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Before it all totally hit the fan on Tuesday before Sen. John McCain turned the very concept of JFKs Profiles in Courage on its head, before our pro-life vice president Mike Pence cast a vote that could lead to the premature death of thousands of uninsured Americans a hardy band of protesters briefly tried to bring the U.S. Senate to a halt. They chanted Kill the bill! and Dont kill us! before the Capitol Police quickly moved in for arrests. Other officers blocked the hallway to keep journalists away from the scene, as one reportedly shouted No photos! before adding, Delete your photos!

It was only a few months ago that someone warned us that democracy dies in darkness. Now, at 2:45 p.m. on a bright and seasonable July afternoon, the American Experiment was quickly fading to black. And the last thing the co-conspirators wanted was a photographic record. After the last annoying pocket of resistance had been cleared, the U.S. Senate once, hard to believe, known as the greatest deliberative body in the world moved with not-deliberative speed to take a great leap forward to briefly debate a plan that no one has actually seen but is believed to divorce millions of Americans maybe 15 million, maybe 32 million from their health insurance, while fixing few if any of the actual problems with U.S. health care yet stirring up a beehive of new ones.

To note the insanity of that would miss the point. The Republicans who run this country (with help from their friends Gerry Mandering and E. Lector al-College) werent voting Tuesday with the foggiest notion of actually improving your familys health care. That barely crossed their collective mind. No, they needed to show they could get 51 votes for something to prove and maintain their power over you, which is the No. 1 goal of American government in 2017. Theres a word for this mindless exercise of authority. Its authoritarianism.

Remember the doomsday clock that nuclear scientists have promoted since the height of the Cold War, chiding world leaders on how close the world stands toward nuclear Armageddon? Its time to belatedly wind up a doomsday clock for American democracy. Looking back, we should have started a couple of decades ago with the rise of GOP obstructionism, the war on science, mass incarceration and entertainments Amusing Ourselves to Death hostile takeover of political discourse. But things start moving downward swiftly in that moment two summers ago whena real estate mogul descended on an escalator from his gilded tower on 5th Avenue. After some ups and downs these six months since Donald Trump became Americas 45th president, we may look back on this last week of July 2017 as the moment the democracy doomsday clock struck 11:58 and the ticking noise grew insufferable.

The fish continues to rot from the head, of course. It is President Trump with his non-stop bullying, his stream of falsehoods, a crudeness that mocks the claim he could be more presidential than anyone since Honest Abe, and a willingness, sometimes born of cruelty and sometimes of ignorance, to trample the norms of democracy underneath his tiny footsteps who is setting the table for American autocracy. Lets quickly review some of the things that have happened just in the last two days:

Trashing any remaining dignity of the office of the presidency: The bizzaro Trump Youth rally in West Virginia in the guise of a Boy Scout Jamboree was in many ways a moral low point for Trumps tenure: The crude sexual innuendo, the relentless and highly inappropriate politicking, Trumps pleas for praise and, of course, for loyalty, and his mocking of political rivals brought the presidents Straight Outta Nuremberg style to our nations impressionable youth. Even a former CIA director saw the appalling moment for what it was.

The theme continued Tuesday night, as Trump brought his more familiar brand of rally shtick to Youngstown, where he bullied and mocked a protester, harangued against a free press, and portrayed immigrants as committing violent acts against teenage girls in a sickening style that echoed Europes worst autocrats of the 1930s. And the more that Trump pumps this toxic brand of authoritarianism into the system, the more normal that the incredibly not-normal becomes.

The lies, remarkably, are increasing:Keeping score of Trumps prevarications has become something of a sport as 2017 devolves, and this week the president racked up some epic numbers. The Washington Post has just documented 29 false or misleading Trumpian claims in just 26 hours, on everything from the size of his crowds (a favorite falsehood) to the ownership of the Washington Post to the facts in a misleading allegation about ties between the Democratic National Committee and Ukraine.

