The US is ruled by a supernational, parasitic elite dressed in blue and red to accommodate our political colorblindness. Consequently, a republican majority will likely amount to very little. Giving lip service is one thing. Making potentially career ending or even life-threatening choices by adhering to your principles is quite another.…
The US is ruled by a supernational, parasitic elite dressed in blue and red to accommodate our political colorblindness. Consequently, a republican majority will likely amount to very little. Giving lip service is one thing. Making potentially career ending or even life-threatening choices by adhering to your principles is quite another.
Yet, the idea that somehow a nation that overwhelmingly disapproves or is even angry with the way things are going (73% according to CNN exit polls), failed to produce the fabled red wave and overturn most incumbent representatives, senators and governors, seems utterly absurd to me.
Even if we were to leave aside the chicanery that likely took place all over the country for a moment, Fetterman’s win over Oz in PA is a very telling example of a constitutional republic in a state of decay.
It is the most jarring illustration of fixation on identity politics and the party line by an alarmingly large number of people, to whom even the most basic qualifications of a candidate, such as the ability to form a coherent sentence, seem largely irrelevant. It is a demoralizing middle finger but also a valuable lesson to the layperson, who still believes that voting for a red or blue puppet once every blood moon is the ultimate form of democratic expression; to anyone whose apathy and laziness make them susceptible to messianism and wishful thinking.
It’s way past time we realized that participating in a rigged system doesn’t make us morally superior. It makes us complicit to the crimes that are committed with our blessing and in our name.
The reimagining of our political system is both essential and long overdue.
"The reimagining of our political system is both essential and long overdue."
Agreed. But such reimagining requires perseverance, fortitude, and great dedication to ferreting out the truth from the constant onslaught of lies and propaganda. Far too many Americans -- and especially so the younger generations -- posses none of these qualities and have the attention spans of a house fly. Squirrel!
Sure, they will bitch and moan about the price of gas, rent (as they will likely never own a home) or a plate of avocado toast, but they will just as willingly conform to the herd and accept the current state of things. Call it Stockholm Syndrome if you like.
Further, these younger ones don't even know of an America with the prosperity, hope, freedom, and opportunity which older generations basked in. And apparently took for granted as we mourn their loss. For the young who have not experienced such things, they can never miss what they have never known and certainly cannot be counted on to help restore.
I dare not suggest that this is an easy endeavor. At the same time, this is not a time for pessimism or complacency.
We have been indoctrinated to the idea that politics is a taboo, that discussions political in nature are to be avoided at all costs, lest we end up in a fight and risk severing connections with friends and family. The most important step, in my opinion, is to stop avoiding the elephant in the room by forcing ourselves to try to reach out to people and get them to question the nature of politics in its current form. It requires a composed but calm approach. We need to be accepting but also persistent, unbiased but also honest about our own shortcomings. A successful engagement requires patience and maybe a bit of finesse.
I do believe that as long as we make it a habit to reach out to people and try our best to make just one of them to wake up, our numbers will increase exponentially.
For me politics was a question of venue, not a question of taboo. I certainly do not think that politics is something that should be discussed on a personal Facebook page. However, if you on your personal Facebook page, order me to wear a mask or get an experimental vaccine, I will indeed make comments about it. (and maybe about the appropriateness of the venue). Also, if you want to tell me how evil orange man is or Biden, I may comment on that as well (and again, the question of venue).
Substacks, Facebook Groups, pages, etc. are fair game for politics because again, it is a more appropriate venue. I even thought at one time to put up my own Facebook group entitled "Stuck in the Middle With You"
The thing is, I have been blocked after I responded to these people whether it was about Covid policies or even about dissenting opinions in general. So it's not indoctrination. They are the ones indoctrinated with the idea of "disagreement is hate" not us. I am open to conversation, I am open to concession, and compromise as needed.
Final thought: I have subscribed to a number of substacks that propagate the main narrative, guess how many of them have commenting turned on for non-paying subscribers.
I agree with you that our enemy is indeed purely political. I'm also certainly not blind to their constant attempts at indoctrination and propaganda, almost always political in nature.
