On Monday, an entirely peaceful protest was driven out of a city square in front of the White House with teargas, baton charges and mounted police, so Trump could pose in front of a church with a Bible.A priest and a seminarian, who had been distributing water and hand sanitizer to protesters from the steps of St John’s Episcopal, were driven away by police with helmets and riot shields to create an uncluttered tableau. A Bible was procured for Trump from inside the church for him to hold aloft. Journalists asked if it was his Bible. “It’s a Bible,” he replied.The rate of fresh affronts has often outpaced the capacity to digest – or even describe – them. Peaceful protesters, journalists, a young African American man pleading for mutual understanding, shop owners, residents are being targeted for arbitrary arrest or police beatings or both – especially if they are black.
Tag Archives: democracy
How Rome Destroyed Its Own Republic – HISTORY (How much of this sounds current for Donald Trump & the state of Government today?)
How Rome Destroyed Its Own Republic
Augustus told Romans he was the only one who could save Rome. And they believed him.Imagine a world in which political norms have broken down. Senators use bad faith arguments to block the government from getting anything done. An autocrat rigs elections and gives himself complete control over the government. Even stranger, many voters subscribe to the autocrat’s personality cult and agree that he should have absolute control.
Welcome to Rome in the first century B.C.E. The republic that had existed for over 400 years had finally hit a crisis it couldn’t overcome. Rome itself wouldn’t fall, but during this period it lost its republic forever.
The man who played the biggest role in disrupting Rome’s republic was Augustus Caesar, who made himself the first emperor of Rome in 27 B.C.E. By that point, the republic’s political norms had been breaking down for about a century, and Augustus was in a position to take advantage of that.
Before that century, “there had been a really long period where the republic functioned,” says Edward J. Watts, author of the new book Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny. Political norms were heeded; and when the government ran into a new problem, it would amend itself to keep working. For over 300 years, the republic operated this way. There was no political violence, land theft or capital punishment, because those went against the political norms Rome had established.
Then, in 133 B.C.E., Rome experienced its first political murder in the history of the republic. Senators were angry that Tiberius Gracchus, an elected official who had tried to redistribute land to the poor, was seeking a second term as tribune of the plebs. During a fight that broke out between Tiberius’s followers and opponents, senators beat him to death with wooden chairs and helped murder nearly 300 of his followers.
via How Rome Destroyed Its Own Republic – HISTORY
Ret. Admiral McRaven: America Is Under Attack From President Trump, Destroying Republic From Within
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GUNS,GUNS,GUNS Run take the money, here’s a bullet for your boyfriend! -line from The Guess Who song
Growing up in the 50/60’s I remember the air raid sirens and the evacuation to the school basement to get ready for nuclear fall out!
I can’t imagine what it is like now when Tommy, the kid sitting in the back of the class, opens fire on the students in front, or he is reported to be at the mall shooting the “invaders”, when I was a kid invaders came from space and we knocked them off at the arcade for a quarter!
I feel so sad for the children of today that are in fear of going to school, all we had to be afraid of really was “when is that book report due?” or “surprise math test today”.
At some point children are losing their childhood, being inundated by news of another “Mass Shooting Today or Active Shooter Status” armed security in public & high schools is a tragedy they should not be exposed to while they are just trying to cope with learning the skills to have a long and enjoyable life and dealing with puberty!
This is where I see it breaking down, elected officials being lobbied by corporations with the “promise of campaign funds” is wrong at all levels and from all industries, corporations, unions and groups, money and politics should never be used to put anyone in power over anything, it breeds corruption!
Thank God in Canada we do not have as bad an issue with guns as in the USA but it is getting worse as illegal fire arms are finding there way here as well. Death by Cop is almost guaranteed in a shooting scenario in the US because from an Officers perspective “everyone has a weapon” and they are in fear for their lives at every crime scene, traffic stop, domestic call or just on routine patrol.
A President that is constantly using social media and dividing, not just his own country, but the world, is a threat to civilization on this planet. The total denial of climate change, pitting City against City, State against State, driving a wedge between allies through the use of tariffs instead of diplomacy in three short years and claim that “He is responsible for a booming economy” that was started long before he came to power is the biggest threat today!
I am not a highly educated individual and these opinions are my own, but I do know what scares a lot of people and there are enough tangents with previous build up to CHAOS going on now under President Trump, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un to make us ALL VERY AFRAID!
Old unionist 