If you’ve brushed up against any news or social media in the last week, you’ve heard that we’re living through a constitutional crisis. But let’s go looking for the details.
The ACLU have zero moral authority. During the Covid Atrocities - the greatest attack on civil liberties of our lifetimes - the ACLU sat on their hands and did nothing whatsoever to resist.
I am a former "card carrying member" of the ACLU. But were I today to meet an ACLU employee, I would spit on xir shoes.
It was worse than that. They didn't just sit by and do nothing. They actively advocated for vaccine mandates - without recognition of religions exceptions - and explained their absurd position as some sort of twisted defense of civil liberties.
the covid attrocities--exactly what popped into my head reading this. "Trump" and "DOGE" are now the programmed answers whenever the brainless screenreaders are asked a question. It's frightening.
It really isn’t frightening, it is expected. Cloward-Piven. Progressives/marxists, and radical Democrats lack creativity and are very formulaic in their responses.
"American political norms supposedly limit presidential authority over the operation of the executive branch, placing “career civil servants” in the highest and final positions of authority."
This is among the most absurd arguments I've ever read. The government serves at OUR, We the People's, indulgence. This includes the blood sucking bureaucrats taking shelter under this preposterous premise that somehow they not only control our duly elected leaders, but by extension WE THE PEOPLE.
This demented inverted logic is basically the worst nightmare of our founding fathers. I'll explain what I mean by that in a moment with quotes, but first, here is where this is headed if these smug sneering snowflake usurpers wiping their noses with our sacred Constitution do not stand down:
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." —Thomas Jeffersion
---
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect anyone who approaches that jewel." —Patrick Henry
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” —James Madison
“Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.” —Thomas Paine
"But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - are easily misled. He also stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process. Without that, he said, the wolves will take over." —Carl Sagan
“Government Is Like Fire, a Dangerous Servant and a Fearful Master” —George Washington
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” —Thomas Paine
“Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.” —John Adams
Excellent quotes. I recommend "Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine. Might not be too popular with the religious right, but nonetheless a great read, agree with it or not.
......untethered government by 'human reason' 🥸 alone leads to the THREE G’s: guillotines, gulags and gas-chambers. 💪🏼🔪 Paine was a precursor to marx, lenin, mao, castro and pol pot. 🤔🕰️💀 (not a fan)
The promoters of guillotines, gulags, and gas chambers were anything but fans of reason, and there's a long history of religious wars, genocides, pogroms, and inquisitions.
Robert is unfortunately quite correct in his estimation which a careful review of the French Revolution would favorably prove. Not to mention the successive revolutions that convulsed Europe during the 19th and early 20th Century. Without the meddling of this army of Loyola, the world would be a much nicer place to live in.
Also, the current head of this church is himself a Jesuit. The first of his kind to hold the high office in Rome.
I had a short 2-year stint in the federal govt back in the early 1980s while still in college. It was evident at that time that the permanent bureaucratic class thought themselves above any elected or appointed positions, and even called themselves the "we-bees" - their description to newly appointed/elected bosses, for "we be here before you and we be here after you."
That reminds me of the book Jay Sekulow wrote: Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom. (published in 2015).
Obama's pen-and-phone, and Biden's mRNA mandate and illegal student loan forgiveness were nothing to balk at for these mouth breathing libtards. But federal agencies being held accountable for wasted taxpayer dollars? That is just unthinkable.
They believe the civil servants are there to grease the skids for Democrat presidents and they’re supposed to blow the bridges and mine the roads for Republican presidents.
Thank the Lord for the technology that has made these last few weeks possible. Substack, it-used-to-be-Twitter, and hundreds, (thousands?), of independent bloggers are keeping us informed. We actually know, for the first time in many decades, what our government, and their quasi-government NGO's are, or have really been doing. To our dismay. (And horror - have you *watched* those confirmation hearings?)
And we know about the filth and corruption that Trump's troops are finding under every rock they turn over. As they find it!
