if you allow dictatorial powers to be assumed upon the declaration of emergency you have, in effect, dictated that you will forever onward inhabit states of emergency.
this is too temping a prize to place before leviathan.
they will everywhere and always seek to assume and to retain that power.
and they will vilify and demonize any who try to take it back.
they will try to hide behind slippery claims of “democracy” to use appeals to the fact they are in office to justify increasing the power of their office.
but this constitutes invalid reasoning.
democracy is not freedom.
democracy is one of the more pernicious forms of tyranny ever devised: the tyranny of the majority.
even a king must fear the mob for he is one and they are many; but the mob need fear nothing when its proportions sufficiently swell.
such a mob is not moral, nor just, nor fair.
its numbers bestow no special wisdom or ethical high ground.
it is simply force, applied by the many upon the few.
it is only the protection of rights, instantiated and inalienable, that defends we the people from such depredation.
this idea that democracy is somehow the end all be all of human expression is well past naïve; it is grotesque.
if 90% vote 10% into slavery, that is democracy.
in fact, many “democracies” used to do just this.
we now (justly) revile it.
that is not a system in which you want to live.
and thus i find no small irony in the determination of the same parties that so often demand reparations for that past wrong to seek to impose new versions of it and to champion (yet again) the system that allows rather than prevents such subjugation.
watch as they brand as “insurrection” any opposition to their narratives so that they might justify the further usurpation power and the use of violence against peaceful people.
the use of military metaphor is not accidental. it’s a deliberate framing to evoke war on ones own people and make their freedom appear as a threat to this facile “democracy” fig leaf placed over their encroachments and usurpations.
what is being weaponized here is dictatorial control to circumvent rights, freedom, and human agency.
calling it popular makes it no less vicious or oppressive. it makes it more so.
truly, these are people who lack entirely either sense or morals.
neither seems a fitting reason to bestow such power upon them.
rather, it stands as graphic reminder that you get to keep only those rights for which you will fight and that those who would take them from you in furtherance of their own ends shall always be with us, seeking and probing those periods when our guard grows slack that they might tighten this ratchet once again.
this endless imposition of unending emergency to mitigate rights and agency is the predictable and inevitable outcome of the grant of authoritarian emergency powers.
they prey on your fear and demand that you sell your freedom for the safety of cages.
and we’ve all seen how that plays out.
did you find it to your liking?
if you would return to “old normal” and restore your lives and livelihoods then this attractive nuisance of “emergency powers” must be ended.
it is not a tool with which anyone can be trusted. it cannot be left lying around because “we trust these guys.” there will always be other guys. always.
if we would preserve the basis of a just society, these “emergency exceptions” must be eliminated.
if they are not, then sure as sunrise, the next emergency is right around the corner.
and you will spend the rest of your life reliving this same nightmare.
the choice is stark and the choice is ours.
some things really are binary.
either our rights stand paramount to the state even and especially when backed by the whims of the demos, or they are mere privileges to be revoked or attenuated at whim. only one can have primacy and as soon as you make “an exception” exceptions shall become the rule and life on the slippery slope to subjugation shall begin again.
Unfortunately the deed is done. As I warned a supposedly conservative friend who supported shutdowns in March 2020, we were then validating a leftist blueprint for permanent control of our lives. The blueprint worked like a charm, and for 2 years has been given the seal of approval by the GOP and most Americans. The left is now easing up, but it is on their terms. The blueprint, the power structures and the precedent remain. Unless some of these leaders are driven from office by people power revolutions, followed by the dismantling of their power structures, we will live in tyranny or with the constant threat of it. I see no constituency for such a revolution in the US. Here's hoping Canada can lead the way.
Folks here are celebrating that Alberta and Saskatchewan have removed their mandates. But neither ended their states of emergency! So it’s just pandering for now and they (the 2 premiers) can just flip flop it tomorrow if they choose.
In a super special fuck you to Americans, Alberta is lifting the mask rules for kids.
----------------
Alberta will remove nearly all restrictions for children, including the mask mandate in schools (kindergarten to Grade 12) over the coming weekend. Kids aged 12 and under also won’t have to abide by the general mask mandate in Alberta, though the general mandate will still apply for the rest of the population.
stay on it, in my city we have ended mask mandates two times and in both cases reverted back into mandates, they've extended the mandates I stopped counting... we're currently under mandate, in a red state, in the middle of the USA (at least the radio is reporting deaths vax status and age now, slowly seeding the programming of the incoming capitulation back to normal)
From the very beginning of the pandemic, the central planners and ‘experts’ have created a multitude of restrictions based on The Science, declaring that X risk demands people do Y. But this assumption is flawed from the beginning. Scientists and politicians should inform free people about existing risks, and even ways to mitigate those risks. What they should NEVER do is override your personal preferences with their own. Once they do, you lose all bodily autonomy. You’re completely at the mercy of the ‘experts’, who just happen to be incestuously connected to the very people getting ridiculously rich off the edicts handed down by said ‘experts’.
This is why it’s important to stand here and tell them ENOUGH. Once you give up your ability to decide your own risk tolerance, you’re simply a puppet dancing to the whims of the ‘experts’ and those above them pulling the strings. And because central planners lack the knowledge to make ‘proper’ decisions for everybody individually, they lump everybody together and draft a uniform set of rules that doesn’t actually work for anybody at all. (Except their cronies, of course)
Remarkable that Trudeau says he will ignore the question by Rebel News. Of course he won't answer the question, he's their master. They shouldn't be allowed to ask.
I didn't know about the continuation of the state of emergency but I have been very skeptical of the politicians. Quebec supposedly lifted restrictions but only on the vaxxed. No plans to scrap the vaxx pass. Same for 2 other provinces. Ontario hasn't changed it's plan of slow removal of restrictions and keeping the vaxx pass. Smoke and mirrors.
This is the point - all these at-whim rules stem from the power of these emergency acts. They can just do whatever they want to our rights whenever they want for any reason they want. This is what has to change.
Yes it has to be the deep change the truckers are asking for. Even in Alberta the premier says individual businesses can still choose to enforce the vax pass. It’s all a show. I am jealous in BC though—would love for them to at least lift the mask mandate in schools.
The Woke revolution is FAR from over. They have a 70 year head start. The average age of those who oppose wokeism is probably 20-30 years older than those who support it. This is not going to end via ballots and sporadic protests:
The sinoic sphere of cultural influence is immune to it, India is inocculated by its colonial past and its neighbourhood and so is Africa and the arabic/islamic cultures.
And in the latter two, women have many children from young age, meaning that not only does the population grow, it grows much quicker than in the west.
So the problem of woke creates its own solution: it kills all the western cultures from within.
Can you see any of the woke standing up to the average saudi salafi? Can you see any non-woke westerner defend the woke from the salafi?
At least here among the non-PCfied crowd the sentiment is "I wouldn't help a feminist/LGBTQP/multikulti even by pissing on it if it was on fire!".
You're right: they will destroy the culture that enabled their insane worldview. And they will not have the strength and wherewithal to survive the more culturally confident external threats. The thought that they will be slaughtered by outsiders after they replace us isn't awfully comforting.
"It is a comfort in wretchedness to have companions in woe", if I remeber Marlowe's 'Faust' correctly.
Or 'schadenfreude' as the germans say ('skadeglädje' in my language, with the added possible interpretation of "bringing joy to the goddess Skade", who was associated with winter, mountains, hunting, wolves and sorrow).
Thanks for the wise kickstart, gato. It worries me that we will gratefully accept any crumbs of “freedom” that may come our way as we grasp onto anything that resembles freedom. Like a squirming mouse under the smirking tomcat’s paw, we, when that paw is lifted, will burst free and scurry away, grateful for the breath of perceived liberty. It does not matter to us that we have lost part of our tail, half an ear, and are scratched and bloodied, we will thankfully accept this opportunity to go back to our pre-captive lives … unaware that we are the cat’s plaything, he knows where we live, and we are always within easy reach of his pounce and ready paw.
But, I never tire of stating the obvious: Government does not give us rights and freedoms. They are sovereign, inalienable. They are our birthright. They belong to each of us. They are God-given. We must claim our birthrights with dignity - and offer fierce indignation towards the pure orchestrated evil that would attempt to strip them from us.
We are living the ugly “fruits” of a post-Judeo-Christian society. Before it was attacked and systematically demolished, we had quietly availed ourselves of its sense of order and propriety, however raggedy it may have been. We may not even have examined its origin or roots, we just lived the rhythm of its fruits. Community standards. The principle of subsidiarity. We have long used up its accrued interest and the capital. Does any capital remain? Is it largely memories and hope? One hopes not.
