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DEMONSTRATORS: You must leave. You must cease further unlawful activity and immediately remove your vehicle and/or property from all unlawful protest sites. Anyone within the unlawful protest site may be arrested.Comment
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Re: Latest on the Corona Virus
You'd do well to listen more and talk less. Because you sound like a dummy.
Paul Ryan claims the US is the 'oldest democracy' in the world. Is he right?
When Democratic lawmakers staged a sit-in on the House floor calling for legislative action on gun control, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was unamused.
Clearly frustrated at the behavior, Ryan called the sit-in a political stunt and adjourned the House for recess for the Fourth of July holiday.
Once back in Wisconsin, Ryan appeared June 26, 2016 on Mike Gousha’s "Upfront" show on WISN TV. Gousha asked about the House Democrats, noting they said they felt like they weren’t being heard.
"We heard them plenty," Ryan said.
"You did hear them," Gousha said. "And your reaction was you’re worried about the decorum in the House. They’re talking about maybe doing more of this sort of thing when you return from recess on July 5. Are you going to handle it the same way?"
"No, we’re not going to handle it the same way," Ryan said.
"What would you do differently?," Gousha asked.
"Well, we’re working on that," Ryan said. "We will not take this. We will not tolerate this. This is the oldest deliberative body in the world. We are the oldest democracy. And we have rules of decorum so that we can peacefully settle our issues and actually have democracy."
Having just celebrated our nation’s independence from England, we thought the time was right to take a look at whether the United States is "the oldest democracy" in the world.
U.S. founding documents
The Greeks first coined the term democracy to describe self rule. The term derives from the Greek word "demos," meaning people. The city states of Ancient Greece, most notably Athens, ruled themselves.
Many historians also consider the Roman Republic a type of democracy. But both of those empires have long since fallen and, of course, are no longer in the running to be "the oldest democracy."
The United States declared its independence from England on July 4, 1776.
After a brief period governed by the Articles of Confederation, the founding fathers drafted a new, governing document establishing our government as it operates today. The U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1788.
PolitiFact National checked a claim on the Constitution in 2011 when former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, said the United States has "the longest surviving constitution."
Defining a constitution as a single governing document, the claim was rated Mostly True. The U.S. constitution is the oldest single governing document, though other countries are governed by multiple documents older than our constitution. The Massachusetts state constitution is older, ratified in 1780, and served as a model for the authors of the U.S. Constitution.
Ryan’s team sent us to that factcheck as backup for his statement that the U.S. is "the oldest democracy."
"That founding document established our democracy," said Ian Martorana, Ryan’s press secretary. "It stands to reason that if America has the oldest constitution (that founded the democracy in question), then America also has the oldest democracy."
With that in mind, we turned to the history books.
Democracy vs. republic
The founding fathers feared direct democracy, which involves people deciding directly on policy initiatives and regarded it as an ill-advised form of government. They feared tyranny of the majority as much as that of a king.
Instead, they created what is typically referred to as a representative democracy or republic -- the people elect leaders who make decisions on their behalf with a system that protected minority rights.
Over the years, the differences between democracies -- both representative and direct -- and republics have been hotly debated by political scholars. For our purposes, we will broadly consider a democratic state to be one in which power is vested in the people who rule themselves or are governed by those who they elect.
No matter the rhetoric, the United States has been governed by representatives elected by the people since it began. And few, if any, disagree that it marked a new approach.
Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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... under Canada's current 30 day, time-limited Emergency Act, individuals who have sent money in the past via any crowdfunding site to help sustain this protest, are at risk of prosecution by the Federal gov't.
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DEMONSTRATORS: You must leave. You must cease further unlawful activity and immediately remove your vehicle and/or property from all unlawful protest sites. Anyone within the unlawful protest site may be arrested.
Canadian banks who transit these funds are now compelled by law to inform the Federal gov't of the identity of the person who transferred the money and the amount.
Canada's Emergency Act, while in operation, prohibits any new funds to enter Canada to help fund this illegal protest.Comment
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Oh man!!! Is there any truth within you at all. Your direct quote is this. "Maybe it's because we are the original democracy" It does NOT say anything about the "oldest" democracy. When your lies are so easily debunked it makes you look like a "dummy"Comment
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Re: Latest on the Corona Virus
... 70% of the donations came from outside of Canada. At least 50% from the USA. Far right political groups cheer on almost anything that does not negatively effect themselves.
I cannot imagine there is much risk for people who donate money from outside of Canada and I do not think that there is for Canadians who donate $100.00 but there was one Canadian business owner in the news who donated $75,000.00. He should be worried.Comment
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