It won't be easy. It won't be quick. But assuming Trump and his team survive, it will put an end to the greatest grift the world has ever known, and will re-create the great nation that was, and will again be, America.
As someone who wallowed in the world of federal grants at the state level, I'm thrilled beyond words that the administration is going after these ridiculous programs in every agency. Grants = grift.
I spent my career working for industry trying to bring some reason to EPA rulemaking and I can assure you that what the EPA bureaucrats did was exactly the same when there was a Republican president as when a Democrat was in power. They clearly saw their role as doing what EPA staff wanted, not what the politicals wanted (not that the politicals really knew what was going on at the actual rulemaking level.)
“Again, American political norms supposedly limit presidential authority over the operation of the executive branch, placing “career civil servants” in the highest and final positions of authority. Government is to be run by agencies…”
That’s a perfect description of our government over the last four years! Bingo.
Why are the dems in congress complaining so much about turning on the light switch? They are the progressives who love change but now demand status quo. Why are they wanting to die on this hill that is now exposed as totally corrupt?
Thank you Chris, excellent commentary. What we are experiencing is the reaction of an operating organism that for the first time in over a century is facing a real threat, knows it and is responding accordingly. This will get worse before it gets better. I am praying that the Supreme Court takes the correct constitutional side regarding these actions but I am preparing myself for disappointment. Not sure there is enough of a majority there with sufficient backbone to actually stand up for the document that is their sole reason for existing.
Some asshole that takes most of my paycheck while taking gibbs through a revolving door from the MiC or pharma, telling me what I can and cannot say on the internet, and using the government to force me to take random drugs (even though I am not sick) doesn't sound like a "servant" to me.
Also, as Gracchus says above, fuck the ACLU. They're just like the rest of the mouth-breathing shitlibs... People who steal the valor of their ostensible predecessors in order to gain a veneer of moral authority while shitting all over the civil liberties of others.
Thank you for a reference I was trying to think of!
That's been some of my amusement when I've heard from some about how "we need to return to monarchy." When the king controlled and led around by a gaggle of scheming courtiers is a trope so old and common I was having trouble picking out just one example. (It's almost like no matter which system you set up, the same problems keep arising no matter what.)
"Mandarin rule" - I'll taking that term. Thx again.
I don't know Chinese but I think "Mandarin" translates as "scholar-bureaucrat"; i.e. exactly what we've got now. Academics in the administration, thinking their credentials equals being in the right. morally and factually.
In Imperial China, weak Emperors were side-lined into a position of a ceremonial figurehead bu the Mandarin caste, something that greatly contributed to weakening the Empire when different cadres of bureaucrats used the state's machinery against each other, jockeying for position and power.
Mandarin is NOT a Chinese word! It is Portuguese. It means to send, or to convey, but it means when used in a bureaucracy the person who controls the command. When I was first in China I was in Shen Zhen, which is in the south. I asked if people spoke Mandarin or Cantonese. Nobody knew the word ‘Mandarin’. The common tongue, which we call Mandarin is ‘pu tung hwa’ as opposed to ‘Canton Hwa’.
In all seriousness, maybe a fitness test for service ought to be physical as well as intellectual?
X no. push-ups, N no. of pull-ups, Z no. squats with a backpack weighing 15% of your body-weight, swim five lengths under nn no. of minutes, and so on. Nothing extreme. Nothing beyond what an 18-year old conscript in 1975 would be expected to be able to do.
Reason for this: getting fit and staying that way takes discipline, order and structure, which tends to bleed through to all aspects of your life and doings.
The ACLU has become an oxymoron. As have the SPLC. ADL, NAACP. Catholic Charities, the Pope, WHO, UN ,DOJ, DoE, AMA,Democrat Party , Human Rights Watch, EPA, Whistleblower Protection Act, Lawful Immigration, “ representative electorate, DHS, HHS, ABA, “ Innocent until proven guilty”, “ Nobody is above the law”, , desegregation, merit based employment and college entry, anti-racism , tolerance, diversity, the difference between religious freedom, Separation of Church and State, Deism and Theocracy, bodily autonomy, doctor/patient privacy, attorney/client privilege, USAID , National Sovereignty and a Democratic Constitutional Republic with a government elected by the People to serve We The People.