The rule of law is hanging on by a fingernail: Trumps bullying of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an apparent effort to force one of his cabinet members to resign (for arguably the only reason he shouldnt resign), while the president can (try to) avoid the political consequences that would stem from firing, has become an almost comic soap opera with a most unfunny potential punch line. The reason, after all, for Trumps dissatisfaction is that Sessions cant bend to his will and quash the Trump-Russia probe, presumably by firing special prosecutor Robert Mueller. And crushing the independence of prosecutors, along with the media (another Trump target) and the judiciary is the No. 1 hallmark of autocracy.

Alarmingly erratic behavior in the Oval Office: All of the above behavior, including the presidents raging narcissism and inability to display empathy compounded by Trumps alternately bullying and paranoid posts on Twitter has sparked a raging debate among Americas psychologists whether the so-called Goldwater rule barring public discussion of a politicians mental health still applies. But members of Congress and other key players are having these conversations if not yet in public. Earlier this week, an open hot mike captured Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine discussing Trumps crazy state of mind, with Collins stating, Im worried. Welcome to the club.

Which brings us to why this weeks health care action in the Senate is so important. Americas founders anticipated the potential problems of a chief executive who shredded the rule of law or who otherwise proved to be unfit for the office. But there was no way, constitutionally, to prepare for what happens when the people handed those powers primarily the Congress refuse to exercise them. Rather than serve as a realistic check on the authoritarianism at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and their minions have chosen to work as accomplices part out of shameless expediency and part out of fear.

The specifics of the various Obamacare repeals plans that are now being debated, thanks to Tuesdays vote, are horrific, but the equally significant alarm bell is the wretched legislative process that got us to this point. The lack of regular order a fancy term for having both a lengthy and unhindered debate about health care involving not just lawmakers from both parties but the key stakeholders like patients and their doctors, at open public hearings is the kind of thing that takes place in a so-called banana republic and not a nation that for years has branded itself around the globe as democracys shining city on a hill.

The fact that 50 GOP senators, with Pence, were willing to vote to debate a bill that none of them have actually seen is proof that loyalty and discipline are the only things that matter in Trump/McConnell Washington not the will of the people or a free exchange of ideas. (And theres just too much to be said about Sen. John McCain and the meaning of political courage to go down that rabbit hole right now, but suffice it to say that his hypocritical vote and broken promise to fight for regular order render his pretty-sounding words after the vote utterly without meaning.) In the long run, the Senates spinelessness may prove more damaging to democracy than Trumps buffoonery.

Thats why 11:58 p.m. feels like the proper setting for our democracy doomsday clock. Because the two-minute drill for Americas soul, and maybe even its survival, starts right now. The debate over an actual health care bill, which clearly could go either way, is a starting point. Massive public pressure on a few key lawmakers phone calls, letters to the editor, protest marches, or even just making your feelings known in your community or on social media could start to turn things in the right direction. That may prove doubly true in pressing Congress to use whatevers left in its tool box including impeachment, if necessary to thwart a Trumpian coup at the Department of Justice. Such activism stands counter to modern American tendencies our couch-potato political culture is how we ended up with Trump in the first place, right? but the alternatives are unfathomable. And the ticking keeps getting louder.

Published: July 26, 2017 3:01 AM EDT | Updated: July 26, 2017 12:20 PM EDT

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America's democracy doomsday clock just hit 11:58 - Philly.com

The Russians are not our friends. They are our enemies. Today wherever an AK-47 opposes an American soldier, communism is there. Vladimir Putin is a student of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

The core values of Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan offer opposition to communism in any form. The Russian oligarchy opposes the very concept of a democracy. Within their own country, freedom of speech has been trampled if not by arrest then by assassination. Scores of journalists have been murdered to date.

As a former Vietnam veteran and intelligence specialist, I believe I have a good understanding of Russias motives for tampering with our democracy. There are three reasons: One is to make up for the embarrassment they suffered with the breakup of the Soviet Union. The second is to discourage democracy across the globe. Finally, they want to be the most powerful county in the world to the detriment of the United States.

