In an opening salvo that needs more discussion — “Losing Alignment: Why have establishment politics become so destructive, immoderate and self-defeating?” —Eugyppius asks a series of important questions about the severing of political inputs.
It helps that the "public opinion" is so obviously correct in this scenario. We need to keep the government open and get some money to hurricane victims -- so why is there cash for a stadium? Why is the House exempt from being sued? Why are we talking about pandemic stuff?
They don't realize that while it may take 1 non-motivated Congressman a week to read this bill, it takes 10,000 motivated Americans like an hour. What used to work won't work anymore, because we can see exactly what they're up to.
I think this is exactly correct. Reading some comments from the likes of Senator Warner, Tillis (and others) whining about how “we” don’t get it and “we” must be cold hearted to not want the disaster relief for our fellow citizens I had to laugh.
Because the reality is ‘we’ do get it. And they can’t stand it.
My goal for 2025 is to make their lives miserable. Based on what has taken place over the past two days, I think I’ll have a lot of company.
Hurricane Helene happened 3 months ago. Why didn't Senator Tillis push for relief for his constituency as a stand alone two plus months ago? No, it was the typical bs we are fed by our elected officials. If they REALLY CARE about disaster relief, pull that section of the CR and vote on a stand alone relief bill.
Because congress views every bill as an opportunity for patronage. You can’t just have a stand alone disaster relief bill! You have to cram billions in unrelated pet projects to reward donors and loyal constituents.
Helene? Congress only passed disaster tax relief (I believe only allowing fuller deduction of casualty losses) three days ago for damage from Hurricane Ian to Southwest Florida (where the eye made landfall September 28, 2022, Cat 5, 155 mph, 15-foot storm surge). Meanwhile, Mike Johnson and the rest of the paid-off occupiers work overtime making the U.S. third world again.
That is because Biden FAILED to declare it a disaster, again displaying his distain for red states and their citizens. Byron Donalds didn't give up, unlike feckless Thom Tillis.
Biden "FAILS". Like an electric wheelchair that's lost battery charge. Like the Dead Parrot in the Monty Python skit. "No he's not. He's resting." I am sorry, I really am – I pray nothing happens to make me more sorry yet – to feel that Mr Trump is not really capable of improving the situation.
Tillis is terrible; Gov Roy Cooper is worse, & the next Gov is even worse than both. NC below Federal level is a one-party machine-politics state. It's bad; much worse than it appears from the outside.
<< Washington Psychos are Literally Bulldozing the Uncounted Dead of Chimney Rock
They don't care about the property or the lives of the people. They don't care if these people live or die. What they care about is SECRECY.Oct 3 • James Bernard Shepard…>>
As soon as I posted it I started to worry that I had probably jumped to this conclusion unfairly. Then yesterday Mark Crispin Miller posted this to Substack. So it seems I was maybe even too kind to the psycho parasites who run FEMA:
<< FEMA "waste disposal" in North Carolina (and not one word about it in the press)
Federal "emergency management" in these United States [sic] recalls the clean-up supervised by Himmler "in the East," and/or Stalin in Lidice (among many, many others)
Mark Crispin Miller
Dec 18, 2024
<< From a reader:
On another note, my neighbor who is semi-retired does volunteer work and decided to spend last week helping to do delivery work in western NC. In the area where his group was assigned was a large bulldozed-up pile of rubble which had been processed by the local Fire Department several weeks ago near Craigsville maybe. Out popped a human hand and soon the first body was recovered. More bodies were found until after several days they had recovered 47 bodies, from one FEMA pile… >>
Simcom, you would love David Samuel’s piece in Tablet about Axelrod and Obama’s use of manipulative “permission structures” and credential silos to sell fringe ideas to the masses via “aspirational” social engineering. One of the best pieces in a long time - quite long, but completely worthwhile.
Quote from a book by Jaron Lanier published in 2010: "Another predictable element of the ideology of violation is that anyone who complains about the rituals of the elite violators will be accused of spreading FUD--fear, uncertainty, and doubt. But actually it's the ideologues who seek publicity."
