid disaster.
Yours, CIA.
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How I have begun every morning since November. Please keep in mind I was here day after election telling people to calm down and see how things play out. I was the guy wanting to give even the shit-gibbon that started the Obama is Kenyan meme a chance to prove us wrong.
Not even a month in and I would like to issue a formal apology for bothering.
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Do they have any other sort of information to send him?
A White House official told the Wall Street Journal, “There is nothing that leads us to believe that this is an accurate account of what is actually happening. LALALALALA!”
I suppose it might help Putin and his Pals to know who believes what in the corridors of power. Which rumours worked, that sort of thing. Interesting times, eh?
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The idea that a single man should be aware of everything is questionable (if only because of the sheer amount of information).
That said, the day you accept as normal having the spies decide exactly when and how they’re going to share what they know with elected representatives is the day you let go of any semblance of democracy.
Trump won the elections, following the (insane, IMHO) rules to do so in the US. Get on with it. If you feel it is unacceptable, fight the man, try to change the rules. There are two ways available: armed insurgencies or a political fight at one level or another. Pick one.
However, one thing is certain: if you allow the state “servants” to make the rules as to how they serve under the misguided notion you’ll benefit from it, you will definitely not improve the situation. It can only get worse.
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I’m glad someone else would agree with me that central government in the UK is not democratic, because that is exactly what happens here.
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Well, from my point of view, there are no democracies in the world. The one country that comes somewhat closer is Switzerland.
That’s no accident, the word ‘democracy’ itself has been hijacked. Back in the eighteenth century, those writing the constitutions (in the US and then in France) were very clear that they didn’t want democracies but republics (and they were quite upfront about the difference, simply read the Federalist Papers, especially the parts by Madison).
Elections (as opposed to direct decision involving everyone or randomly designed people) are aristocratic in nature: the very etymology of the word refers to ‘the best’ (who are supposed to be chosen/found through the process). However, calling a regime a democracy rings so much nicer than calling it an aristocratic republic.
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Democracy is easy when this is your majority whip…
Building a coalition has never been difficult there…
But there is an approaching storm… from the east…
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Not really. Athenian democracy was basically an extended military oligarchy, i.e. one man with a hoplite panoply, one vote. The error is in our taking the word “demos” as meaning “people” when it actually in context meant “present or past armoured members of the armed forces or people able to supply them”. Currently in the UK that would mean about half a million voters and an 80%+ support for staying in the EU.
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what a weird poster, leather trousers are mostly unknown in Switzerland. the only exception I’m aware of is Appenzell, but they are much more colourful than the Bavarian/Austrian counter-parts
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Interesting take on this. Not sure what I think about it.
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Thetes (the citizens unable to afford the panoply, who served in war as rowers) could vote. They originally could not hold office as magistrates or on the Council, but were allowed to as part of the reforms of the mid-5th-century BCE under Pericles and his predecessor Ephialtes.
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140 characters at a time
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I think leaks are appropriate. Yes there is some “intelligence” that I think may rightly be withheld from the American people but only in cases of national security - a term applied much too broadly today, and used as an excuse to keep people in the dark. I error on the side of transparency, and believe in the 4th estate as a check on government, the power of which resides in the press being able to get information.
Trumps’s attempt to divert the issue from his own meddlings with the Russians to the issue of “all these illegal leaks” is kid getting caught stealing candy from a store and claiming the real issue is “all security cameras invading our privacy.”
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If it comes to Trump, then, I, for one, welcome my establishment overlords.
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AlexG55 has already answered to part of your post.
I’ll add that, although ‘democracy’ was indeed formally defined in Athens, it in no way is the apex of the concept (think women and slaves). In no way is that an argument to reject the idea altogether as you seem to imply (Athens didn’t do it perfectly so it is impossible to do ?)
There are many possible variations, but I would insist that the following are necessary to have a chance to have a real democracy (in no particular order):
- no professional politicians
- a constitution written by people who have never will never hold another office, overseen by the population at large, and voted upon through a referendum
- impossibility to make any change to said constitution without another referendum
- accountability of those in office (both when they are, and for a very long time after, 10 years appear to be a minimum)
- possibility for the population to hold a vote (again, a referendum) on any issue they see fit (including, of course, the removal from office of anyone deemed unfit)
- independent media (both from power and money interest). They are often called the 4th power. If they are so, there should be publicly financed media (newspapers, tv and so on) that are truly separated from all other powers (so led by people chosen through a similar process as the executive, legislative and judiciary branches are). Those should be subjected to the same kind of oversight.
I feel these are the bare minimum.
ba-dum-tsss
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All right, add “able bodied men capable to sitting to the oar of a trireme” - after all slave rowers might be freed after successful battles - but surely it doesn’t invalidate the point about it being an essentially military large-scale oligarchy?
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