Chaos Magnet

Sandra Day O'Connor: US slipping into dictatorship

When I first read Dictatorship is the danger in The Guardian, the British newspaper, my first reaction was to check to make sure that it was a real article, rather than a hoax. Very little searching read me to the original broadcast of NPR's Nina Totenberg, who was there when Sandra Day O'Connor told a small group that the assaults on the independant judiciary are indicative of the type of interference and retaliation that can, in the long run, lead to dictatorship. Are we in danger of having jackboots in the streets next week? Probably not. But she points out "We must be ever vigilant against those who would strong arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

[Additional note: Without net neutrality, it would be easy for a conservative ISP to block postings like this one, if they don't like it. China has (no joke) 30,000 "cyber-cops" that block access to sites with information the government doesn't like. Right now that can't happen here. The death of net neutrality would be a first step in that direction.]

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