Recently the Senate overwhelmingly passed the Russian sanctions bill. The senators who regularly receive intelligence briefings on Russians' clandestine motives against the U.S. understand what is going on.

Now the president, who has dismissed our own intelligence communities opinion and supported Russia, has put in power as the White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. He told the Russian news agency TASS that he did not support the sanctions, saying the sanctions probably galvanized the nation with the nations president. Putin is promoting the downfall of democracy.

Michael Phelan Shrewsbury

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Putin is no friend of democracy, the United States | Letters to the ... - STLtoday.com

The office of the chief public prosecutor in Pretoria, advocate Matric Luphondo, was broken into on Thursday night, just two weeks after computers were stolen from the office of the National Director of Public Prosecutions.

Other similar incidences have been reported on in the past few months, all seemingly related to people investigating sensitive cases involving Gupta/Zuma related people or cases.

When sites that are supposed to be secure are broken into, all with very high levels of security, it strongly indicated that these are perpetrated by insiders. The one thing that is very valuable is always targeted, being sensitive information, or legal dockets, as in this latest incident.

Legally, if the docket disappears, the case disappears. A simple solution then!

This is an integral part of the reactions to pressure from certain people in positions of power, who worked very hard to populate the hawks and other related institutions with their own controllable people. So the wolf is in charge of the hen house. An independent judiciary is a threat to them!

Is there any evidence indicating this may be so? I think yes. How come, top level security is circumvented in each robbery, with no investigations evident, no arrests, and no sense of urgency from the Hawks, NPA or Police about these? In addition, what about the similarity between all these robberies?

Logic indicates that these were perpetrated by insiders, who clearly have insider information and are acting in an orchestrated manner. This is NOT petty crime, perpetrated by petty criminals.

The threat to our democracy is extremely broad based, as can be seen in the Gupta eMails. The state capture is far deeper than we realise, and I think we are still in for more shocking revelations as time goes on. However, the people driving these robberies are obviously in positions of power. How else can they organise insiders to raid the institutions and steal information, computers and dockets? If this is not so, then either our criminals are extremely good, or the security at these sensitive sites very weak.

These robberies, to my mind, indicates desperation and an obvious drive to maintain power and to try and control things. The entire system is under attack!

The fight is on, even if the public is unaware of this.

The press, in my opinion, is way to quite about this issue. This should be shouted from the highest places possible! More so than the Gupta eMails. Dont think that the ANC/Zuma/Gupta gang will go away quietly. They are like wounded animals. Now at their most dangerous!!

However, the Gupta eMails allow us to see behind the curtain. What was considered mere speculation previously, is now accepted as fact in many cases. This has given momentum to the resistance to these criminals. Their desperate reactions indicate that the pressure is being felt!

Keep up the good fight. We will and must take our country and our democracy back. We have done it before.

Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.

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Our young democracy is under threat! - News24

Facebook announced today it would fund a project called Defending Digital Democracy. The project, co-founded by the campaign managers for both Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney, aims to thwart outside interference in elections.

The Belfer Center at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University announced the project earlier this month. Eric Rosenbach, Co-Director of the Belfer Center and former Assistant Secretary of Defense will be heading it up. In a Harvard press release he said:

Americans across the political spectrum agree that political contests should be decided by the power of ideas, not the skill of foreign hackers. Cyber deterrence starts with strong cyber defense and this project brings together key partners in politics, national security, and technology to generate innovative ideas to safeguard our key democratic institutions.

The announcement came during Black Hat, an annual security event held in Las Vegas. Reuters reports Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos said:

Right now we are the founding sponsor, but we are in discussions with other tech organizations. The goal for our money specifically is to help build a standalone ISAO (Information Sharing and Analysis Organization) that pulls in all the different groups that have some kind of vulnerability.

Stamos declined to say how much money Facebook would be contributing to the Defending Digital Democracy project. He did, however, announce that Facebook would be offering a $1 million Internet Defense Prize for researchers this year, according to Financial Times.

The social network also announced it would be investing in education by joining forces with CodePath, a training company that provides free education for engineers.

