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1. hosh (hosh@hub.vikshepa.com)'s status on Sunday, 19-Aug-2018 11:50:36 EDT hosh
   http://fredturner.stanford.edu/turner-trump-on-twitter-in-pjb-zzp/
   
   

   Today it is only key bureaucracies - the courts, the press, and even the FBI - who stand in the way of Trump's becoming a charismatic autocrat in the mold of Vladimir Putin. These bulwarks remind us that in an era of authoritarian individualism, what democracy needs first and foremost is not more personalized modes of mediated expression. It is a renewed engagement with the rule of law and with the institutions that embody it.

   1. hosh (hosh@hub.vikshepa.com)'s status on Sunday, 19-Aug-2018 11:52:13 EDT hosh

      in reply to
      forgot to mention the Guardian piece that led me there - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/19/twitter-supposed-to-spread-democracy-not-trumps-ravings
   2. hosh (hosh@hub.vikshepa.com)'s status on Sunday, 19-Aug-2018 23:54:23 EDT hosh

      in reply to
      Ultimately those "key bureaucracies" depend on mythologies. When people stop believing in them these "bulwarks" will fail.They were never very substantial in the first place. We were raised to pledge allegiance to flags but nowadays people see the institutions of government mainly as protectors of power and privilege.
      
      Lao Tsu:
      
      In the highest antiquity, (the people) did not know that there
      were (their rulers). In the next age they loved them and praised
      them. In the next they feared them; in the next they despised them.
      Thus it was that when faith (in the Tao) was deficient (in the rulers)
      a want of faith in them ensued (in the people).