Instead, a cabal of corrupt thieves and shills , an enormous toxic unelected bureaucracy owned by anti-everything America, Constitution, freedom and all things living sociopathic cabal of elite kleptocorporate multinational corporate megalomaniacal globalist technocrats are ruling a post-1984 Brave New World.
Plenty of thanks to Mitch Pence, Cornyn, Barr, Cassidy, Bush, Cheney, Kasich, Conway, Azar, Crenshaw , McStain, and Co for the collaborative sell out, but hey, they’re “ pro-life Christian” fiscally conservative American patriots who are oh-so-morally righteous. Yeah , “ abortion” is the big issue plaguing America. I wish their mothers and those who spawned the despicable anti-democracy Dems had “ chosen” to terminate their pregnancies.
Mr. Bray - thank you; this is excellent. Might I add that Congress has become so deeply corrupted (lobbying, etc.) that they are ‘worse than worthless’. They make about $175,000 per year, yet they end up as multi-millionaires (numbers don’t lie).
The first turning in this spectacle is Musk and 47 turning the government computers inside out ( note to self…. Never bet against a guy who s employees built a device that can snatch a rocket out of the air like a kid with chopsticks grabbing a fly) the second turning will be when all the money spent on things that don’t help america is revealed and it s coming, the third turning will be when it s revealed who in government both elected and no nelected got the kickbacks and feathered their own nests , the fourth turning will be when Americans come out in force with tar feathers and a rail for “ public servants” at that point perhaps most of the aged “ public servants” Will take the easy way out. The fifth turning will be if the guy who who was smart enough to find the graft and corruptions is smart enough to build a new system that prevents this from ever happening again. Don’t bet against rich men with an axe to grind against the people who attempted to take them down. The only guy to bet against is Gates when they came for him he folded like a cheap tent in a wind storm. Pax Americana
Elon made a good argument regarding democracy vs. bureaucracy. Referring to the deep state as the Deep State Bureaucracy would help those casually interested understand the problem.
Calling it ‘the bureaucracy’ though is way too benign. Also, Eichmann, the quintessential bureaucrat, wasn’t in charge. He was somewhat in charge and chose to implement the worst aspects of his leadership as ruthlessly as possible. But there was a level of demonism above him.
The ACLU have zero moral authority. During the Covid Atrocities - the greatest attack on civil liberties of our lifetimes - the ACLU sat on their hands and did nothing whatsoever to resist.
I am a former "card carrying member" of the ACLU. But were I today to meet an ACLU employee, I would spit on xir shoes.
It was worse than that. They didn't just sit by and do nothing. They actively advocated for vaccine mandates - without recognition of religions exceptions - and explained their absurd position as some sort of twisted defense of civil liberties.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2021/09/02/the-aclu-position-on-vaccine-mandates-is-a-head-scratcher-n2595246
They did, however, defend the rights of prisoners to refuse the covid jab. The ACLU is an absurd, Orwellian disgrace. "Go home, you're drunk."
"absurd, Orwellian disgrace"
Seconded
Sir, this is a Wendy’s
Moral and ethical inversion
The ACLU that at one time defended the KKK’s right to hold rallies is long ago dead.
The KKK that was funded and led by J. Edgar Hoover's "informants", not that the rest of those morons ever had the guts to admit it or even know it.
Resistance to the COVID Hoax would have been bad for fund raising.
They're not very good lawyers either. "Norms" are not legal standards as are statutes, binding court precedent, or adopted administrative regulations.
He is violating norms. Violating anything has got a bad sound to it. Norms has a solid middle class ring to it. It is sleazy language.
This whole topic has this tape running in my head:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvX5pqQKIes
I kept thinking of Norm too. Ex-bar owner here.