Applied to the continuing resolution: the politicians who concocted a 1,547 page bill for spending many tens of billions of dollars--a bill they planned to become law within 2 or 3 days of its release--they're accusing us of creating chaos and doubt?
It's funny that government/legislation typically moves so slow, until you put a congressional pay raise in a bill. And, did they not notice that the hurricane blew through 3 MONTHS ago? Telling......
Funny, in the age of the Internet, I've actually made a medical diagnosis, of my own condition, not once, but 3 times, on major issues. Confirmed by the "doctors" of course. I've repaired my own appliances, simply by doing a search of the problem, and usually, by watching a YouTube video. I've correctly diagnosed issues with my furnace and repaired them too. Now, find me a "politician" who can even do one of those things? Most are lucky to find their own asses, to wipe them! SMDH I'm generally disgusted by politicians, legacy media, and academia!
politics, education, ngo work - one big dumping ground for semi educated (if that), unskilled, and fearful people. What else are they going to do to "earn" a living? Work at Starbucks?
One politician that can do it all Thomas Massie. He & his wife built their home off the grid & with their own 2 hands in a Kentucky holler. Genius! Watch last year’s Tucker interview if you missed it.
Very pleased you picked up on Euggypius’ comments, Chris. Curious to see where your thoughts run. I’m still ruminating but one avenue might be the stuff addressed in Robert Malone’s stack recently: a push by the blob to make ‘susceptibility to wrongthink’ a pathology that requires medical treatment. Apparently, TPTB still think the likes of us “need to get our minds right.”
They rather seeded the idea to do exactly that already. One can still find the articles by experts online; where they dance skillfully around the edges of saying if you reject vaccines (Covid in particular), well clearly there appears to be a link to you having cognitive issues of some sort that needs to be addressed.
I have a vague recollection of a number of specific instances of that. The complicating factor is that there was a long history of actual lunatics that had created a cottage industry selling bogus anti-vax conspiracy theories. So, it was easy to lump legitimate dissent in with the crazies.
The attitude you’re naming-that only the ruling elite are qualified to opine-is accurate, but laws that require open meetings, public comments, etc. have made the ruling elite quite accustomed to “listening” to the peasants. They sit on their elevated dais’ at school board and city council meetings and push the timer button and give each “stakeholder” their allotted time to speak. Having met statutory requirements, they check that “stakeholder input” box and do whatever they had already decided long before the “public forum”. Most of them can’t even bring themselves to look up from their phones or computers to acknowledge the speakers.
What’s so foreign and bewildering to them about Elon Musk isn’t that he dares to have an opinion. Their furor is about Elon Musk having an opinion AND POLITICAL AGENCY. His opinion can’t be logged in by the city council secretary and promptly ignored. When Musk says “this CR is bad” or “the Senate should confirm Pete Hegseth”and “let your representatives know”, tens or hundreds of thousands of constituents speak up in unison. They threaten to primary entrenched politicians as usual, but for the first time, their threats have teeth. Musk can afford to fund primary challenges. For the first time in my lifetime, the peasants have an actual voice. I pray that Musk is truly one of the good guys.
We have witnessed the lengths to which the ruling class was willing to go to silence Donald Trump’s opinion accompanied by political agency. With the help of a complicit media and a lot of dirty tricks, they completely contained Trump in his first term. This time around, their media accomplices are neutered. My guess is they will compensate with even more dastardly dirty tricks, because they certainly have no plans to abandon their projects or align themselves with the governed.
Depending on a billionaire to spark one to action is a repetition of a mistake - the billionaire becomes the new ruler - "When Musk says “this CR is bad” or “the Senate should confirm Pete Hegseth”and “let your representatives know”, tens or hundreds of thousands of constituents speak up in unison" - but from this we find our own power. We must act as united citizens in a republic and not wait for an oligarch to lead us...
You are right. But I think we did find our own power. We continue to find our own power. We shall see what today brings. But he is providing the platform.
If he provides the platform, then he manages it to bring about his own pre-determined ends - as in Twitter/X, which he manages in order to do so - not as blatantly as the previous politically correct crowd - but definitely to the same extent. "Wrongthink" is monitored and controlled, but much more intelligently and thoroughly.
