From: ldo@nz.invalid   
      
   On Mon, 19 Jan 2026 08:52:32 -0800, Paul S Person wrote:   
      
   > On Mon, 19 Jan 2026 07:31:44 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D´Oliveiro   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >> That’s assuming your checks and balances still work. The ease with   
   >> which this dicator and his cohorts have managed to sweep them aside   
   >> does not bode well.   
   >   
   > That's the great weakness: too much depends on people behaving   
   > sensibly, sanely, and politely.   
      
   Let me offer South Korea as a remarkable recent example: where an   
   attempt at instituting a dictatorship was thwarted within just hours.   
   The President tried to suspend the National Assembly (Parliament),   
   only to have the Assembly members defy him by turning up for work   
   anyway (in the middle of the night!). He had ordered the military to   
   stop them from meeting, by force if necessary, but the soldiers had no   
   stomach for shooting their fellow citizens. And so the coup collapsed.   
      
   You know the old saying “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance”.   
   In this case, vigilance worked.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)