But maybe we have different life experiences. In my circle of family and friends at least, I'm being constantly confronted by many for trying to steer the conversation to politics: "why did you have to bring up politics, we were having a nice time", "no politics at the dinner table" and so on. Sometimes even preemptively: "we'll go visit x but please leave politics at home". This has been for me a constant point of friction through all my adult life. Sadly it persists even today that things are demonstrably bad, and are getting worse by the hour. That's the taboo I'm referring to.
I am old enough to have “basked” at least for a while. I am not able to blame this solely, or even especially, on the young. So many of my generation, boomers, especially women, don’t mind at all the loss of freedom and opportunity, not even for their children. I hate to be a downer but I see only one glimmer of hope at the moment. It appears that the folks in Florida recognized competent leadership. If that is so, we can begin there. Begin to cite that victory to folks in discussion.See if they can understand the differences between competence and incompetence. See if they care. Many do not.
, exactly! And what happened to the government doubting anti war Hippies??? I’m 70 and cannot believe how complacent my peers are. And women my age? They’ve lost their voice...Hillary is not my Queen.
The young will find their way. They always do. It certainly is a very challenging time for them, and all the rest of us. I do worry about the longterm ill affects of the vaccines. I'm hoping for the best.
Yes, I remarked recently that it felt like I was in the last generation that was allowed to have hope for the future. The nihilistic drum beat perpetuated by social media has denied it to many. The internet is also not real life, but days like Tuesday speak for themselves
The messed-up people who seek much more wealth than they need and those who seek power for its own sake end up being the super-rich and powerful. Anyone who can come up with a way out of that rule which is almost a definition is a real genius.
I'd say the political system is fine, it's the society that has lost it's proverbial drivers license to operate it. Drop the guard on education and corruption enforcement along with the loss of independent media and this is what you get. The government taking control of the people. One big psyop after removing perpetrated by a cabal of financial elites and state intelligence agencies/operatives. The decline started 60yrs ago.
Good comment. Better than the essay. I live in Pa. Cannot believe Fetterman was elected, not because of his disabilities but because of his total lack of demonstrated abilities. Having said that, nearly everyone I know voted for this clown. Some actually said to me “ democracy is on the ballot”. This when we are voting. Many folks I see have no idea of what government does and don’t care to know but don’t seem to mind government taking control of the people especially if it comes with some” free money”.
Isn't it interesting how some of them parrot verbatim what the monopoly media shove into their brains? I've long since terminated voluntary contacts with such.
It's a spiritual anodyne, like cutting out television-watching. Only in this case you cut-out secondary television-watching.
What the heck does that even mean -"democracy is on the ballot?" That's a platform that has no meaning, it just sounds good, like you are choosing between democracy and totalitarianism or communism which is what they'll get when they cast their vote for the "democracy" candidate. Fetterman does not answer to the people which means they have no means of controlling him.
The 'political system' cannot be 'fine' if we consider 'system' to encompass the institutional corruption in the courts, media, political parties and the entrenched bureaucracy. When the institutional framework has baked-in perverse incentives, unconstitutional case law, and a web of immortal corporate corruption, the ballot box can not be a remedy, even if votes were honestly counted.
Perhaps you meant to limit 'political system' to the barest of abstractions, i.e. "democracy". If that is the case, you might reconsider even that, after digesting Hoppe's, "Democracy, the God that Failed." Democracy itself may invariably be that system which enables and promotes participatory "legalized plunder". See Bastiat's "The Law" for more on that topic.
No, the political system of self government with divided and enumerated powers as outlined in the Constitution - of, by, and for the people. The failures that we are seeing are due to the removal of safeguards allowing corruption to creep in, the first of which being the buying of politicians, creating conflicts of interests that they rationalize away. There are probably many other examples, that one seems to be the most egregious to me. Imagine if a career politician's net worth was measured at the beginning of their career and periodically along the way. If their worth jumps for any reason they have to answer for the change and prove no conflict. That's how it's done in the military and I think in the civil service. Also, the removal of the civics of US government from the primary education curriculum. School house rock commercials were great back in the day, but other PSAs would help the public understand how the government is designed to operate. There is also a big problem in oversight of the administrative agencies - they've become captured and politicized because the congress has allowed it to happen. People are acting out of greed and self interest and are getting away with it, in most cases red-handedly.