Do we believe in the “Supremacy of God,” which surprisingly remained in the first line of our Charter - and because of the colon at the end of the clause, oversees every right and freedom outlined in that Charter? Do we believe this? Then we must live it and proclaim it. God is the author of life, our freedoms and rights. Let us honour Him. Let us carefully examine and know who it is we honour - and reclaim our birthright.
The only problem with this whole line of reasoning is that a lot of people WANTED these restrictions. They WANTED lockdowns and work from home and restaurants closed and masks everywhere and on kids and endless boosters and all of it. They WANTED it. It wasn't done against the will of the majority. It was done because it was the will of the majority.
They did “want” these restrictions, but only because health officers, mayors, premiers and governors terrified them first, commencing with little droplets of fear. They were carefully and systematically instructed by the Orwellian governments and the always compliant, paid-off legacy “Ministry of Truth” media to embrace this fear, even when the goalposts changed ever few weeks: Folks, this is this week’s truth. / Yes, dear Leaders who will bring us to normal.
I don’t know how many times I have reminded people to read or re-read 1984. Most have not. Why? For fear they will see us in those pages and then be forced to react and act. Ignorance is easier. Kyrie eleison.
There is a great video of Jordan Peterson explaining the Israelites exit from Egypt when they were being attacked by snakes in the desert. It is completely analogous to what's happening today as you describe:
Absolfelinelutely, el gato. I was just thinking about emergency powers being at the root of these perpetual power grabs and contemplating how we could vanquish them.
Check out this inspiring speech by Brian Peckford (https://youtu.be/Kjjihr_GCu8) at the Victoria Freedom Convoy Rally. The last living signatory of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Brian just filed a lawsuit against the Canadian government for violating that charter. He is also committed to ensuring it’s never possible for the government to seize these emergency powers again.
I thought about this also. We must demand from our representatives an end to all emergency powers. US elects all 435 Representatives and 1\3 of Senate this November. We voters must require each candidate to pledge to introduce legislation stating emergency powers must be approved by the legislature before their implementation. We must do this at every level of our government. I believe this would begin the ending of these dangerous powers.
I believe there is a need and a place for emergency powers. BUT they must be very limited in the scope that can activate them and, especially, their duration must be very, very limited to a handful of days.
It’s the broad definitions to activate and the ease at which they are constantly renewed that is the issue.
Very specific, limited criteria and very short duration.
We have seen “bread and circuses” (or “beer and football”) writ large. Participatory government is run by those who, well, participate. Two or three generations, stupefied by television (and more recently “social media”), mindless consumerism and a pantheon of vapid “stars” have stood by and let an amoral, vicious minority, most of them not even elected but permanently installed as little Caesars controlling vast amounts of our confiscated money, take the reins of government and use it to further their own wealth and power. That this is true needs no further evidence than the observation that the richest zip codes in the nation are around the District of Criminals.
Taking it back requires more than just the occasional appearance at the ballot box. It requires wresting control of your school board, your town council, your statehouse from the criminals. It requires hard work, and a lot of risk: the government mafia won’t go quietly— they have declared as much by officially branding dissent as terrorism, by siccing the FBI on mothers who don’t want their kids to be forced to wear dirty rags on their faces or be taught that skin color is the necessary and sufficient determiner of success and even of value as a human being.
For decades the left has claimed they want ordinary people to “rise up”. Let’s give them what they say they want — recent events have made it clear that’s what they fear the most.
Gato, this is one of your most important pieces ever.
The tyranny of the majority that you describe so vividly has been evident in so many countries for so long - and has destroyed the lives of so many of this planet's inhabitants - that it's a joy to see someone rip apart this almost universally accepted idea that democracy somehow equals goodness.
With you all the way. Goodness comes from individuals. Not from systems of government.
But isn't this really tyranny of the minority? The majority is not politicians, 1%ers, woke corporate leaders, university professors, the teachers unions, and the msm. We the people are the majority, and have permitted our rights to be limited (or eliminated) through indolence or fear. We actually have power if we are willing to use it.
When the left says “democracy,” what they mean is socialism. They conflate everyone having an equal say in governance with everyone getting an equal share of the stuff. Except, as always, some animals are more equal than others. That’s why they howl when we insist on liberty and inalienable rights—because those are antithetical to socialism.
No, the left now is not at all about socialism. They are about corporatist authoritarianism. Because all the banks and hedge funds and global banks are in on it and getting rich.
It’s true that the leftist elites have embraced fascism, which is why some animals are more equal than others. (I’ve written about this for Townhall and other venues.) But the rank and file is mostly oblivious. They still think they’re talking about socialism. But they’re just pawns.
The right was sure eager to throw away those rights as well. They even lead the charge on the initial lockdowns in the US, and the jabs. This isn't a left/right thing. Both are terrible.
Where did they 'lead the charge' for lockdowns? Just like now, it only the big blue cities with dumb covid rules in the very beginning. Then the idiot 'leaders' said 'well everybody else is jumping off the bridge......'
Agreed. It’s clear that Republican Governors were on average much friendlier to personal liberty in this pandemic than Democrat ones. And some were highly praiseworthy. Ron DeSantis comes to mind.
The key phrase being "on average". RINO Charlie Baker, here in MA was nearly as bad as Cuomo, i.e. governing so stupidly, so consistently 180 degrees from anything sensible that you had to wonder if he was actually trying to kill people.
Trump. He started the lockdowns and 2 weeks to slow the spread, and the jabs. And he had all the GOP on board. How many GOP spoke out against it? A few used their brains a month or two later, but not that many. Most took much longer to open up. And still many in congress/senate won't speak out against the lockdowns or jabs.
Trump made the mistake of listening to Fauci and Birx, thinking they were giving him scientific/public health advice. And he was the first to say it's time to get Americans back to work - that was mid April, IIRC. He was loudly opposed by most governors. And Trump never wore a mask until late in the pandemic, after there was some spread at a rally; he urged doctors to try HCQ, but Fauci and his allies did an end around to block it and make it look ineffective; and when Trump got COVID and recovered quickly he urged people to see that it wasn't as scary as was being advertised.
So don't follow Biden and Psaki trying to pin it on Trump. The purpose of the lockdowns was to crash Trump's economy and enable vote-by-mail for the election steal in order to correct our 'backsliding democracy' and reassert establishment control. And many republicans were involved.
The failure of the right in this pandemic, for those that aren't part of the uniparty, has been to believe that doctors and scientists are apolitical creatures who 'just follow the science.'
It's a near universal rule that people expect others to be like themselves. Despicable authoritarians count on normal people not expecting that a person entrusted with serving others would be utterly indifferent to their welfare and more interested in ruling over them.
People wanted him to do it. He was just responding to the desires of the population. You have to remember that early on most people thought that the lockdowns and all the rest would do the trick. They would get rid of the virus. And then, when it was gone, we'd go back to normal. It's only in hindsight, with all these measures having failed miserably, that we are all so critical of them. What I'd say is that people have been stubbornly refusing to admit that these things are not working. There are a few who said from the start that they wouldn't work. There are still fewer who said that regardless of whether they will work they should not be done. But most are in the group that thought they would work. I did, but I gave up on them pretty early on as useless. I thought they were worth a try. I did not envision this mass psychosis addiction to them. I did not envision that people would remain terrified even after it was clear they were at very low risk. I did not envision it breaking down in to pro-restriction and anti-restriction camps and becoming so divisive.
Trump did not have the power to order lockdowns. In order to do that he had to declare martial law ad was strongly advised to NOT do that. At first he believed (per advice) that containment in Washington state would work, it didn't. He tried to end traffic with China opposing his advisors but the backlash caused him to delay traffic with the EU. He was told only a vaccine would save the nation and pulled all the stops to get them. He was advised that they would be carefully vetted by experts who lied to his face. Above all, he did not want the nation to shut down because that would trash his economic rebuild, he resisted all efforts that might damage the economy.
It's OK to dislike the man, but his policies at least were solid ones for the people.
Trump started the lockdowns? Please back that up. NYC went first, then other big cities, then California. Trump had nothing to do with lockdowns at all.
It's the uniparty establishment. Most of it has consolidated behind the Dems, but the establishment Reps are no different. And the control the party infrastructure.
Respectfully, it IS about left and right. It’s just that today’s “right” has moved so far left. True constitutional conservatism is the answer, but hardly anyone believes in that anymore. Certainly none of the elites.
Reading the peoples comments on the Globe and Mail article it is pretty obvious Canadians are seeing through the bullshit delivered to them by Legacy Mafia Media. That was on THE GLOBE AND MAIL…the truckers are going NOWHERE!! This is the Working Peoples Movement for Freedom…we MUST hold the line!