A civilian rights outfit that thinks bodily autonomy is a quaint 20th concept? Yea hard pass
the covid attrocities--exactly what popped into my head reading this. "Trump" and "DOGE" are now the programmed answers whenever the brainless screenreaders are asked a question. It's frightening.
It really isn’t frightening, it is expected. Cloward-Piven. Progressives/marxists, and radical Democrats lack creativity and are very formulaic in their responses.
The TDS is strong in this one. She may not need any more vaccines.
"American political norms supposedly limit presidential authority over the operation of the executive branch, placing “career civil servants” in the highest and final positions of authority."
This is among the most absurd arguments I've ever read. The government serves at OUR, We the People's, indulgence. This includes the blood sucking bureaucrats taking shelter under this preposterous premise that somehow they not only control our duly elected leaders, but by extension WE THE PEOPLE.
This demented inverted logic is basically the worst nightmare of our founding fathers. I'll explain what I mean by that in a moment with quotes, but first, here is where this is headed if these smug sneering snowflake usurpers wiping their noses with our sacred Constitution do not stand down:
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." —Thomas Jeffersion
---
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect anyone who approaches that jewel." —Patrick Henry
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” —James Madison
“Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.” —Thomas Paine
"But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - are easily misled. He also stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process. Without that, he said, the wolves will take over." —Carl Sagan
“Government Is Like Fire, a Dangerous Servant and a Fearful Master” —George Washington
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” —Thomas Paine
“Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.” —John Adams
We need another JDVance moment directed at these ACLU morons: "Margaret, do you hear yourself?"
Love that!!
Excellent quotes. I recommend "Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine. Might not be too popular with the religious right, but nonetheless a great read, agree with it or not.
TP walks a fine line.....📯🩸⚰️
......untethered government by 'human reason' 🥸 alone leads to the THREE G’s: guillotines, gulags and gas-chambers. 💪🏼🔪 Paine was a precursor to marx, lenin, mao, castro and pol pot. 🤔🕰️💀 (not a fan)
The promoters of guillotines, gulags, and gas chambers were anything but fans of reason, and there's a long history of religious wars, genocides, pogroms, and inquisitions.
They were called Jesuits…
And their influences is alive and well in DC.
Robert is unfortunately quite correct in his estimation which a careful review of the French Revolution would favorably prove. Not to mention the successive revolutions that convulsed Europe during the 19th and early 20th Century. Without the meddling of this army of Loyola, the world would be a much nicer place to live in.
Also, the current head of this church is himself a Jesuit. The first of his kind to hold the high office in Rome.
Invoking "political norms" is not surprising, coming from those who seem to find Trump "too vulgar" to hold office.
🤜🏻🤛🏻
I had a short 2-year stint in the federal govt back in the early 1980s while still in college. It was evident at that time that the permanent bureaucratic class thought themselves above any elected or appointed positions, and even called themselves the "we-bees" - their description to newly appointed/elected bosses, for "we be here before you and we be here after you."
I was cured of government employment forever.
That reminds me of the book Jay Sekulow wrote: Undemocratic: How Unelected, Unaccountable Bureaucrats are Stealing Your Liberty and Freedom. (published in 2015).
If you read the whinging of the quasi-Mandarin class on Reddit and the like, many of them exhibit this attitude unapologetically.
Obama's pen-and-phone, and Biden's mRNA mandate and illegal student loan forgiveness were nothing to balk at for these mouth breathing libtards. But federal agencies being held accountable for wasted taxpayer dollars? That is just unthinkable.
The math is exceptionally easy:
EOs supporting liberal/progressive interests = good.
EOs supporting conservative/libertarian interests = bad.
They believe the civil servants are there to grease the skids for Democrat presidents and they’re supposed to blow the bridges and mine the roads for Republican presidents.
Thank the Lord for the technology that has made these last few weeks possible. Substack, it-used-to-be-Twitter, and hundreds, (thousands?), of independent bloggers are keeping us informed. We actually know, for the first time in many decades, what our government, and their quasi-government NGO's are, or have really been doing. To our dismay. (And horror - have you *watched* those confirmation hearings?)