Almost any system operates with safeguards. You can't expect the system to function properly or even as expected when changes are made that upset the balance of operation. It's like removing the governor on an engine then getting mad at the engine when it blows. There is so much more and I can see the need for changes, but cleaning house has to be a top priority. The elected government has to answer to the people not corporations, entities, or heaven forbid, other governments.
"Yet, the idea that somehow a nation that overwhelmingly disapproves or is even angry with the way things are going (73% according to CNN exit polls), failed to produce the fabled red wave and overturn most incumbent representatives, senators and governors, seems utterly absurd to me."
Me, too.
I am generally in almost disturbingly lock-step agreement with our author's take on things, but in this case, I do not believe it is as simple as Red Team making a paltry showing here. Yes, Red Team isn't representative of anything much other than "Not Blue Team," but at this point, Blue Team has gone so far beyond Full Totalitarian Nightmare State that it seems that Red Team should have been able to win with literal piles of litter-box filth.
The leadership is compromised in one of a myriad of ways as suits each of them personally and the rest of the team has been cowered into following the party line.
the biggest [roblem for third party candidates is that after ross perot made a successful dent in there duopoly, they changed the rules. They wont even let them in the door. It requires a massive grassroots effort to even make the smallest of headway. It can be done though. The focus has to be the house of representatives to start. Small districts would allow grassroots to work. If you pull it off and start winning seats, you then can start making headway toward a senate seat or the presidency.
Nothing wrong with long-term goals, but in the short and medium term, achievable goals must be set and practical steps taken. One such is the 'Defend the Guard' campaign, with legislation being introduced in many states. These are a form of nullification of unconstitutional federal edicts.
If you're one of the 2% that studies, on your own initiative, principles foundational to our civilization, understand this is exceptional due to your genetics and character.
Identity is the only thing that can unite and what identity is most vilified by the controllers?
The Fetterman election, thought through to a logical conclusion, leads one to this dark but accurate take:
"The reason this particularly race is key to the legitimacy question is that there is no answer that supports the democratic system. If everything was above board and the people did vote for a brain damaged hobo, then this is proof that the public should never be trusted with such decisions. The openness to voting for a brain damaged hobo should be a disqualification to voting. On the other hand, if the vote is rigged again, then there is no reason for people to bother voting."
"The Democrat machines in (MI & PA) focused on ballot collection and ignored the irrelevant votes as cast. (...) A vote cannot be cast by a person who is no longer alive, or no longer lives in the area. However, a ballot can be sent, completed and returned regardless of the status of the initially attributed and/or registered individual."
Short version: there's no "vote harder!" solution to this, not at the federal level. Combine demographic reality, Democrat chicanery, and Republican complicity, and Washington is effectively immune to meaningful reform.
The sheer insanity of the MSM suggesting the day after the election that Fetterman might actually be considered as a candidate for POTUS was, in my view, a rubbing of our collective noses in it. "See!", they are gloating, "We can run anyone we want, even this useless golem, and we'll win." It was an "eff you" if I ever saw one.
Never did I imagine that the world could be so corrupt
Game’s been rigged from the get-go but now the jig is up!
... which is to say: This ain't over. The NSA/military has all the information they need to bring the perps to justice. There's too much evidence to ignore that the day of reckoning is soon upon us. I am nothing but optimistic about how this turns out.
The US is ruled by a supernational, parasitic elite dressed in blue and red to accommodate our political colorblindness. Consequently, a republican majority will likely amount to very little. Giving lip service is one thing. Making potentially career ending or even life-threatening choices by adhering to your principles is quite another.
Yet, the idea that somehow a nation that overwhelmingly disapproves or is even angry with the way things are going (73% according to CNN exit polls), failed to produce the fabled red wave and overturn most incumbent representatives, senators and governors, seems utterly absurd to me.
Even if we were to leave aside the chicanery that likely took place all over the country for a moment, Fetterman’s win over Oz in PA is a very telling example of a constitutional republic in a state of decay.
It is the most jarring illustration of fixation on identity politics and the party line by an alarmingly large number of people, to whom even the most basic qualifications of a candidate, such as the ability to form a coherent sentence, seem largely irrelevant. It is a demoralizing middle finger but also a valuable lesson to the layperson, who still believes that voting for a red or blue puppet once every blood moon is the ultimate form of democratic expression; to anyone whose apathy and laziness make them susceptible to messianism and wishful thinking.