I've thought about this a lot in the pandemic era.
We don't have checks and balances "except for" those situations where the emergency is just too dire that we must put individual rights aside.
We have checks and balances SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE OF those situations where the emergency is perceived to be so dire that there is a temptation to put individual rights aside.
I posted this recently: “ Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn”. And a leftist friend responded that “somewhere in the middle is just about right”. I was shocked, though I should not have been. So the left is more than willing to give up freedom in order to attain “equality”. Utterly disturbing!
And undoubtedly the only reason that friend said that was probably because it "sounds nice." You "need" to have both together, so obviously somewhere in the middle is the compromise.
And they're right. Freedom is definitely compromised.
One of the more interesting discussions these days relates to 'income inequality.' It is almost always brought up in a context which implies that it is inherently bad.
Most people who believe this have not thought it through (most people don't think anything through). Income inequality is the engine that drives economic growth and innovation. Why be creative and work hard if there is no benefit? Just for the collective? What if one hippie thinks that meditating by the river is equally important as growing food and cooking dinner?
So, I posit that if some income inequality is good, more is better. And that a minimum wage is tantamount to forced unemployment for anyone who has not had the opportunity to develop marketable skills -- a situation that unfortunately cannot resolve itself.
The only equality that matters is equality before God, and equality of opportunity. Those are worth fighting for.
The answer to most of the problems besetting us at this moment can be found in the Preamble to the US Declaration of Independence. If you haven't read it recently, I recommend it:
Yes this is the upcoming battle, return to the old normal with none of the new normal remaining. Also, any powers that could allow the new normal to return on a whim need to be removed during this eye of the storm.
There probably is no returning to old normal. Laws have to be installed, that the tyranna cannot be repeated. People have to learn what is in the Constitution, and stand up when the government goes unconstitutional, like they did. AND against international laws, as well,for they trampled the Nurnberg convention. No experiments on humans should be put in place without full informed consent. O f course the people should have paid attention, but how many do that ?
You are right. That is why we have to educate the children. For much of the older generations it might be too late. They are too rusty LOL. They have been educated to comply (I was too, but found out it does not fare well) I think of that song, I think Bob Marley, Getup standup, stand up for your rights
Notice the way the Constitution is worded. It doesn’t restrict the PEOPLE, it restricts THE GOVERNMENT! It outlines the few things the federal government CAN do, but everything else is out of the hands of politicians. The founders understood what happens when you can outlaw speech, or force people to give up their guns. The Constitution acknowledges that free people have PRE-EXISTING rights and that a legitimate government cannot violate those rights. In fact, the entire purpose of government is to uphold the rights of the people!
If your noxious Constitution had been drafted by men interested much in restricting government power, the "Militia" clauses would have been omitted entirely AND the "declaratory and restrictive clauses" which we may call a Bill of Afterthoughts would not have been saved for the first ten amendments.
Tragic misunderstanding of the document and how it happened. We would not have a nation without those first amendments. Noxious? The US is the longest standing democratic republic. Others have tried and failed.
I’ve been saying this since this all began. The emergency powers are the root of all of this. In my province, Nova Scotia, the premier just renews the state of emergency every two weeks. It’s a rubber stamp now - through *three* different premiers in the last 2 years!!
The definition of “emergency” in the act:
“emergency” means a present or imminent event in respect of which the Minister or a municipality, as the case may be, believes prompt co-ordination of action or regulation of persons or property must be under- taken to protect property or the health, safety or welfare of people in the Province;
This is insane! It’s so broad. I encourage everyone to read the legislation in your jurisdiction. It’s mind boggling the powers ours grants. There’s a list that basically strips away all rights you have. Then there’s the provision for non-compliance fines of up to $10k. And the clause that provides total immunity from any prosecution of our masters during an “emergency”.
It’s insane. Uber broad definition. No hard criteria to qualify. No checks on duration. No legislature action to confirm / extend. No court-based recourse. Just pure unfettered power at the whim of the leader under the guise of a too-broadly defined “emergency”.
In the communist state of NY, a court ruled that witch Hochul did not have emergency powers, since supposedly they were rescinded by the legislature during the evil Cuomo regime. Still, she issues diktats left and right. Screw you! Even when you repeal emergency powers, they continue. Only a revolution will stop this.
The provincial govts of BC and Ontario each revoked emergencies but, oddly, retained the fruits of those emergencies nonetheless. The lesson is obvious. Oppose all manners of emergencies with skepticism, courtroom battles, and direct attacks on the ability of such an enacting govt to govern, function, survive. Be merciless. Because they have been and will be.
I read several Substacks dealing with The Plague Era; all of them provide excellent info, but you're absolutely the best essayists and I'll tell ya, the joy of encountering passion voiced so well is a mighty rare thing. And to think the Evil Shrike led me here!
This is especially ironic considering it wasn't that long ago when the minority was getting gay-bashed, and it wasn't long before that when the minority was getting lynched.
How the spiritual decedents of these people ended up demanding mob rule, I will never understand.
Joe Biden's Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, during an interview with MSNBC, suggested that censoring Joe Rogan would help curb the flow of misinformation surrounding covid. This is akin to the mob stopping by your Italian restaurant to admire the décor, then proclaiming it would be a shame if something happened to it.
When corporations take their direction from government, there’s a word for that. It’s fascism. Not fake “Oh no Trump is a dictator” fascism, but honest-to-goodness fascism that says if you don’t hand over a wad of cash, something just might happen to your lovely little restaurant.
Remember that over the past few years, Democrats have been threatening all sorts of actions against Facebook and other social media companies. Set against this backdrop, the threat is clear: You do what we want or we destroy you.
The spiritual descendants of whom? The people pushing mob rule today (in the US), are the same people that supported Jim Crow and fought to protect slavery. They simply traded physical chains for fiscal chains in the LBJ era.
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." ~ Ronald Wilson Reagan
"THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated." ~ Thomas Paine
Will WE rise to today's challenge? THEY shall see.
Near the top of the MSNBC(BS) opinion hit piece, the author, a professor from a university who directs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab says "The vast majority — about 90 percent — of Canadian truckers are already vaccinated, which means these protests are less about vaccinations than the concept of mandates themselves."
Well, pardon my French but, no shit Sherlock! That's EXACTLY what this is about---totalitarian mandates!! I'm amazed this "professor" was able to stumble on the truth so easily.
In just contemplating this, I am realizing that most people really do not care that much about freedom. This site draws people who care an awful lot about it. But the problem is that most people really are perfectly content to trade freedom for safety and security. And they outnumber the freedom absolutists by quite a bit.
Just as many of us vastly underestimated the degree to which our fellow citizens would submit, the self-appointed elites vastly over estimate the amount of control they have. They thought that with near total control of government, the media, and big tech they could do as they wished, but they pushed too hard, too far, for too long, and now the populace they believed were mesmerized sheep turn out to yet have claws and teeth after all.
The question is will Brandon, Castro Jr., and their ilk back down, or will they continue to push, afraid that any backing down risks exposing the true extent of their malfeasance and the risk of a real, possibly final, reckoning?
Just how how high on huffing their own farts are they? And what do the people behind the power -- I don't believe for a second that geriatric Brandon or never-had-an-original-thought Castro are really in charge of jack squat -- want them to do?
I wish I could believe that there was any meaningful, long term solution to this that didn't include things going kinetic. Not desirable, to be sure, but is it ultimately worse than the "new normal" followed by another "emergency" grab for power in a year or three?
Historically, governments are not known for learning their lesson.
The tree of liberty withers, desperately needing water, and, to torture Jefferson's metaphor, I'm not sure the sweat and tears of the general populace can, or should, continue to suffice.
We've been kicking the can down the road for far too long. Look at the Fed's official M1 Money Supply graph and tell me we aren't well past screwed, blued, and tattooed. Those bills are going to come due eventually, no matter what, and the longer we keep up this charade, the worse that reckoning will be for all of us.
I'd hoped to not live to see such days, but here they are.
They speak of 'insurrection', they do not yet know the meaning.
I hope I am wrong, but for ourselves and for future generations I fear they soon may require education.
1939 #Fascist #Germany or 2022 #Faucist #Amerika? Perhaps #tyranny in Amerika cemented during the 1913 Banker's Coup d'Etat when the FED seized control and its regime was ensured with income tax and the IRS, with election of senators by popular election. The unconstitutional invasion of #BigBrother and the #NannyState into every facet of American life was a "slow frog boiling" process, but here we are today with the #DHS, the name echoes with #Faucist overtones, labeling dissent as treason.