"The rainbow logic of change is your key to navigating this site. You will see it again and again and it's your key to understanding how the CHANGE process works.
The color scheme of the diagram is intended to have a certain logic.
It starts with red for CARE, think hot, angry, upset but not necessarily thinking too clearly.
Then, as various people get involved in constructive ways, it cools down to orange in RELATE, and then YELLOW, as in “Let’s figure out what the real problem is that we are so upset about.”
As we move toward solutions, (ACQUIRE and TRY) the world becomes greener, and when the solution spreads (EXTEND), we enter the clear blue sky of solution land." https://changeagentsguide.com/
I've watched this play out time and time again, in "citizen involvement" sessions and "townhalls", where pre-decided changes are introduced and sold - using a "change agent" and shills in the audience, so the result looks "bottom-up", where in actuality it is totally top-down...
And what if the billionaire is smarter than an average citizen (a lot smarter) and leads in the right direction ? Ignore him? Wait for someone less wealthy to appear on the scene? IMO the substance of what he says is more important than his finances.
The best propaganda is 85% true, it's the 15% "payload" you have to watch out for. People become billionaires because they are both cunning and obsessed with acquiring money and power. They do what they do for the reason of acquiring power and money - it is an all-consuming addiction - people like that are by no means normal, a lot of them are simply predatory. So, like wolves, you have to be careful with them - and about them. And the substance of what they say is actually less important than their finances - you have to look at what they *do*, and too often that will turn out to be self-serving.
I am not sure of Musk’s predatory nature. He was a pioneer in introducing EVs to the world market and does so much in space exploration. A lot of what he does benefits the humankind. And I think he is a patriot. Taking a stand for government efficiency and against progressives’ insanity leads me to believe it. Buying Twitter appears more of a political action against censorship and pro-freedom of speech than strictly for-profit.
I will not pretend to understand how Musk’s mind works. Geniuses are not like us. But they are the ones who drive the progress IMO.
My grandmother's first car was an EV, back in 1912 - and an EV set one of the first speed records at Daytona in 1904 - it went 70mph - so EVs are nothing new. Similarly, a lot was being done in space exploration from the 1960s to the 1970s, it just got militarized and the bureaucracy choked it off, and the MLM leftists just took over academia and retarded the progress. Finally people are wising up about the DEI/CRT trash - and putting it where it belongs...
Musk has amassed his taxpayer-financed fortune by acting smart, he's very effective at managing governance to suit his own ends. And the more money he gets, the more effective he is.
"The rainbow logic of change is your key to navigating this site. You will see it again and again and it's your key to understanding how the CHANGE process works.
The color scheme of the diagram is intended to have a certain logic.
It starts with red for CARE, think hot, angry, upset but not necessarily thinking too clearly.
Then, as various people get involved in constructive ways, it cools down to orange in RELATE, and then YELLOW, as in “Let’s figure out what the real problem is that we are so upset about.”
As we move toward solutions, (ACQUIRE and TRY) the world becomes greener, and when the solution spreads (EXTEND), we enter the clear blue sky of solution land." https://changeagentsguide.com/
I've watched this play out time and time again, in "citizen involvement" sessions and "townhalls", where pre-decided changes are introduced and sold - using a "change agent" and shills in the audience, so the result looks "bottom-up", where in actuality it is totally top-down... It's "soft robbery" of "goverment money" - all of which comes from taxpayers.
muskrat is a puppet who serves as cover for the fascists behind him, to get all the bitcoin bros and libertarians onboard with the great reset. look at all the spooks working at twitter (yaccarino et al). spacex and tesla are deep state/wall street confluences disguised as "entrepreneurship." lookit how he landed that rocket right back on its launching pad, isn't he brilliant?
re - twitter et al - see https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/fear-outrage-amygdala-hijack-social - and Facebook began as a DARPA project, perhaps part of Total Information Awareness... Algorithm-driven social media is a big part of modern perception management - and it's no surprise that platforms like Twitter/X and Facebook get funding and insurance from anti-trust actions from the Blob. Musk is a salesman - a confidence artist, someone who is very good at managing perceptions. It's the people who work for him who are the brilliant ones.
