Wacko opinion to follow. Read at your own risk. glen asked, "What does it mean to govern?"
In the US, governance was apportioned three ways, legislative, administrative, and judicial spheres as well as across Federal and State/Local entities. Woodrow Wilson (in an effort to remake the administrative after the system in Prussia) is often credited with instigating a sea change that increasingly consolidates governance solely in the Federal administrative realm. The Federal Legislature abdicated its role when the effort required to acquire and maintain political office became all consuming and left no time to actually legislate, except in name only. Vague and expansive laws were passed with all of the details left to administrative agencies via a rule-making process. The number of Federal laws, including felonious offenses increase from roughly 100 pre-Wilson to over 50,000 today. (It has been argued that the average U.S. Citizen is guilty of committing 1-3 felonies per day without any awareness of doing so.) Administrative agencies have their own deputized, gun carrying, enforcement divisions. Administrative agencies appoint their own hearing officers (judiciary) who have final authority. Before Chevron was overturned, those same agencies determination of "science" behind those rules could not be challenged. The idea, probably never realized, of an 'objective' judiciary is a farce because judges, at the Federal level, are appointed by politicians. I am not aware of any point in U.S. history where some group of partisans felt the Supreme Court was biased against them. The elected/appointed level of the Administrative sphere at nothing more than figureheads preoccupied with the same kinds of concerns as legislatures—how to get (re)elected and leverage office into personal wealth and prestige. So, to govern, is to quietly, invisibly, go about doing your job as you, personally, define that job to be. With next to zero accountability. All the rest is bread and circuses. davew On Tue, Aug 27, 2024, at 9:10 AM, glen wrote: > How Telegram's Founder Pavel Durov Became a Culture War Martyr > https://www.404media.co/how-telegrams-founder-pavel-durov-became-a-culture-war-martyr/ > > Mark Zuckerberg says White House ‘pressured’ Facebook to censor > Covid-19 content > https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/27/mark-zuckerberg-says-white-house-pressured-facebook-to-censor-covid-19-content > > What does it mean to "govern"? I frequently hear things like "Democrats > actually govern" in contrast to culture warring, grifting, personal > branding, etc. I mean, I welcomed Biden's very boring tenure. I'm > hoping Kamala is elected and that she'll be as boring as Biden. If I > don't hear from someone, it prolly means they're working ... doing > their job. No news is good news. But even if Durov's arrest is solely > about his complicity by association with the app and his lack of > governance of that as a platform, I still kindasorta think the French > prosecutor (prosecutors?) is doing a good job of governing in assigning > him that agency, his share of the blame. > > Sure, JD Vance is in Thiel's pocket. But most of our neoliberal > Democrats are also in the pockets of large corporations or rich > vampires. Can it be any other way? Can an American politician > *actually* govern? Or is it all smoke and mirrors? > > -- > ꙮ Mɥǝu ǝlǝdɥɐuʇs ɟᴉƃɥʇ' ʇɥǝ ƃɹɐss snɟɟǝɹs˙ ꙮ > > -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ -. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