And we know about the filth and corruption that Trump's troops are finding under every rock they turn over. As they find it!
It won't be easy. It won't be quick. But assuming Trump and his team survive, it will put an end to the greatest grift the world has ever known, and will re-create the great nation that was, and will again be, America.
"Freedom of the Press only applies to those who have a press." (Was it Mencken who wrote that? Franklin? I can't easily find it on my Interwebs.)
The technology has made it easy to have a press and, like you, I'm finding that a Good Thing.
As someone who wallowed in the world of federal grants at the state level, I'm thrilled beyond words that the administration is going after these ridiculous programs in every agency. Grants = grift.
I spent my career working for industry trying to bring some reason to EPA rulemaking and I can assure you that what the EPA bureaucrats did was exactly the same when there was a Republican president as when a Democrat was in power. They clearly saw their role as doing what EPA staff wanted, not what the politicals wanted (not that the politicals really knew what was going on at the actual rulemaking level.)
Well said. Those unelected bureaucrats think they are in charge.
Those unelected bureaucrats HAVE been in charge - for far, far too many decades.
And now, the lord willing, we can perhaps begin the long agonizing process of taking back our country.
“Again, American political norms supposedly limit presidential authority over the operation of the executive branch, placing “career civil servants” in the highest and final positions of authority. Government is to be run by agencies…”
That’s a perfect description of our government over the last four years! Bingo.
^^This!^^
Why are the dems in congress complaining so much about turning on the light switch? They are the progressives who love change but now demand status quo. Why are they wanting to die on this hill that is now exposed as totally corrupt?
You know why. Their money spigot is being turned off.
Thank you Chris, excellent commentary. What we are experiencing is the reaction of an operating organism that for the first time in over a century is facing a real threat, knows it and is responding accordingly. This will get worse before it gets better. I am praying that the Supreme Court takes the correct constitutional side regarding these actions but I am preparing myself for disappointment. Not sure there is enough of a majority there with sufficient backbone to actually stand up for the document that is their sole reason for existing.
"the reaction of an operating organism that for the first time in over a century is facing a real threat, knows it and is responding accordingly"
I'm trying think of what 1950s or 1960s horror movie this is reminding me of...
Some asshole that takes most of my paycheck while taking gibbs through a revolving door from the MiC or pharma, telling me what I can and cannot say on the internet, and using the government to force me to take random drugs (even though I am not sick) doesn't sound like a "servant" to me.
Also, as Gracchus says above, fuck the ACLU. They're just like the rest of the mouth-breathing shitlibs... People who steal the valor of their ostensible predecessors in order to gain a veneer of moral authority while shitting all over the civil liberties of others.
No Name Here: Hear, hear!
I appreciate the vigor with which you express yourself, Well done!
Government serpents?--(venom peptides in some of those mandatory drugs).
Imperial presidency vs Mandarin rule.
How about no to both?
Thank you for a reference I was trying to think of!
That's been some of my amusement when I've heard from some about how "we need to return to monarchy." When the king controlled and led around by a gaggle of scheming courtiers is a trope so old and common I was having trouble picking out just one example. (It's almost like no matter which system you set up, the same problems keep arising no matter what.)
"Mandarin rule" - I'll taking that term. Thx again.
You're welcome!
I can't claim inventorship of "Mandarin rule" though; it's a real term from history and a concept in pol-sci and organisational theory:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/mandarin
I don't know Chinese but I think "Mandarin" translates as "scholar-bureaucrat"; i.e. exactly what we've got now. Academics in the administration, thinking their credentials equals being in the right. morally and factually.
In Imperial China, weak Emperors were side-lined into a position of a ceremonial figurehead bu the Mandarin caste, something that greatly contributed to weakening the Empire when different cadres of bureaucrats used the state's machinery against each other, jockeying for position and power.
