Democracy gone Astray

Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.

This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Donald Trump: Americans Who Don’t Report Their Suspicious Neighbors Should Be ‘Brought To Justice’

Donald Trump on Monday proposed punishing Americans if they don’t turn in their friends and neighbors for behaving suspiciously.

“In San Bernardino, people knew what was going on, they knew exactly, but they used the excuse of racial profiling for not reporting it,” Trump said during a speech in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting.

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump ramped up his earlier call to ban Muslims from entering the country in a high-profile national security address on Monday — and made clear he believes he can do it with or without congressional approval.

During a counterterrorism speech on Monday, Donald Trump claimed that Orlando shooting suspect Omar Mateen was born in someplace called “Afghan.” He then transitioned to discussing how his proposed ban on Muslim immigration would help prevent similar attacks from occurring in the future.

In a campaign rally-turned-somber national security speech on Monday, Hillary Clinton laid out her plan for how the nation should respond to the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history perpetrated by a lone gunman — which left nearly 50 people dead at an LGBT club in Orlando on Sunday. Much of her speech focused on the need to “step up” and improve government surveillance.

“We need better intelligence to discover and disrupt terrorist plots before they can be carried out,” she said. “That’s why I proposed an intelligence surge to bolster our capabilities across the board with appropriate safe guards at home.”

The debacle that was the 2016 primary season is nearly over, but the primary system itself may have destroyed faith in American democracy. Certainly it has divided the Democratic Party.

The Internet is awash with accusations that the Democratic primary was rigged; anger, confusion, and fault-placing are running wild, and so are the online right-wing "trolls" who feed the fires of discord between the two camps of the Democratic Party through misinformation and divisive invective.

Donald Trump’s first response to the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando was to congratulate himself “for being right on radical Islamic terrorism.”

His second response was to accuse President Obama of complicity.

Could Bob Paulson’s days as top banana of the RCMP be numbered?

If he doesn’t start showing more cooperation in bringing about fundamental change to the nation’s police force, he could be headed for a change in his career path. Some critics would argue it comes not a moment too soon. The organization he runs is more top down than Donald Trump.

With increasing fear and dismay, the pearl-clutching pundits and flacks in the Democratic Party establishment have been doing their utmost to scold, bully and shame Bernie Sanders and his Teen Spirit revolutionaries into submission.

They would prefer that the Democratic National Convention be a stage-managed coronation, rather than an honest and disputatious contest over what the Democratic Party should stand for. Conventional Democratic wisdom goes as follows: Now is the time for all sentient Democrats to subordinate their differences and close ranks against the terrifying Trump.

By now anyone even vaguely aware of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has heard the phrase ''the new anti-Semitism.'' It is a clever propaganda piece aimed at anyone who dares criticize Israel for its illegal occupation of the West Bank and its continued brutalization of Palestinians in Gaza.

But in the space of two days, new critics emerged from within the highest positions of Israel state power. Moshe Ya'alon -- until recently the Israeli Defence Minister -- and Major General Yair Golan, the Israeli army's deputy chief of staff, confirmed what many of Israel's most vociferous (and vilified) critics have been saying for years: that Israel is heading down the road of extremism and racism.

BRASILIA, Brazil — Earlier this week a source close to Michel Temer and member of the interim president’s PMDB party candidly admitted: “There is a new crisis every day. If the government makes a drastic decision every time there is negative news, it would all be over in two weeks.”

Democracy gone Astray