They’re having “house parties” with local charmers (retired social worker/school volunteer) to reinforce narrative and messaging. What feels like a neighborhood bonding event is in reality a class in rebranding.
"The rainbow logic of change is your key to navigating this site. You will see it again and again and it's your key to understanding how the CHANGE process works.
The color scheme of the diagram is intended to have a certain logic.
It starts with red for CARE, think hot, angry, upset but not necessarily thinking too clearly.
Then, as various people get involved in constructive ways, it cools down to orange in RELATE, and then YELLOW, as in “Let’s figure out what the real problem is that we are so upset about.”
As we move toward solutions, (ACQUIRE and TRY) the world becomes greener, and when the solution spreads (EXTEND), we enter the clear blue sky of solution land." https://changeagentsguide.com/
I've watched this play out time and time again, in "citizen involvement" sessions and "townhalls", where pre-decided changes are introduced and sold - using a "change agent" and shills in the audience, so the result looks "bottom-up", where in actuality it is totally top-down...
It's illustrative of the problem which I sort of think goes back to the Clinton era, that Republicans are ALSO upset - quietly - at having their shenanigans upended by Musk and other non-public servants. It's not just Democrats who want to dissolve democracy in a chemical vat. A lot of reps want it to. Many of our elected officials want to hold office ad infinitum and do so without oversight by the people who put them in office.
But be very wary of Musk, because he has his own agenda - the great majority of his money comes from the taxpayers, his companies are very much a part of the Blob. And a billionaire's agenda is all too often fixated on the goals of acquiring more money and power.
Not how I read Musk. No doubt he hopes to leverage off of government, but if that were his main objective he would have gone Democrat. I think he wants to build things, and figures that the Democrats and establishment Republicans will get in his way. So, Trump.
I don’t really trust Trump to make the right decision but I do trust Elon. But what I really do trust is the union of the two- different strong egos working it out as a group is how great things happen
Remember, they’re not very smart. And they’re not very nice, either. So when they’re confronted by opposing points of view, especially those backed by knowledge, they are too mean-spirited to react civilly, really too stupid to react at all. The answer can be that simple when the people involved are that simple.
It used to be that the bureaucrats were nasty to the public - bureau of motor vehicles springs to mind - and you could complain to a sympathetic ear in “government”. And they at least made noises like they cared.
Now it’s as described. Not everywhere, but enough places that we gave them a massive Shrug in November. Let’s see what they do with it
„ The voting public hates the projects of the governing class, but the governing class doesn’t abandon those projects“
That’s because the governing class isn’t governing. They have willingly become actors and have outsourced the making of decisions to the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy in turn, lacking any corrective inputs, is on autopilot which means growing the bureaucracy at all costs.
This will all come to a head when the social security / pension funding tsunami hits around 2030 - 2035.
Yes. And the bureaucracy, wanting to grow, finds outside funding sources in addition to legitimate fees and tax revenue. Then, whoever controls those third-party funding streams, steers the semi-dependent bureaucracy and runs the government in the interest of those otherwise unwanted projects.
Here's how it ends: "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive in rights inherent and inalienables, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, and pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to subject them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776.
The way it ends is for people to exercise their right and duty to throw off such government. As I recall, 1776 wasn't an election year, so other means were used...
Here's when it ends: "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1857-frederick-douglass-if-there-no-struggle-there-no-progress/
The psychopathic abuse will continue until it is stopped, sometimes by words, usually by blows. Bullies must be beaten, and beaten until they run away - like Assad in Syria, for a recent example. Peaceful protest rarely does the trick.
Many of our politicians don't know the difference between "managers," and "elected representatives." They treat us all like we're the night shift at Wal-Mart.
Next handful of years are gonna be rough on our managerial elites. North America and Europe both. Perhaps they should take a suggestion of Brecht’s. The citizenry not being up to snuff, they could just “dissolve the people and appoint a new one.”
Of course they’ve been trying this already via open borders, but the West just isn’t being swamped fast enough.