Mandarin is NOT a Chinese word! It is Portuguese. It means to send, or to convey, but it means when used in a bureaucracy the person who controls the command. When I was first in China I was in Shen Zhen, which is in the south. I asked if people spoke Mandarin or Cantonese. Nobody knew the word ‘Mandarin’. The common tongue, which we call Mandarin is ‘pu tung hwa’ as opposed to ‘Canton Hwa’.
Ha! Learned something new, a sign of a good day.
In Swedish, "Mandarin" refers to Clementine - the fruit.
Logical that the Portuguese traders would use a word of theirs for sending commands, about Imperial China.
It requires Congress to become disciplined and serious, which is a heavy lift.
In all seriousness, maybe a fitness test for service ought to be physical as well as intellectual?
X no. push-ups, N no. of pull-ups, Z no. squats with a backpack weighing 15% of your body-weight, swim five lengths under nn no. of minutes, and so on. Nothing extreme. Nothing beyond what an 18-year old conscript in 1975 would be expected to be able to do.
Reason for this: getting fit and staying that way takes discipline, order and structure, which tends to bleed through to all aspects of your life and doings.
The ACLU has become an oxymoron. As have the SPLC. ADL, NAACP. Catholic Charities, the Pope, WHO, UN ,DOJ, DoE, AMA,Democrat Party , Human Rights Watch, EPA, Whistleblower Protection Act, Lawful Immigration, “ representative electorate, DHS, HHS, ABA, “ Innocent until proven guilty”, “ Nobody is above the law”, , desegregation, merit based employment and college entry, anti-racism , tolerance, diversity, the difference between religious freedom, Separation of Church and State, Deism and Theocracy, bodily autonomy, doctor/patient privacy, attorney/client privilege, USAID , National Sovereignty and a Democratic Constitutional Republic with a government elected by the People to serve We The People.
Instead, a cabal of corrupt thieves and shills , an enormous toxic unelected bureaucracy owned by anti-everything America, Constitution, freedom and all things living sociopathic cabal of elite kleptocorporate multinational corporate megalomaniacal globalist technocrats are ruling a post-1984 Brave New World.
Plenty of thanks to Mitch Pence, Cornyn, Barr, Cassidy, Bush, Cheney, Kasich, Conway, Azar, Crenshaw , McStain, and Co for the collaborative sell out, but hey, they’re “ pro-life Christian” fiscally conservative American patriots who are oh-so-morally righteous. Yeah , “ abortion” is the big issue plaguing America. I wish their mothers and those who spawned the despicable anti-democracy Dems had “ chosen” to terminate their pregnancies.
Mr. Bray - thank you; this is excellent. Might I add that Congress has become so deeply corrupted (lobbying, etc.) that they are ‘worse than worthless’. They make about $175,000 per year, yet they end up as multi-millionaires (numbers don’t lie).
The first turning in this spectacle is Musk and 47 turning the government computers inside out ( note to self…. Never bet against a guy who s employees built a device that can snatch a rocket out of the air like a kid with chopsticks grabbing a fly) the second turning will be when all the money spent on things that don’t help america is revealed and it s coming, the third turning will be when it s revealed who in government both elected and no nelected got the kickbacks and feathered their own nests , the fourth turning will be when Americans come out in force with tar feathers and a rail for “ public servants” at that point perhaps most of the aged “ public servants” Will take the easy way out. The fifth turning will be if the guy who who was smart enough to find the graft and corruptions is smart enough to build a new system that prevents this from ever happening again. Don’t bet against rich men with an axe to grind against the people who attempted to take them down. The only guy to bet against is Gates when they came for him he folded like a cheap tent in a wind storm. Pax Americana
Elon made a good argument regarding democracy vs. bureaucracy. Referring to the deep state as the Deep State Bureaucracy would help those casually interested understand the problem.
Calling it ‘the bureaucracy’ though is way too benign. Also, Eichmann, the quintessential bureaucrat, wasn’t in charge. He was somewhat in charge and chose to implement the worst aspects of his leadership as ruthlessly as possible. But there was a level of demonism above him.