We need to be aware that the "old normal" sucked - which is why we are here. The "old normal" created a mob of soft, short attention-span, post modernist, safe-space loving, laptop-slinging, race-baiting, soy munching, climate crying, participation medalist, elitist but useless, CNN-watching, children helicoptering, disgustingly comfortable, unhappy, listless drones. We do not want to return to that. We want a "real normal." New or old, I don't care.
These quotes and more besides are what go through my mind every time I hear some idiot windbag or another bloviating about "our democracy".
"Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses. It is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
~H. L. Mencken
"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
~ John Adams
"Liberty and democracy are eternal enemies, and every one knows it who has ever given any sober reflection on the matter."
~ H. L. Mencken
"Democracy inevitably degenerates into despotism."
~ Aristotle
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
"The sovereign is he who decides the exception"; Carl Schmitt.
I always enjoy the content here but the appeal to rights and constitutional Republicanism is a bit naive; it's pretty clear at this stage the human rights were a fiction of the post WW2 liberal order that are being discarded now that they no longer serve the interests of the ruling class.
In Canada, the Liberal party holds the government. They are usually tightly controlled to speak in unison. However, in a shock move, a few days ago one of their members spoke against the actions of Justin Trudeau then a second man and today a third. This is a great sign and there's talk that there are many that are like minded.
That there is a solid chunk of population walking amongst us (with masks) that still believes in Santa, the Tooth Fairy and by default "Scary Evil Truckers' is quite alarming... woke governments have declared their own people as the mortal enemy, not Islamic Suicide Bombers or Latino Drug Cartels mind you. It's hard for me to fathom how much hate the likes of Blackface has for ordinary people; that takes quite a bit of doing but hey, he has nailed it!
You probably did click it, it just didn't turn red. Try refreshing the page, I find that shows clicks on comments that I made that didn't show the first time.
As you can see( bevause i just liked yours) ... it's not a problem gato has anything to do with. Maybe try writing to substack? Many of us have this issue sporadically.
As much as I respect and admire gato, eugippius, Berenson, Weinstein et al, none are able to rise to the level necessary to grasp that this is all the result of our civilizational rejection of God. Western civilization is entirely dependent on the theological worldview. Liberty and rights are strictly impossible under the reductionist materialist rubric. In this sense the leftists are being eminently rational. In a godless cosmos, only raw power truly matters. All else is delusion.
How on target. Our founders quite well understood the dangers of pure democracy - majority rule, which is why we have the bill of rights, separation of powers. But the Federalist papers warn us of the potential for abuse if our leaders are faithless to their people they are supposed to serve. We see abrogation of those rights, temporarily they say, except there seem no limits on temporary. We see our President knowingly order unlawful things, then when checked by the court, ignore the court. We see a dual system of justice by corrupt officials. What are we to do?
It will take much more than the next election to restore our nation. We need leaders who cannot be bought by corporations nor by social media giants.
Hail to the truckers who started a bloodless revolution against tyrants. We can hope that energizes a movement to start to reign in a lawless government.
I had a fantastic 7th grade social studies teacher (back in the 70's before US public education was was cooped into a political indoctrination system). On the 1st day of class he tough something that hit me like a brick and has stuck with me forever;
Our nations founders understood 3 simple principles that had to be overcome in order to prevent self government from becoming the tyranny of the majority.
1) Democracy is 2 wolves and 1 sheep voting what to eat for dinner.
2) Humans have some level of inherent evil in their nature that perpetually temps them to rule / run roughshod over other humans
3) Not all humans will get along, or be capable of co-existing, with each other for we are all individuals.
Based on these 3 very simple to understand truisms, they created Federalism & the system of checks and balances that would become the US governing system.
- An ironclad declaration of Rights, granted by God himself that could not be violated at any level of government.
- An intentionally weak Federal Government of "limited and enumerated powers".
- All day to day governing powers granted to the states, where people could choose their path based on local preferences (provided they did not infringe on the individual's rights as granted by God and memorialized in the Bill of Rights). If you couldn't along in one state you picked up and moved to another state with more like minded people. (as I did in the earlier days of covid, from IL to FL)
From 3 simple truisms they created the greatest system of government and respect for the individual ever achieved by mankind to this day (and don't say "but slavery", the Founders knew that issue would have to be addressed at some point, but they could not agree at that time. Politics is the art of the possible. As we all know, in time, slavery was addressed, in the bloodiest way possible, yet ultimately it was resolved properly and in keeping with original intent).
Every problem in America today is the direct result of inherently evil individual humans (organized in groups over time) pushing us away from the original intent of our governing system. The only certain way to correct all that has gone wrong is to force our system back toward its original intent (which imo, requires a Federal government less than 5% of its current size & cost, excluding defense). Unfortunately, that is much easier said than done....
Guess who helped to put an emergency powers clause into the constitution of the Weimar Reich? His name was Hugo Prueß, often called the father of the constition of the Weimar Republik. Lawyer Hugo died before 1930, but his constitution lived on until about May of 1945, when the victors abolished the government of Germany.
Yep, the Hitlerists used Hugo's constitution as the basis of their rule. William Shirer, the wartime journalist who wrote for the Chicago Tribune, pointed this out in one of his books, though I think he didn't really understand the damning implication. Also interesting, but not really surprising, is the fact that Hugo Preuß was Jewish.
“And he who is not sufficiently courageous to defend his soul, don’t let him be proud of his “progressive” views, and don’t let him boast that he is an academician or a people’s artist, a distinguished figure or a general. Let him say to himself: I am a part of the herd and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and kept warm.”
"The social transformation that unfolds under totalitarianism is built upon, and sustained by, delusions. For only deluded men and women regress to the childlike status of obedient and submissive subjects and hand over complete control of their lives to politicians and bureaucrats. Only a deluded ruling class will believe that they possess the knowledge, wisdom, and acumen to completely control society in a top-down manner. And only when under the spell of delusions would anyone believe that a society composed of power-hungry rulers, on the one hand, and a psychologically regressed population, on the other, will lead to anything other than mass suffering and social ruin."
Thank you! I get so tired of hearing the word "democracy" blurted out by people on all sides as though it is the pinnicle of human achievement in government. It is almost as if democracy proponents never studied history, never read Aristotle or Madison.
I've always been suspicious of the Democrat party for this very reason.
The idea that our rights are not infringed upon by emergency powers needs to die within the minds of the sheep that pushed for the government to save them. The government can't even provide clean drinking water to people after decades of trying.
thank you so much... fyi, this St. Valentine's Day, watch the video and take action at your county courthouse, print off a document and give it to your County Prosecutor and/or mail it to them asap registered mail, this will be happening all across the USA, they have to act or be held accountable for dereliction of their duty, https://go.constitutionallawgroup.us/vday
This covid scamdemic is a proxy war for total political takeover by the left. The minions that buy into it are seduced by the left's pseudo-moral imperatives. They're convinced they are supremely moral as they punish the left's designated enemies, who for the last 60 years have been demonized with hyperbolic caricatures and paranoid projections.
At its core, we've been plunged into an existential war of opposing moralities. The outcome will determine whether we live in a world of God-given individual liberties, or a collective hell of the greatest good for the greatest number.
They keep the word “democracy” deliberately undefined, so they can apply it to any situation in which they usurp more power, trample on more individual liberties, and coerce the masses with more psychological conditioning.
For the left, words are just weaponized noise, not meaningful communication.
Unfortunately the deed is done. As I warned a supposedly conservative friend who supported shutdowns in March 2020, we were then validating a leftist blueprint for permanent control of our lives. The blueprint worked like a charm, and for 2 years has been given the seal of approval by the GOP and most Americans. The left is now easing up, but it is on their terms. The blueprint, the power structures and the precedent remain. Unless some of these leaders are driven from office by people power revolutions, followed by the dismantling of their power structures, we will live in tyranny or with the constant threat of it. I see no constituency for such a revolution in the US. Here's hoping Canada can lead the way.
Folks here are celebrating that Alberta and Saskatchewan have removed their mandates. But neither ended their states of emergency! So it’s just pandering for now and they (the 2 premiers) can just flip flop it tomorrow if they choose.
In a super special fuck you to Americans, Alberta is lifting the mask rules for kids.
----------------
Alberta will remove nearly all restrictions for children, including the mask mandate in schools (kindergarten to Grade 12) over the coming weekend. Kids aged 12 and under also won’t have to abide by the general mask mandate in Alberta, though the general mandate will still apply for the rest of the population.