Yes, Eugyppius’s essay is excellent, and thought provoking.
His premise that almost every type of government, including democracies, are controlled by oligarchies, makes a lot of real world sense, especially in light of what the democrat party, the uni-party, and the DC establishment has become. How do you fix something that may not be fixable? Is our government really no different from that of the Brits, the Germans, or even the Russians, Iranians, and Chinese, except for the (benevolent?) oligarchs we have in charge?
What you describe is exactly what the Elites want. Reduce democracy to little more than a symbolic ritual; monopolise ‘science’; control religion; and eliminate ‘the common man’ from public discourse. The one world government they are trying to introduce demands nothing less.
"Our rulers" ... that's the "phrase which pays". That's the antithesis of Jefferson's (small-r) republicanism. "Rulers" is what we fought the Revolution to be rid of, although the Federalists and their ideological progeny have been trying to defeat republican government from the outset - and "Our Rulers" would be see as an enemy far worse than George III by the likes of Jefferson, George Mason, and Patrick Henry - and Philip Freneau, who wrote the following in Jefferson and Madison's National Gazette in 1792 - a writing which is quite relevant to, and resonant with, the present:
"In drawing all bills, resolutions, and reports, keep constantly in view that the limitations in the Constitution are ultimately to be explained away. Precedents and phrases may thus be shuffled in, without being adverted to by candid or weak people, of which good use may afterward be made.
For this purpose it will be particular useful to confound a mobbish democracy with a representative republic, that by exhibiting all the turbulent examples and enormities of the former, an odium may be thrown on the character of the latter... till the people be made, if possible, to tremble at their own shadows.
But the grand nostrum will be a public debt, provided enough of it can be got and it be medicated with the proper ingredients. If by good fortune a debt be ready at hand, the most is to be made of it. Stretch it and swell it to the utmost the items will bear. Allow as many extra claims as decency will permit. Assume all the debts of your neighbors - in a word, get as much debt as can be raked and scraped together ... To be brief, let the whole be such a mystery that a few only can understand it; and let all possible opportunities and informations fall in the way of these few to cinch their advantages over the many. ... It must not be forgotten that the members of the legislative body are to have a deep stake in the game. This is an essential point, and happily is attended with no difficulty. A sufficient number, properly disposed, can alternately legislate and speculate, and speculate and legislate, and buy and sell, and sell and buy, until a due portion of the property of their constituents has passed into their hands to give them an interest against their constituents, and to ensure the part they are to act. ... The management of a great funded debt and a extensive system of taxes will afford a plea, not to be neglected, for establishment of a great incorporated bank. the use of such a machine is well understood. If the Constitution, according to its fair meaning, should not authorize it, so much the better. Push it through by a forced meaning and you will get in the bargain an admirable precedent for future misconstructions. In fashioning the bank, remember that it is to be made particularly instrumental in enriching and aggrandizing the elect few, who are to be called in due season to the honors and felicities of the kingdom preparing for them, and who are the pillars that must support it. ... besides the direct benefit to be drawn from these artificial divisions, they will tend to smother the true and natural one, existing in all societies, between the few who are always impatient of political equality and the many who can never rise above it; between those who are to mount to the prerogatives and those who are to be saddled with the burdens of the hereditary government to be introduced - in one word, between the general mass of the people, attached to their republican government and republican interests, and the chosen band devoted to monarchy and Mammon. ... The expediency of seizing every occasion of external danger for augmenting and perpetuating the standing military force is too obvious to escape. So important is this matter that for any loss or disaster whatever attending the national arms, there will be ample consolation and compensation in the opportunity for enlarging the establishment. A military defeat will become a political victory," And so forth and so on - not bad for 232 years ago. You can read the rest at
Consider the attention span required to write or read those four paragraph, which were part of a mere magazine essay and not a solemn book. Now consider TikTok.
The Administrative State exists without any Constitutional basis, and has, since its inception. It has subverted Constitutional process since then, and now strives to overtly overthrow Constitutional governance. It is the living embodiment of sedition, and it itself must be overthrown and abolished at all levels.