It’s way past time we realized that participating in a rigged system doesn’t make us morally superior. It makes us complicit to the crimes that are committed with our blessing and in our name.
The reimagining of our political system is both essential and long overdue.
"The reimagining of our political system is both essential and long overdue."
Agreed. But such reimagining requires perseverance, fortitude, and great dedication to ferreting out the truth from the constant onslaught of lies and propaganda. Far too many Americans -- and especially so the younger generations -- posses none of these qualities and have the attention spans of a house fly. Squirrel!
Sure, they will bitch and moan about the price of gas, rent (as they will likely never own a home) or a plate of avocado toast, but they will just as willingly conform to the herd and accept the current state of things. Call it Stockholm Syndrome if you like.
Further, these younger ones don't even know of an America with the prosperity, hope, freedom, and opportunity which older generations basked in. And apparently took for granted as we mourn their loss. For the young who have not experienced such things, they can never miss what they have never known and certainly cannot be counted on to help restore.
Call it, "The Patriot Act Generation."
Exactly
I dare not suggest that this is an easy endeavor. At the same time, this is not a time for pessimism or complacency.
We have been indoctrinated to the idea that politics is a taboo, that discussions political in nature are to be avoided at all costs, lest we end up in a fight and risk severing connections with friends and family. The most important step, in my opinion, is to stop avoiding the elephant in the room by forcing ourselves to try to reach out to people and get them to question the nature of politics in its current form. It requires a composed but calm approach. We need to be accepting but also persistent, unbiased but also honest about our own shortcomings. A successful engagement requires patience and maybe a bit of finesse.
I do believe that as long as we make it a habit to reach out to people and try our best to make just one of them to wake up, our numbers will increase exponentially.
For me politics was a question of venue, not a question of taboo. I certainly do not think that politics is something that should be discussed on a personal Facebook page. However, if you on your personal Facebook page, order me to wear a mask or get an experimental vaccine, I will indeed make comments about it. (and maybe about the appropriateness of the venue). Also, if you want to tell me how evil orange man is or Biden, I may comment on that as well (and again, the question of venue).
Substacks, Facebook Groups, pages, etc. are fair game for politics because again, it is a more appropriate venue. I even thought at one time to put up my own Facebook group entitled "Stuck in the Middle With You"
The thing is, I have been blocked after I responded to these people whether it was about Covid policies or even about dissenting opinions in general. So it's not indoctrination. They are the ones indoctrinated with the idea of "disagreement is hate" not us. I am open to conversation, I am open to concession, and compromise as needed.
Final thought: I have subscribed to a number of substacks that propagate the main narrative, guess how many of them have commenting turned on for non-paying subscribers.
The enemy is purely political and they're happy to force their political views down your throat at every opportunity. Politics isn't a taboo.
I agree with you that our enemy is indeed purely political. I'm also certainly not blind to their constant attempts at indoctrination and propaganda, almost always political in nature.
But maybe we have different life experiences. In my circle of family and friends at least, I'm being constantly confronted by many for trying to steer the conversation to politics: "why did you have to bring up politics, we were having a nice time", "no politics at the dinner table" and so on. Sometimes even preemptively: "we'll go visit x but please leave politics at home". This has been for me a constant point of friction through all my adult life. Sadly it persists even today that things are demonstrably bad, and are getting worse by the hour. That's the taboo I'm referring to.
it's an honor to chat with someone who honestly shares a different view
i was at a local club tonight and it was like zombie town.
thank you for thinking and pushing back on what i say.
I am old enough to have “basked” at least for a while. I am not able to blame this solely, or even especially, on the young. So many of my generation, boomers, especially women, don’t mind at all the loss of freedom and opportunity, not even for their children. I hate to be a downer but I see only one glimmer of hope at the moment. It appears that the folks in Florida recognized competent leadership. If that is so, we can begin there. Begin to cite that victory to folks in discussion.See if they can understand the differences between competence and incompetence. See if they care. Many do not.
, exactly! And what happened to the government doubting anti war Hippies??? I’m 70 and cannot believe how complacent my peers are. And women my age? They’ve lost their voice...Hillary is not my Queen.
Yeh isn't war the easy thing to be against? Where are they?
De-moralized. There's still some out there though. But the mass of the left was just annoyed at Bush and Trump's persona.