Facebook has shown a vested interest in fighting fake-news, though perhaps this isnt entirely altruistic. The social network might not have intentionally meddled in the 2016 Presidential election, but the role that false news articles on Facebook played cant be overstated.

In a few long years well start the entire US Presidential election circus all over again, in the mean-time weve got hundreds of elections from the State to Federal level occurring first. The Defending Digital Democracy team has more than its fair share of work ahead.

Update 1:47 PM CST : A representative for Facebook contacted us to say that the social network was disclosing it pledged $500,000 to the Defending Digital Democracy project.

Facebook funds Harvard effort to fight election hacking, propaganda on Reuters

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Facebook teams with Harvard to defend democracy from hackers - TNW

A general view shows the plenum during the swearing-in ceremony of the 20th Knesset, the new Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem March 31, 2015.. (photo credit:REUTERS)

The idea that the lone citizens choice at the ballot box makes a difference stands at the heart of democracy. A politician receives the backing of a group of like-minded constituents to implement a given policy. The politician is voted into office and proceeds to pass laws that advance a specific agenda. The laws are then implemented and have a direct impact on our lives. There is, in this democratic process, a direct link between the people and the government.

Unfortunately, it does not always work this way. In Israel, and in other democracies, governance is weak, which is another way of saying that laws passed in the Knesset or decisions made by the cabinet do not always get implemented. As a result, our politicians do not solve long-standing market failures, such as Israels housing shortage and related exorbitant housing prices; and preparedness for catastrophes remains unsatisfactory, as witnessed during the 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire.

A 2005 study by Doron Navot and Eli Reches found that in Israel, 70% of government decisions ranging from public housing to privatization of the sea ports, from reforms in the Israel Electric Corporation to the construction of a light rail in Tel Aviv are left unimplemented. There are no signs that the situation has improved in the past decade.

The result of this disconnect is not only a failure on the part of consecutive governments to govern. The impact is much more pernicious and debilitating to the democratic process.

Unimplemented legislation and cabinet decisions tend to undermine the publics faith in democracy. Many citizens will ask themselves: If politicians and ministers do not follow through with the decisions they make, why bother to vote?

In an attempt to restore faith in the democratic process, the Knesset this week decided to form a new professional department to combat the phenomenon by which ministers do not implement laws passed by the legislature. Assuming the Knesset actually follows through on this initiative, it could improve Israeli governance.

The new body would focus on ensuring that ministers do not bury laws passed by the Knesset by failing to prepare the necessary secondary legislation needed for working out the technical details to implement the laws. There are 51 laws awaiting such secondary legislation, according to the Knesset research department.

These include a law regulating the way rabbinical courts work, which was supposed to be addressed by the Justice Ministry by 2004; and a law requiring the Defense Ministry to arrange for the operation of the Fund to Clear Mines by July 2011 neither of which has been implemented.

But creating a regulatory body might not be enough. Many ministers resist implementation of laws passed by previous governments either because they opposed these laws on ideological grounds or because they do not want to allocate part of their limited budget for it, or a combination of both.

Also, ministers are replaced at a dizzying speed. Even if they want to implement legislation they are unable to, because they do not stay in office long enough. Since the present government was created a year and a half ago, five ministers left and seven have been appointed. Ten portfolios including defense and interior have switched hands. The Economy portfolio has been held by four ministers.

Our short-lived governments are another factor that hurts governance. Since 1996, a finance minister or an interior minister has served on average 18 months. Eli Cohen is the 14th economy minister during this period; Yoav Gallant is the 13th construction minister.

Under these circumstances, it is unrealistic to expect a coherent policy as articulated in legislation to be implemented, no matter how many regulatory bodies are created by the Knesset.

The real solution to the problem of governance is taking steps to ensure that governments last longer and that ministers remain in their positions for an entire term, perhaps through electoral reform.

The lifeblood of democracy is the citizens conviction that they can bring about change with a vote. Without effective governance, democracy is seriously compromised.

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Governance and democracy - The Jerusalem Post mobile website