“It is time to let kids be kids,” said Kenney.
stay on it, in my city we have ended mask mandates two times and in both cases reverted back into mandates, they've extended the mandates I stopped counting... we're currently under mandate, in a red state, in the middle of the USA (at least the radio is reporting deaths vax status and age now, slowly seeding the programming of the incoming capitulation back to normal)
Sorry, Jason Kenney is a slimy turncoat CINO. He’s a fish, and not trustworthy at all.
https://twitter.com/RebelNewsOnline/status/1491224561685508096
Wow that is slimy. "If we decide you need to get a third shot, you'll be locked out of society until you get it."
This is EXACTLY what I was talking about when discussing bodily autonomy here:
-----------
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/the-proper-role-of-science
From the very beginning of the pandemic, the central planners and ‘experts’ have created a multitude of restrictions based on The Science, declaring that X risk demands people do Y. But this assumption is flawed from the beginning. Scientists and politicians should inform free people about existing risks, and even ways to mitigate those risks. What they should NEVER do is override your personal preferences with their own. Once they do, you lose all bodily autonomy. You’re completely at the mercy of the ‘experts’, who just happen to be incestuously connected to the very people getting ridiculously rich off the edicts handed down by said ‘experts’.
This is why it’s important to stand here and tell them ENOUGH. Once you give up your ability to decide your own risk tolerance, you’re simply a puppet dancing to the whims of the ‘experts’ and those above them pulling the strings. And because central planners lack the knowledge to make ‘proper’ decisions for everybody individually, they lump everybody together and draft a uniform set of rules that doesn’t actually work for anybody at all. (Except their cronies, of course)
Remarkable that Trudeau says he will ignore the question by Rebel News. Of course he won't answer the question, he's their master. They shouldn't be allowed to ask.
Kenney is ready to backtrack.
I didn't know about the continuation of the state of emergency but I have been very skeptical of the politicians. Quebec supposedly lifted restrictions but only on the vaxxed. No plans to scrap the vaxx pass. Same for 2 other provinces. Ontario hasn't changed it's plan of slow removal of restrictions and keeping the vaxx pass. Smoke and mirrors.
This is the point - all these at-whim rules stem from the power of these emergency acts. They can just do whatever they want to our rights whenever they want for any reason they want. This is what has to change.
Yes it has to be the deep change the truckers are asking for. Even in Alberta the premier says individual businesses can still choose to enforce the vax pass. It’s all a show. I am jealous in BC though—would love for them to at least lift the mask mandate in schools.
yeah...instead they just bring in MORE MANDATES! wtf is up with that?
That's true. Kenney has flip-flopped so many times that he can't be trusted.
The Woke revolution is FAR from over. They have a 70 year head start. The average age of those who oppose wokeism is probably 20-30 years older than those who support it. This is not going to end via ballots and sporadic protests:
https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/no-the-revolution-isnt-over
It will end thanks to demographic change.
The sinoic sphere of cultural influence is immune to it, India is inocculated by its colonial past and its neighbourhood and so is Africa and the arabic/islamic cultures.
And in the latter two, women have many children from young age, meaning that not only does the population grow, it grows much quicker than in the west.
So the problem of woke creates its own solution: it kills all the western cultures from within.
Can you see any of the woke standing up to the average saudi salafi? Can you see any non-woke westerner defend the woke from the salafi?
At least here among the non-PCfied crowd the sentiment is "I wouldn't help a feminist/LGBTQP/multikulti even by pissing on it if it was on fire!".
You're right: they will destroy the culture that enabled their insane worldview. And they will not have the strength and wherewithal to survive the more culturally confident external threats. The thought that they will be slaughtered by outsiders after they replace us isn't awfully comforting.
"It is a comfort in wretchedness to have companions in woe", if I remeber Marlowe's 'Faust' correctly.
Or 'schadenfreude' as the germans say ('skadeglädje' in my language, with the added possible interpretation of "bringing joy to the goddess Skade", who was associated with winter, mountains, hunting, wolves and sorrow).
And yet we still hang holly wreaths for her, so it isn't all bad. 😊
Part of the long march through the institutions, codified by Gramsci in the 1920s.
Color me a natural skeptic, but I'm thinking that a 70 year counter-revolutionary march is not in the cards.
Thanks for the wise kickstart, gato. It worries me that we will gratefully accept any crumbs of “freedom” that may come our way as we grasp onto anything that resembles freedom. Like a squirming mouse under the smirking tomcat’s paw, we, when that paw is lifted, will burst free and scurry away, grateful for the breath of perceived liberty. It does not matter to us that we have lost part of our tail, half an ear, and are scratched and bloodied, we will thankfully accept this opportunity to go back to our pre-captive lives … unaware that we are the cat’s plaything, he knows where we live, and we are always within easy reach of his pounce and ready paw.
But, I never tire of stating the obvious: Government does not give us rights and freedoms. They are sovereign, inalienable. They are our birthright. They belong to each of us. They are God-given. We must claim our birthrights with dignity - and offer fierce indignation towards the pure orchestrated evil that would attempt to strip them from us.
We are living the ugly “fruits” of a post-Judeo-Christian society. Before it was attacked and systematically demolished, we had quietly availed ourselves of its sense of order and propriety, however raggedy it may have been. We may not even have examined its origin or roots, we just lived the rhythm of its fruits. Community standards. The principle of subsidiarity. We have long used up its accrued interest and the capital. Does any capital remain? Is it largely memories and hope? One hopes not.
Do we believe in the “Supremacy of God,” which surprisingly remained in the first line of our Charter - and because of the colon at the end of the clause, oversees every right and freedom outlined in that Charter? Do we believe this? Then we must live it and proclaim it. God is the author of life, our freedoms and rights. Let us honour Him. Let us carefully examine and know who it is we honour - and reclaim our birthright.
The only problem with this whole line of reasoning is that a lot of people WANTED these restrictions. They WANTED lockdowns and work from home and restaurants closed and masks everywhere and on kids and endless boosters and all of it. They WANTED it. It wasn't done against the will of the majority. It was done because it was the will of the majority.
They did “want” these restrictions, but only because health officers, mayors, premiers and governors terrified them first, commencing with little droplets of fear. They were carefully and systematically instructed by the Orwellian governments and the always compliant, paid-off legacy “Ministry of Truth” media to embrace this fear, even when the goalposts changed ever few weeks: Folks, this is this week’s truth. / Yes, dear Leaders who will bring us to normal.
I don’t know how many times I have reminded people to read or re-read 1984. Most have not. Why? For fear they will see us in those pages and then be forced to react and act. Ignorance is easier. Kyrie eleison.
Fear is very powerful. Safe to say most would choose safety over their liberty. Patrick Henry's "give me liberty or give me death!" people should go have a look at it. https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/coretexts/_files/resources/texts/1775%20Patrick%20Henry%20Liberty%20or%20Death.pdf
There is a great video of Jordan Peterson explaining the Israelites exit from Egypt when they were being attacked by snakes in the desert. It is completely analogous to what's happening today as you describe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV4xe0uwgoI
I’m afraid you may be right. Mistakes have consequences. Relinquishing freedom is a serious mistake that cannot easily be undone.
Same.
Absolfelinelutely, el gato. I was just thinking about emergency powers being at the root of these perpetual power grabs and contemplating how we could vanquish them.
Check out this inspiring speech by Brian Peckford (https://youtu.be/Kjjihr_GCu8) at the Victoria Freedom Convoy Rally. The last living signatory of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Brian just filed a lawsuit against the Canadian government for violating that charter. He is also committed to ensuring it’s never possible for the government to seize these emergency powers again.
Fun sidenote: I was honored to learn Brian just posted my Letter to Justin Trudeau (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-justin-trudeau) at his blog yesterday.
Amazeballs
😹
I thought about this also. We must demand from our representatives an end to all emergency powers. US elects all 435 Representatives and 1\3 of Senate this November. We voters must require each candidate to pledge to introduce legislation stating emergency powers must be approved by the legislature before their implementation. We must do this at every level of our government. I believe this would begin the ending of these dangerous powers.
I believe there is a need and a place for emergency powers. BUT they must be very limited in the scope that can activate them and, especially, their duration must be very, very limited to a handful of days.
It’s the broad definitions to activate and the ease at which they are constantly renewed that is the issue.
Very specific, limited criteria and very short duration.
Love the Gottman relationship advice!
We have seen “bread and circuses” (or “beer and football”) writ large. Participatory government is run by those who, well, participate. Two or three generations, stupefied by television (and more recently “social media”), mindless consumerism and a pantheon of vapid “stars” have stood by and let an amoral, vicious minority, most of them not even elected but permanently installed as little Caesars controlling vast amounts of our confiscated money, take the reins of government and use it to further their own wealth and power. That this is true needs no further evidence than the observation that the richest zip codes in the nation are around the District of Criminals.
