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Edicts versus Laws


Article II of the U.S. Constitution specifies that the president “faithfully carry out the acts of Congress", and it also mentions that the president carries out foreign policy and is commander in chief of the military, but the constitution does not give the president the power to make law on his own. Regardless of what powers the president has, as of Feb. 2021, there have been 14,014 executive orders made, according to the Federal Register. https://www.federalregister.gov/pres...ecutive-orders ...

I was writing a note about text randomizers to a friend who wasn't acquainted with them, and that reminded me of the ability to recognize ambiguity, cognitive dissonance, and related skills. That reminded me of something that happened a few decades ago, and from there I decided to see how those stacked up, and the whole time, I was thinking about trust, and knowing people, and tolerance for ambiguity.

It all started in the mid-1950's, when after an afternoon of hard playing in the ...

Now that Trump has smashed the Republican Party. we have chunks of political parties, rather than a complete one. The chunks range from the Bolshevik collectivist communists to Mussolini style corporatist Fascists on the economic side, and on the political liberty side they range from true anarchists to absolutists. there's enough space in the range to include almost any political or economic beliefs.

Traditionally, the political parties in the U.S. have included pieces of the spectrum, ...

Recently, more people have been talking about democracy, but I have gotten the impression that they don't know what democracy is. The word democracy is of Ancient Greek origin, demos cratos, meaning rule by the people. There are several related words of the same origin, including oligarchy, rule by few, aristocracy, rule by the best, monarchy, rule by one. Then there is republican government, in which the voting citizens select people to represent them or their interests in restricted meetings. ...

Extract from Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith
Paris Nov. 13. 1787.
the people can not be all, & always, well informed. the part which is wrong [. . .] will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. if they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. we have had 13. states independent 11. years. there has been one rebellion. that comes to one rebellion in a century & a ...