The young will find their way. They always do. It certainly is a very challenging time for them, and all the rest of us. I do worry about the longterm ill affects of the vaccines. I'm hoping for the best.
Good outlook Richie
Yes, I remarked recently that it felt like I was in the last generation that was allowed to have hope for the future. The nihilistic drum beat perpetuated by social media has denied it to many. The internet is also not real life, but days like Tuesday speak for themselves
Even beyond all this, which is accurate and well-said, thank you,
Humanity has a psycho/sociopath problem.
They are everywhere and hands in pretty much everything, from local to global.
Until us Humans with Empathy figure out a way to cut them out of all our processes of society, we'll continue to be proper fooked.
Sociopathic traits are often quite useful which is why they haven't been bred out of society.
But societies do create structures to try to limit the power of anyone diverging from the norm.
There are no permanent remedies, because new people are born every minute, under every sort of condition that can influence brain wiring.
We have a pretty strong Constitution. Unfortunately the two current main political parties each try to misuse it to their taste.
That eternal vigilance thingy, it wasn't just a suggestion.
The messed-up people who seek much more wealth than they need and those who seek power for its own sake end up being the super-rich and powerful. Anyone who can come up with a way out of that rule which is almost a definition is a real genius.
I'd say the political system is fine, it's the society that has lost it's proverbial drivers license to operate it. Drop the guard on education and corruption enforcement along with the loss of independent media and this is what you get. The government taking control of the people. One big psyop after removing perpetrated by a cabal of financial elites and state intelligence agencies/operatives. The decline started 60yrs ago.
Good comment. Better than the essay. I live in Pa. Cannot believe Fetterman was elected, not because of his disabilities but because of his total lack of demonstrated abilities. Having said that, nearly everyone I know voted for this clown. Some actually said to me “ democracy is on the ballot”. This when we are voting. Many folks I see have no idea of what government does and don’t care to know but don’t seem to mind government taking control of the people especially if it comes with some” free money”.
Isn't it interesting how some of them parrot verbatim what the monopoly media shove into their brains? I've long since terminated voluntary contacts with such.
It's a spiritual anodyne, like cutting out television-watching. Only in this case you cut-out secondary television-watching.
I like secondary television watching. Think I’ll steal the phrase.
What the heck does that even mean -"democracy is on the ballot?" That's a platform that has no meaning, it just sounds good, like you are choosing between democracy and totalitarianism or communism which is what they'll get when they cast their vote for the "democracy" candidate. Fetterman does not answer to the people which means they have no means of controlling him.
The more they hype democracy the more obvious that it's a false idol.
The 'political system' cannot be 'fine' if we consider 'system' to encompass the institutional corruption in the courts, media, political parties and the entrenched bureaucracy. When the institutional framework has baked-in perverse incentives, unconstitutional case law, and a web of immortal corporate corruption, the ballot box can not be a remedy, even if votes were honestly counted.
Perhaps you meant to limit 'political system' to the barest of abstractions, i.e. "democracy". If that is the case, you might reconsider even that, after digesting Hoppe's, "Democracy, the God that Failed." Democracy itself may invariably be that system which enables and promotes participatory "legalized plunder". See Bastiat's "The Law" for more on that topic.
No, the political system of self government with divided and enumerated powers as outlined in the Constitution - of, by, and for the people. The failures that we are seeing are due to the removal of safeguards allowing corruption to creep in, the first of which being the buying of politicians, creating conflicts of interests that they rationalize away. There are probably many other examples, that one seems to be the most egregious to me. Imagine if a career politician's net worth was measured at the beginning of their career and periodically along the way. If their worth jumps for any reason they have to answer for the change and prove no conflict. That's how it's done in the military and I think in the civil service. Also, the removal of the civics of US government from the primary education curriculum. School house rock commercials were great back in the day, but other PSAs would help the public understand how the government is designed to operate. There is also a big problem in oversight of the administrative agencies - they've become captured and politicized because the congress has allowed it to happen. People are acting out of greed and self interest and are getting away with it, in most cases red-handedly.
Almost any system operates with safeguards. You can't expect the system to function properly or even as expected when changes are made that upset the balance of operation. It's like removing the governor on an engine then getting mad at the engine when it blows. There is so much more and I can see the need for changes, but cleaning house has to be a top priority. The elected government has to answer to the people not corporations, entities, or heaven forbid, other governments.