Taking it back requires more than just the occasional appearance at the ballot box. It requires wresting control of your school board, your town council, your statehouse from the criminals. It requires hard work, and a lot of risk: the government mafia won’t go quietly— they have declared as much by officially branding dissent as terrorism, by siccing the FBI on mothers who don’t want their kids to be forced to wear dirty rags on their faces or be taught that skin color is the necessary and sufficient determiner of success and even of value as a human being.
For decades the left has claimed they want ordinary people to “rise up”. Let’s give them what they say they want — recent events have made it clear that’s what they fear the most.
Idiocracy has proved closer to a documentary than a fictional comedy...
If this be terrorism, let me make the most of it.
Gato, this is one of your most important pieces ever.
The tyranny of the majority that you describe so vividly has been evident in so many countries for so long - and has destroyed the lives of so many of this planet's inhabitants - that it's a joy to see someone rip apart this almost universally accepted idea that democracy somehow equals goodness.
With you all the way. Goodness comes from individuals. Not from systems of government.
The United States is not a democracy. It is a Democratic REPUBLIC.
But isn't this really tyranny of the minority? The majority is not politicians, 1%ers, woke corporate leaders, university professors, the teachers unions, and the msm. We the people are the majority, and have permitted our rights to be limited (or eliminated) through indolence or fear. We actually have power if we are willing to use it.
I think they are considered the "majority," because they have so many vapid followers.
When the left says “democracy,” what they mean is socialism. They conflate everyone having an equal say in governance with everyone getting an equal share of the stuff. Except, as always, some animals are more equal than others. That’s why they howl when we insist on liberty and inalienable rights—because those are antithetical to socialism.
No, the left now is not at all about socialism. They are about corporatist authoritarianism. Because all the banks and hedge funds and global banks are in on it and getting rich.
It’s true that the leftist elites have embraced fascism, which is why some animals are more equal than others. (I’ve written about this for Townhall and other venues.) But the rank and file is mostly oblivious. They still think they’re talking about socialism. But they’re just pawns.
Agreed. They are still using socialism, though. It's purpose is to sow chaos and create drones.
The right was sure eager to throw away those rights as well. They even lead the charge on the initial lockdowns in the US, and the jabs. This isn't a left/right thing. Both are terrible.
Where did they 'lead the charge' for lockdowns? Just like now, it only the big blue cities with dumb covid rules in the very beginning. Then the idiot 'leaders' said 'well everybody else is jumping off the bridge......'
Agreed. It’s clear that Republican Governors were on average much friendlier to personal liberty in this pandemic than Democrat ones. And some were highly praiseworthy. Ron DeSantis comes to mind.
The key phrase being "on average". RINO Charlie Baker, here in MA was nearly as bad as Cuomo, i.e. governing so stupidly, so consistently 180 degrees from anything sensible that you had to wonder if he was actually trying to kill people.
Trump. He started the lockdowns and 2 weeks to slow the spread, and the jabs. And he had all the GOP on board. How many GOP spoke out against it? A few used their brains a month or two later, but not that many. Most took much longer to open up. And still many in congress/senate won't speak out against the lockdowns or jabs.
This is a gross simplification.
Trump made the mistake of listening to Fauci and Birx, thinking they were giving him scientific/public health advice. And he was the first to say it's time to get Americans back to work - that was mid April, IIRC. He was loudly opposed by most governors. And Trump never wore a mask until late in the pandemic, after there was some spread at a rally; he urged doctors to try HCQ, but Fauci and his allies did an end around to block it and make it look ineffective; and when Trump got COVID and recovered quickly he urged people to see that it wasn't as scary as was being advertised.
So don't follow Biden and Psaki trying to pin it on Trump. The purpose of the lockdowns was to crash Trump's economy and enable vote-by-mail for the election steal in order to correct our 'backsliding democracy' and reassert establishment control. And many republicans were involved.
The failure of the right in this pandemic, for those that aren't part of the uniparty, has been to believe that doctors and scientists are apolitical creatures who 'just follow the science.'
Agree. Trump was ignorant of the duplicicity in government. He trusted many people who despised him.
It's a near universal rule that people expect others to be like themselves. Despicable authoritarians count on normal people not expecting that a person entrusted with serving others would be utterly indifferent to their welfare and more interested in ruling over them.
People wanted him to do it. He was just responding to the desires of the population. You have to remember that early on most people thought that the lockdowns and all the rest would do the trick. They would get rid of the virus. And then, when it was gone, we'd go back to normal. It's only in hindsight, with all these measures having failed miserably, that we are all so critical of them. What I'd say is that people have been stubbornly refusing to admit that these things are not working. There are a few who said from the start that they wouldn't work. There are still fewer who said that regardless of whether they will work they should not be done. But most are in the group that thought they would work. I did, but I gave up on them pretty early on as useless. I thought they were worth a try. I did not envision this mass psychosis addiction to them. I did not envision that people would remain terrified even after it was clear they were at very low risk. I did not envision it breaking down in to pro-restriction and anti-restriction camps and becoming so divisive.
Just 2 weeks to flatten the curve and then we can re-open.
Trump did not have the power to order lockdowns. In order to do that he had to declare martial law ad was strongly advised to NOT do that. At first he believed (per advice) that containment in Washington state would work, it didn't. He tried to end traffic with China opposing his advisors but the backlash caused him to delay traffic with the EU. He was told only a vaccine would save the nation and pulled all the stops to get them. He was advised that they would be carefully vetted by experts who lied to his face. Above all, he did not want the nation to shut down because that would trash his economic rebuild, he resisted all efforts that might damage the economy.
It's OK to dislike the man, but his policies at least were solid ones for the people.
Trump started the lockdowns? Please back that up. NYC went first, then other big cities, then California. Trump had nothing to do with lockdowns at all.
I believe San Francisco was the first American city to lockdown.
Why would Donald Trump do this? /s
It's the uniparty establishment. Most of it has consolidated behind the Dems, but the establishment Reps are no different. And the control the party infrastructure.
Respectfully, it IS about left and right. It’s just that today’s “right” has moved so far left. True constitutional conservatism is the answer, but hardly anyone believes in that anymore. Certainly none of the elites.
It's been said before: you can vote socialism in, but you have to shoot it out.
Truly.
If you don't roll over for them, you're being divisive.
Isn’t that the truth! You’re also part of the fringe with unacceptable views…
And proud of it! ;)
Specifically, they use the phrase "our democracy", which means exactly what you've described.
Reading the peoples comments on the Globe and Mail article it is pretty obvious Canadians are seeing through the bullshit delivered to them by Legacy Mafia Media. That was on THE GLOBE AND MAIL…the truckers are going NOWHERE!! This is the Working Peoples Movement for Freedom…we MUST hold the line!
I've thought about this a lot in the pandemic era.
We don't have checks and balances "except for" those situations where the emergency is just too dire that we must put individual rights aside.
We have checks and balances SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE OF those situations where the emergency is perceived to be so dire that there is a temptation to put individual rights aside.
Precisely. But, those checks and balances prove not to work so well when everyone is scared, bought, lazy, just plain ignorant, etc. How to fix?
The US was designed to be a Republic just for this reason.
Not that we follow the Constitution much anymore......
Protect the minority.
Democracy two wolves and a sheep deciding what they want for dinner.
"democracy is not freedom.
democracy is one of the more pernicious forms of tyranny ever devised: the tyranny of the majority."
Excellent description of democracy! Great article!
Democracy: The God that Failed is an excellent book by Hans-Herman Hoppe.
https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Economics-Politics-Perspectives-Democratic/dp/0765808684
I posted this recently: “ Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn”. And a leftist friend responded that “somewhere in the middle is just about right”. I was shocked, though I should not have been. So the left is more than willing to give up freedom in order to attain “equality”. Utterly disturbing!
And undoubtedly the only reason that friend said that was probably because it "sounds nice." You "need" to have both together, so obviously somewhere in the middle is the compromise.
And they're right. Freedom is definitely compromised.
Yep. It sounds and feels nice. Kumbaya us all to hell.
One of the more interesting discussions these days relates to 'income inequality.' It is almost always brought up in a context which implies that it is inherently bad.
Most people who believe this have not thought it through (most people don't think anything through). Income inequality is the engine that drives economic growth and innovation. Why be creative and work hard if there is no benefit? Just for the collective? What if one hippie thinks that meditating by the river is equally important as growing food and cooking dinner?
So, I posit that if some income inequality is good, more is better. And that a minimum wage is tantamount to forced unemployment for anyone who has not had the opportunity to develop marketable skills -- a situation that unfortunately cannot resolve itself.
The only equality that matters is equality before God, and equality of opportunity. Those are worth fighting for.
