[05#9] 1.9=7=11.29: Email: "American...Empire Standard"

Cloudy cool, 7:55 up, quick breakfast, joined on-going group dancing a short while, then "Merry Farmers" & "Moon Light" songs again, getting a new pianist. Jung's lunch of shrimp-egg fry rice & Chinese cabbage soup. Somewhat less cloudy, so house-for-rent continued soil moving to side then a few to the back of the house1:30-3:20, thoroughly wet inside but felt good. To home and finished cancelling and examining emails and answered two. The second quoted the first and listed after this diary. Then making up 1.7=5 night, 1.8=6 blog diaries, and today's until "the first". It's 1.12=3 after 11pm now. ---------------------------------------------------------- "American Terrorism vs Charity #1003: Empire Standard: [Actions Speak Louder than Words or Promises]" "" [05.1.9=7 #1] Indeed, it seems the US has replaced the UK monarchy with its presidency. And, the current president has almost fully exposed its serious danger, unfortunatlely not only to the US itself but also to the whole world! The UN is powerless to face it squarely and fully, actually for so many years by now. The EU? Russia-China-India? It is truly historical failure and tragedy, as I have just expressed at the other forum, under "freely joining altogether Beyond all Borders ever more Communities #1001:[secession or annexation]": "" [Tsai 05.1.9=7 #1] Yes, I would prefer alliance or joining together with secession, rather than anexation or rebellion alone. And, my major foundation or aims is more direct and participatory democracy and peace against state violence or terrorism, legal, sacred, soverignty or not. Alliance with B.C., at least from San Francisco Bay Area up north, is our first step for me, I sincerely desire. As the institution of state is apparently out of date, after incredibly stupid and extemely bloody wars, in addidtion to utterly irrational destruction of our environment, as well as de humanizing enslavement of human minds for extreme poverty and waste in recent history, it's really about time or very late opportunities for us right now. It's finally coming to express fully in the almost all powerful the USA. Yes, perhaps the UN is powerless to be up to the modern demand, and the EU is still far, far away to be in the position to replace the UN as I wish, as it is constructed now on the basis of multi-states. Alas, the EU is NOT a natural expansion of Switzerland. "" ========================= Ron: David you replies boil down to just a few frighteningly simple points: "The president is above the law" "The short-term ends justify the means, regardless of long-term consequnces" "The constitution is essentially meaningless, because it can be applied selectively and ignored at whim" "A 'good' attorney can generate a smokescreen that will find a justification for any act." None of these points come as much of a surprise, but it's rare to hear them aired quite so openly. The whole point of a constitution is that it applies equally, to all, and all the time. On the other hand, the USA's constitution is based on the idea of monarchy - monarchy as understood in the 18th century. Not getting rid of it, but finding a way to replace the monarch periodically. Europe, and especially the UK, went a different route, and simply placed restrictions on the powers of the monarch, making it difficult-bordering-on-impossible for a "bad" monarch to become a tyrant. A tyrant in this case would be someone who is in a position to "apply the law selectively". To decide when the law applies... and when it doesn't. If you can guarantee a supply of "good", wise, well-informed and well-advised monarchs in perpetuity, such power isn't a problem. But if you can't - and nobody can - then handing such power to whoever holds the office is rampant idiocy, especially in a political system as corrupt as that of the USA. The slide towards "banana republicanism" simply gets faster and faster. Remember that "then" was immediate post 911 America and we were seriously considering the possibility of the "ticking bomb" senario with a captured terrorist who just planted a nuke in New York. That is the type of situation where I would fully support torture to find that bomb. But of course the question then devolves to into asking how many lives saved justifies torture? And this is where Gonzales and I seem to waffle :) Is torture ever justified? We say yes. Slippery slope David. You give someone the power to apply torture to save NYC, then you've started to slide. What happens if it's not ALL of NYC, but just - say - Queens, or Brooklyn? Does that "permission" still apply? How about just one block? Still applies? Just one house... Who decides? Is it done openly, and the perpetrator is then tried by a jury of his peers? Apparently not. He'd be "above the law", and (since you can't have the office of President falling into disrepute) there'd be a thorough coverup. A system of government in which the electorate can't be trusted to know what their masters are doing... When governments stop being the servants of the people, and become their masters.... it's over.Time to run up a white flag over the Whitehouse. Unaccountably, the USA seems to have lost the cold war: fought to ensure that the USA didn't wind up with a system of government like that of Russia. Ron ""