"The post-New Deal administrative state is unconstitutional, and its validation by the legal system amounts to nothing less than a bloodless constitutional revolution. The original New Dealers were aware, at least to some degree, that their vision of the national government's proper role and structure could not be squared with the written Constitution: The Administrative Process, James Landis's classic exposition of the New Deal model of administration, fairly drips with contempt for the idea of a limited national government subject to a formal, tripartite separation of powers. Faced with a choice between the administrative state and the Constitution, the architects of our modern government chose the administrative state, and their choice has stuck. ... The United States Congress today effectively exercises general legislative powers, in contravention of the constitutional principle of limited powers. Moreover, Congress frequently delegates that general legislative authority to administrative agencies, in contravention of Article I. Furthermore, those agencies are not always subject to the direct control of the President, in contravention of Article II. In addition, those agencies sometimes exercise the judicial power, in contravention of Article III. Finally, those agencies typically concentrate legislative, executive, and judicial functions in the same institution, in simultaneous contravention of Articles I, II, and III. In short, the modern administrative state openly flouts almost every important structural precept of the American constitutional order." The Rise and Rise of the Administrative State, Gary S. Lawson, Boston University School of Law at https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/open-sedition-by-the-administrative-900
And this goes for governments all the way down to school boards, who are often the worst of them all - and the answer is to do away with them, root and branch - do to them what the Romans did to Carthage - that, or surrender the free exercise of your inherent and inalienable Constitutional liberties. It's a zero-sum game, they win or the people win.
Spectacular summation. The metastasis of the State ensures it is almost impossible to effectively snuff out. There are myriad lanes within each branch of government that allow for the flourishing of administration over Constitutional laws.
If you really want to cut off the part of government that is useless, dangerous, or both, you just need to cut out the parts that are in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution - abolish them, stop the money, and send the employees packing. Those parts and pieces are well-known, even if classified and paid for in the “black budget” - in fact, if the “black budget” is their source of funding, that agency is prima facie unconstitutional and illegal:
“A corporatized, militarized, entrenched bureaucracy that is fully operational and staffed by unelected officials who are, in essence, running the country, this shadow government represents the hidden face of a government that has no respect for the freedom of its citizenry.
No matter which candidate wins the presidential election, this shadow government is here to stay. Indeed, as recent documents by the FBI reveal, this shadow government—also referred to as “The 7th Floor Group”—may well have played a part in who will win the White House this year.
To be precise, however, the future president will actually inherit not one but two shadow governments.
The first shadow government, referred to as COG or Continuity of Government, is made up of unelected individuals who have been appointed to run the government in the event of a “catastrophe.” COG is a phantom menace waiting for the right circumstances—a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, an economic meltdown—to bring it out of the shadows, where it operates even now. When and if COG takes over, the police state will transition to martial law.
Yet it is the second shadow government—also referred to as the Deep State—that poses the greater threat to freedom right now. Comprised of unelected government bureaucrats, corporations, contractors, paper-pushers, and button-pushers who are actually calling the shots behind the scenes, this government within a government is the real reason “we the people” have no real control over our government.
It helps that the "public opinion" is so obviously correct in this scenario. We need to keep the government open and get some money to hurricane victims -- so why is there cash for a stadium? Why is the House exempt from being sued? Why are we talking about pandemic stuff?
They don't realize that while it may take 1 non-motivated Congressman a week to read this bill, it takes 10,000 motivated Americans like an hour. What used to work won't work anymore, because we can see exactly what they're up to.
I think this is exactly correct. Reading some comments from the likes of Senator Warner, Tillis (and others) whining about how “we” don’t get it and “we” must be cold hearted to not want the disaster relief for our fellow citizens I had to laugh.
Because the reality is ‘we’ do get it. And they can’t stand it.
My goal for 2025 is to make their lives miserable. Based on what has taken place over the past two days, I think I’ll have a lot of company.
Hurricane Helene happened 3 months ago. Why didn't Senator Tillis push for relief for his constituency as a stand alone two plus months ago? No, it was the typical bs we are fed by our elected officials. If they REALLY CARE about disaster relief, pull that section of the CR and vote on a stand alone relief bill.