The answer to most of the problems besetting us at this moment can be found in the Preamble to the US Declaration of Independence. If you haven't read it recently, I recommend it:
https://www.elcivics.com/us_declaration_preamble.html
Yes this is the upcoming battle, return to the old normal with none of the new normal remaining. Also, any powers that could allow the new normal to return on a whim need to be removed during this eye of the storm.
There probably is no returning to old normal. Laws have to be installed, that the tyranna cannot be repeated. People have to learn what is in the Constitution, and stand up when the government goes unconstitutional, like they did. AND against international laws, as well,for they trampled the Nurnberg convention. No experiments on humans should be put in place without full informed consent. O f course the people should have paid attention, but how many do that ?
The only way this never happens again is that people decide not to comply. With anything. The fix must come at the cultural / individual level.
You are right. That is why we have to educate the children. For much of the older generations it might be too late. They are too rusty LOL. They have been educated to comply (I was too, but found out it does not fare well) I think of that song, I think Bob Marley, Getup standup, stand up for your rights
In my head for the rest of the day... Thank you very much!
I just hope you like it ! At least you can dance to it, and cheer up whomever you meet today.
Two wolves and a rabbit taking a vote on what's for dinner is only just and fair if none of the 3 can be a menu item.
This is why the founders wisely placed most things OUT of the hands of politicians.
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/my-freedom-protects-you-your-freedom
Notice the way the Constitution is worded. It doesn’t restrict the PEOPLE, it restricts THE GOVERNMENT! It outlines the few things the federal government CAN do, but everything else is out of the hands of politicians. The founders understood what happens when you can outlaw speech, or force people to give up their guns. The Constitution acknowledges that free people have PRE-EXISTING rights and that a legitimate government cannot violate those rights. In fact, the entire purpose of government is to uphold the rights of the people!
If your noxious Constitution had been drafted by men interested much in restricting government power, the "Militia" clauses would have been omitted entirely AND the "declaratory and restrictive clauses" which we may call a Bill of Afterthoughts would not have been saved for the first ten amendments.
Tragic misunderstanding of the document and how it happened. We would not have a nation without those first amendments. Noxious? The US is the longest standing democratic republic. Others have tried and failed.
I’ve been saying this since this all began. The emergency powers are the root of all of this. In my province, Nova Scotia, the premier just renews the state of emergency every two weeks. It’s a rubber stamp now - through *three* different premiers in the last 2 years!!
The definition of “emergency” in the act:
“emergency” means a present or imminent event in respect of which the Minister or a municipality, as the case may be, believes prompt co-ordination of action or regulation of persons or property must be under- taken to protect property or the health, safety or welfare of people in the Province;
This is insane! It’s so broad. I encourage everyone to read the legislation in your jurisdiction. It’s mind boggling the powers ours grants. There’s a list that basically strips away all rights you have. Then there’s the provision for non-compliance fines of up to $10k. And the clause that provides total immunity from any prosecution of our masters during an “emergency”.
It’s insane. Uber broad definition. No hard criteria to qualify. No checks on duration. No legislature action to confirm / extend. No court-based recourse. Just pure unfettered power at the whim of the leader under the guise of a too-broadly defined “emergency”.
In the communist state of NY, a court ruled that witch Hochul did not have emergency powers, since supposedly they were rescinded by the legislature during the evil Cuomo regime. Still, she issues diktats left and right. Screw you! Even when you repeal emergency powers, they continue. Only a revolution will stop this.
When our leaders ignore the law, we have no government.
The provincial govts of BC and Ontario each revoked emergencies but, oddly, retained the fruits of those emergencies nonetheless. The lesson is obvious. Oppose all manners of emergencies with skepticism, courtroom battles, and direct attacks on the ability of such an enacting govt to govern, function, survive. Be merciless. Because they have been and will be.
I read several Substacks dealing with The Plague Era; all of them provide excellent info, but you're absolutely the best essayists and I'll tell ya, the joy of encountering passion voiced so well is a mighty rare thing. And to think the Evil Shrike led me here!
This is especially ironic considering it wasn't that long ago when the minority was getting gay-bashed, and it wasn't long before that when the minority was getting lynched.
How the spiritual decedents of these people ended up demanding mob rule, I will never understand.
By "mob" do you mean "my organization's buddies"? They don't want mob rule... that's too dangerous. They want all the power for themselves.
Same as it ever was.
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/censors-gonna-censor
Joe Biden's Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, during an interview with MSNBC, suggested that censoring Joe Rogan would help curb the flow of misinformation surrounding covid. This is akin to the mob stopping by your Italian restaurant to admire the décor, then proclaiming it would be a shame if something happened to it.
When corporations take their direction from government, there’s a word for that. It’s fascism. Not fake “Oh no Trump is a dictator” fascism, but honest-to-goodness fascism that says if you don’t hand over a wad of cash, something just might happen to your lovely little restaurant.
Remember that over the past few years, Democrats have been threatening all sorts of actions against Facebook and other social media companies. Set against this backdrop, the threat is clear: You do what we want or we destroy you.
The spiritual descendants of whom? The people pushing mob rule today (in the US), are the same people that supported Jim Crow and fought to protect slavery. They simply traded physical chains for fiscal chains in the LBJ era.
I'm talking about the 'little people' in The Party. You know, the ones who think The Party Stands Up For The Little People©
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." ~ Ronald Wilson Reagan
"THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated." ~ Thomas Paine
Will WE rise to today's challenge? THEY shall see.
200 years separate those two quotes. Some things are eternal, and immutable.
Freedom is not a weapon, it is our shield.
Freedom isn’t free
Near the top of the MSNBC(BS) opinion hit piece, the author, a professor from a university who directs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab says "The vast majority — about 90 percent — of Canadian truckers are already vaccinated, which means these protests are less about vaccinations than the concept of mandates themselves."
Well, pardon my French but, no shit Sherlock! That's EXACTLY what this is about---totalitarian mandates!! I'm amazed this "professor" was able to stumble on the truth so easily.
In just contemplating this, I am realizing that most people really do not care that much about freedom. This site draws people who care an awful lot about it. But the problem is that most people really are perfectly content to trade freedom for safety and security. And they outnumber the freedom absolutists by quite a bit.
Just as many of us vastly underestimated the degree to which our fellow citizens would submit, the self-appointed elites vastly over estimate the amount of control they have. They thought that with near total control of government, the media, and big tech they could do as they wished, but they pushed too hard, too far, for too long, and now the populace they believed were mesmerized sheep turn out to yet have claws and teeth after all.
The question is will Brandon, Castro Jr., and their ilk back down, or will they continue to push, afraid that any backing down risks exposing the true extent of their malfeasance and the risk of a real, possibly final, reckoning?
Just how how high on huffing their own farts are they? And what do the people behind the power -- I don't believe for a second that geriatric Brandon or never-had-an-original-thought Castro are really in charge of jack squat -- want them to do?
I wish I could believe that there was any meaningful, long term solution to this that didn't include things going kinetic. Not desirable, to be sure, but is it ultimately worse than the "new normal" followed by another "emergency" grab for power in a year or three?
Historically, governments are not known for learning their lesson.
The tree of liberty withers, desperately needing water, and, to torture Jefferson's metaphor, I'm not sure the sweat and tears of the general populace can, or should, continue to suffice.
We've been kicking the can down the road for far too long. Look at the Fed's official M1 Money Supply graph and tell me we aren't well past screwed, blued, and tattooed. Those bills are going to come due eventually, no matter what, and the longer we keep up this charade, the worse that reckoning will be for all of us.
I'd hoped to not live to see such days, but here they are.
They speak of 'insurrection', they do not yet know the meaning.
I hope I am wrong, but for ourselves and for future generations I fear they soon may require education.
1939 #Fascist #Germany or 2022 #Faucist #Amerika? Perhaps #tyranny in Amerika cemented during the 1913 Banker's Coup d'Etat when the FED seized control and its regime was ensured with income tax and the IRS, with election of senators by popular election. The unconstitutional invasion of #BigBrother and the #NannyState into every facet of American life was a "slow frog boiling" process, but here we are today with the #DHS, the name echoes with #Faucist overtones, labeling dissent as treason.
https://captainmanimalagonusnret.substack.com/p/living-in-1939-nazi-germany
So are we disproving that nemesis follows hubris?
We need to be aware that the "old normal" sucked - which is why we are here. The "old normal" created a mob of soft, short attention-span, post modernist, safe-space loving, laptop-slinging, race-baiting, soy munching, climate crying, participation medalist, elitist but useless, CNN-watching, children helicoptering, disgustingly comfortable, unhappy, listless drones. We do not want to return to that. We want a "real normal." New or old, I don't care.