Perhaps most of the administrative agencies are unconstitutional. Have you been to the Tenth Amendment Center?
Thank you!
The first thing newly elected officials experience when they arrive in D.C. is a swift neutering.
Would like to see them try that with DeSantis. He's got a pair, made of iron if I'm not mistaken.
I don't trust any of them
Understandable. Trust has been shattered.
Brass
"Yet, the idea that somehow a nation that overwhelmingly disapproves or is even angry with the way things are going (73% according to CNN exit polls), failed to produce the fabled red wave and overturn most incumbent representatives, senators and governors, seems utterly absurd to me."
Me, too.
I am generally in almost disturbingly lock-step agreement with our author's take on things, but in this case, I do not believe it is as simple as Red Team making a paltry showing here. Yes, Red Team isn't representative of anything much other than "Not Blue Team," but at this point, Blue Team has gone so far beyond Full Totalitarian Nightmare State that it seems that Red Team should have been able to win with literal piles of litter-box filth.
Something seems awry.
The leadership is compromised in one of a myriad of ways as suits each of them personally and the rest of the team has been cowered into following the party line.
You sum it up nicely. Thank you.
the biggest [roblem for third party candidates is that after ross perot made a successful dent in there duopoly, they changed the rules. They wont even let them in the door. It requires a massive grassroots effort to even make the smallest of headway. It can be done though. The focus has to be the house of representatives to start. Small districts would allow grassroots to work. If you pull it off and start winning seats, you then can start making headway toward a senate seat or the presidency.
Tactically, we have a better chance of winning in state legislatures and implemening Nullification.
https://tomwoods.com/nullification/
im on board with abolishing the entire federal government.
Nothing wrong with long-term goals, but in the short and medium term, achievable goals must be set and practical steps taken. One such is the 'Defend the Guard' campaign, with legislation being introduced in many states. These are a form of nullification of unconstitutional federal edicts.
https://www.defendtheguard.us/
If you're one of the 2% that studies, on your own initiative, principles foundational to our civilization, understand this is exceptional due to your genetics and character.
Identity is the only thing that can unite and what identity is most vilified by the controllers?
Yea that one.
The Fetterman election, thought through to a logical conclusion, leads one to this dark but accurate take:
"The reason this particularly race is key to the legitimacy question is that there is no answer that supports the democratic system. If everything was above board and the people did vote for a brain damaged hobo, then this is proof that the public should never be trusted with such decisions. The openness to voting for a brain damaged hobo should be a disqualification to voting. On the other hand, if the vote is rigged again, then there is no reason for people to bother voting."
https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=28644
Now pair that with this take from Sundance:
"The Democrat machines in (MI & PA) focused on ballot collection and ignored the irrelevant votes as cast. (...) A vote cannot be cast by a person who is no longer alive, or no longer lives in the area. However, a ballot can be sent, completed and returned regardless of the status of the initially attributed and/or registered individual."
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/11/09/big-picture-2020-midterm-elections-highlights-distinct-difference-between-ballots-and-votes/
Short version: there's no "vote harder!" solution to this, not at the federal level. Combine demographic reality, Democrat chicanery, and Republican complicity, and Washington is effectively immune to meaningful reform.
The sheer insanity of the MSM suggesting the day after the election that Fetterman might actually be considered as a candidate for POTUS was, in my view, a rubbing of our collective noses in it. "See!", they are gloating, "We can run anyone we want, even this useless golem, and we'll win." It was an "eff you" if I ever saw one.
well if we consider the bible, correctly translated, race is everything.
only one people are children of the covenenant.
and we are being punished, by the others.
God wills it.
We need a reimagining of ourselves first. We can't vote ourselves out of evil and tyranny.
https://narrowpath.substack.com/p/voting
not reimnagining, repentance.
and knowing who your 'we' is.
study the correctly translated bible.
Again, Tombstone Crow's words are appropriate:
Never did I imagine that the world could be so corrupt
Game’s been rigged from the get-go but now the jig is up!
... which is to say: This ain't over. The NSA/military has all the information they need to bring the perps to justice. There's too much evidence to ignore that the day of reckoning is soon upon us. I am nothing but optimistic about how this turns out.