These quotes and more besides are what go through my mind every time I hear some idiot windbag or another bloviating about "our democracy".
"Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses. It is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
~H. L. Mencken
"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
~ John Adams
"Liberty and democracy are eternal enemies, and every one knows it who has ever given any sober reflection on the matter."
~ H. L. Mencken
"Democracy inevitably degenerates into despotism."
~ Aristotle
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
~ Sir Winston Churchill
Fantastic quotes. Mencken being one of my all-time favorites.
"The sovereign is he who decides the exception"; Carl Schmitt.
I always enjoy the content here but the appeal to rights and constitutional Republicanism is a bit naive; it's pretty clear at this stage the human rights were a fiction of the post WW2 liberal order that are being discarded now that they no longer serve the interests of the ruling class.
amicus meus, cat, please understand that we are not fighting on a hill or a on a slippery slope. we fight at the cliff's edge.
And half the bus is STOKED about the upcoming drop! You can hear them chanting "CLIFF! CLIFF! CLIFF! CLIFF!"
Beautiful, clear, correct
Excellent! I love that Tolstoy quote.
Democracy is a euphemism for mob rule
"if 90% vote 10% into slavery, that is democracy."
It is now and always individual liberty that is at stake.
Don't accept the box they assign to you. Destroy the box.
“We have to put a stop to the idea that it is a part of everybody's civil rights to say whatever he pleases.”
Adolf Hitler, Transcript of a conversation (22 February 1942)
In Canada, the Liberal party holds the government. They are usually tightly controlled to speak in unison. However, in a shock move, a few days ago one of their members spoke against the actions of Justin Trudeau then a second man and today a third. This is a great sign and there's talk that there are many that are like minded.
Politicians, with a finger to the wind...
That there is a solid chunk of population walking amongst us (with masks) that still believes in Santa, the Tooth Fairy and by default "Scary Evil Truckers' is quite alarming... woke governments have declared their own people as the mortal enemy, not Islamic Suicide Bombers or Latino Drug Cartels mind you. It's hard for me to fathom how much hate the likes of Blackface has for ordinary people; that takes quite a bit of doing but hey, he has nailed it!
This is why a paid for a subscription. Bravo...
Again not able to click the ❤️
You probably did click it, it just didn't turn red. Try refreshing the page, I find that shows clicks on comments that I made that didn't show the first time.
As you can see( bevause i just liked yours) ... it's not a problem gato has anything to do with. Maybe try writing to substack? Many of us have this issue sporadically.
Good to know. I was wondering if substack was screwing with it to decrease the number of likes
NWO Population Control. Was planned for decades. In every country:
Health Canada Initially Created For Population Control Measures
https://lionessofjudah.substack.com/p/health-canada-initially-created-for
As much as I respect and admire gato, eugippius, Berenson, Weinstein et al, none are able to rise to the level necessary to grasp that this is all the result of our civilizational rejection of God. Western civilization is entirely dependent on the theological worldview. Liberty and rights are strictly impossible under the reductionist materialist rubric. In this sense the leftists are being eminently rational. In a godless cosmos, only raw power truly matters. All else is delusion.
How on target. Our founders quite well understood the dangers of pure democracy - majority rule, which is why we have the bill of rights, separation of powers. But the Federalist papers warn us of the potential for abuse if our leaders are faithless to their people they are supposed to serve. We see abrogation of those rights, temporarily they say, except there seem no limits on temporary. We see our President knowingly order unlawful things, then when checked by the court, ignore the court. We see a dual system of justice by corrupt officials. What are we to do?
It will take much more than the next election to restore our nation. We need leaders who cannot be bought by corporations nor by social media giants.
Hail to the truckers who started a bloodless revolution against tyrants. We can hope that energizes a movement to start to reign in a lawless government.
I had a fantastic 7th grade social studies teacher (back in the 70's before US public education was was cooped into a political indoctrination system). On the 1st day of class he tough something that hit me like a brick and has stuck with me forever;
Our nations founders understood 3 simple principles that had to be overcome in order to prevent self government from becoming the tyranny of the majority.
1) Democracy is 2 wolves and 1 sheep voting what to eat for dinner.
2) Humans have some level of inherent evil in their nature that perpetually temps them to rule / run roughshod over other humans
3) Not all humans will get along, or be capable of co-existing, with each other for we are all individuals.
Based on these 3 very simple to understand truisms, they created Federalism & the system of checks and balances that would become the US governing system.
- An ironclad declaration of Rights, granted by God himself that could not be violated at any level of government.
- An intentionally weak Federal Government of "limited and enumerated powers".
- All day to day governing powers granted to the states, where people could choose their path based on local preferences (provided they did not infringe on the individual's rights as granted by God and memorialized in the Bill of Rights). If you couldn't along in one state you picked up and moved to another state with more like minded people. (as I did in the earlier days of covid, from IL to FL)
From 3 simple truisms they created the greatest system of government and respect for the individual ever achieved by mankind to this day (and don't say "but slavery", the Founders knew that issue would have to be addressed at some point, but they could not agree at that time. Politics is the art of the possible. As we all know, in time, slavery was addressed, in the bloodiest way possible, yet ultimately it was resolved properly and in keeping with original intent).
Every problem in America today is the direct result of inherently evil individual humans (organized in groups over time) pushing us away from the original intent of our governing system. The only certain way to correct all that has gone wrong is to force our system back toward its original intent (which imo, requires a Federal government less than 5% of its current size & cost, excluding defense). Unfortunately, that is much easier said than done....
You are absolutely right. Emergency powers needs to be stopped.
Guess who helped to put an emergency powers clause into the constitution of the Weimar Reich? His name was Hugo Prueß, often called the father of the constition of the Weimar Republik. Lawyer Hugo died before 1930, but his constitution lived on until about May of 1945, when the victors abolished the government of Germany.
Yep, the Hitlerists used Hugo's constitution as the basis of their rule. William Shirer, the wartime journalist who wrote for the Chicago Tribune, pointed this out in one of his books, though I think he didn't really understand the damning implication. Also interesting, but not really surprising, is the fact that Hugo Preuß was Jewish.
“And he who is not sufficiently courageous to defend his soul, don’t let him be proud of his “progressive” views, and don’t let him boast that he is an academician or a people’s artist, a distinguished figure or a general. Let him say to himself: I am a part of the herd and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and kept warm.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Same in Europe:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/10/europe/paris-freedom-convoy-banned-intl/index.html
It's really great when EU, and Canada preach to other countries about "democracy", "freedom" and "protests".
"The social transformation that unfolds under totalitarianism is built upon, and sustained by, delusions. For only deluded men and women regress to the childlike status of obedient and submissive subjects and hand over complete control of their lives to politicians and bureaucrats. Only a deluded ruling class will believe that they possess the knowledge, wisdom, and acumen to completely control society in a top-down manner. And only when under the spell of delusions would anyone believe that a society composed of power-hungry rulers, on the one hand, and a psychologically regressed population, on the other, will lead to anything other than mass suffering and social ruin."
Joost Meerloo, The Rape of the Mind
Thank you! I get so tired of hearing the word "democracy" blurted out by people on all sides as though it is the pinnicle of human achievement in government. It is almost as if democracy proponents never studied history, never read Aristotle or Madison.
I've always been suspicious of the Democrat party for this very reason.
The idea that our rights are not infringed upon by emergency powers needs to die within the minds of the sheep that pushed for the government to save them. The government can't even provide clean drinking water to people after decades of trying.
https://jestre.substack.com/p/the-people-infringing-on-our-rights
thank you so much... fyi, this St. Valentine's Day, watch the video and take action at your county courthouse, print off a document and give it to your County Prosecutor and/or mail it to them asap registered mail, this will be happening all across the USA, they have to act or be held accountable for dereliction of their duty, https://go.constitutionallawgroup.us/vday
Great Meowa Jima meme. Semper Feline!
This covid scamdemic is a proxy war for total political takeover by the left. The minions that buy into it are seduced by the left's pseudo-moral imperatives. They're convinced they are supremely moral as they punish the left's designated enemies, who for the last 60 years have been demonized with hyperbolic caricatures and paranoid projections.
At its core, we've been plunged into an existential war of opposing moralities. The outcome will determine whether we live in a world of God-given individual liberties, or a collective hell of the greatest good for the greatest number.
My rebuttal to the Globe and mail link….The left has weaponized “emergency authority “ to undermine freedom.
They keep the word “democracy” deliberately undefined, so they can apply it to any situation in which they usurp more power, trample on more individual liberties, and coerce the masses with more psychological conditioning.
For the left, words are just weaponized noise, not meaningful communication.
gato, many good points! thanks for giving me something more to think about ;>)