Because congress views every bill as an opportunity for patronage. You can’t just have a stand alone disaster relief bill! You have to cram billions in unrelated pet projects to reward donors and loyal constituents.
Helene? Congress only passed disaster tax relief (I believe only allowing fuller deduction of casualty losses) three days ago for damage from Hurricane Ian to Southwest Florida (where the eye made landfall September 28, 2022, Cat 5, 155 mph, 15-foot storm surge). Meanwhile, Mike Johnson and the rest of the paid-off occupiers work overtime making the U.S. third world again.
That is because Biden FAILED to declare it a disaster, again displaying his distain for red states and their citizens. Byron Donalds didn't give up, unlike feckless Thom Tillis.
F. J. Biden--definitely a member of the paid-off occupier class, though only a NPC.
Biden "FAILS". Like an electric wheelchair that's lost battery charge. Like the Dead Parrot in the Monty Python skit. "No he's not. He's resting." I am sorry, I really am – I pray nothing happens to make me more sorry yet – to feel that Mr Trump is not really capable of improving the situation.
Monty Python - Dead Parrot - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218&t=3s
The good Senator doesn't give Shit No 1 for his constituents unless they can be used as a means to an end. That is the current reality.
Tillis is terrible; Gov Roy Cooper is worse, & the next Gov is even worse than both. NC below Federal level is a one-party machine-politics state. It's bad; much worse than it appears from the outside.
Last Oct 3 this was my Substack article:
<< Washington Psychos are Literally Bulldozing the Uncounted Dead of Chimney Rock
They don't care about the property or the lives of the people. They don't care if these people live or die. What they care about is SECRECY.Oct 3 • James Bernard Shepard…>>
As soon as I posted it I started to worry that I had probably jumped to this conclusion unfairly. Then yesterday Mark Crispin Miller posted this to Substack. So it seems I was maybe even too kind to the psycho parasites who run FEMA:
<< FEMA "waste disposal" in North Carolina (and not one word about it in the press)
Federal "emergency management" in these United States [sic] recalls the clean-up supervised by Himmler "in the East," and/or Stalin in Lidice (among many, many others)
Mark Crispin Miller
Dec 18, 2024
<< From a reader:
On another note, my neighbor who is semi-retired does volunteer work and decided to spend last week helping to do delivery work in western NC. In the area where his group was assigned was a large bulldozed-up pile of rubble which had been processed by the local Fire Department several weeks ago near Craigsville maybe. Out popped a human hand and soon the first body was recovered. More bodies were found until after several days they had recovered 47 bodies, from one FEMA pile… >>
lol.
like
Simcom, you would love David Samuel’s piece in Tablet about Axelrod and Obama’s use of manipulative “permission structures” and credential silos to sell fringe ideas to the masses via “aspirational” social engineering. One of the best pieces in a long time - quite long, but completely worthwhile.
https://www.tabletmag.com/feature/rapid-onset-political-enlightenment
Quote from a book by Jaron Lanier published in 2010: "Another predictable element of the ideology of violation is that anyone who complains about the rituals of the elite violators will be accused of spreading FUD--fear, uncertainty, and doubt. But actually it's the ideologues who seek publicity."
Applied to the continuing resolution: the politicians who concocted a 1,547 page bill for spending many tens of billions of dollars--a bill they planned to become law within 2 or 3 days of its release--they're accusing us of creating chaos and doubt?
It's funny that government/legislation typically moves so slow, until you put a congressional pay raise in a bill. And, did they not notice that the hurricane blew through 3 MONTHS ago? Telling......
Perzactly.
DARVO.
Deny, attack, reverse victim and offender.
Once you see it, you'll see it everywhere these days.
Funny, in the age of the Internet, I've actually made a medical diagnosis, of my own condition, not once, but 3 times, on major issues. Confirmed by the "doctors" of course. I've repaired my own appliances, simply by doing a search of the problem, and usually, by watching a YouTube video. I've correctly diagnosed issues with my furnace and repaired them too. Now, find me a "politician" who can even do one of those things? Most are lucky to find their own asses, to wipe them! SMDH I'm generally disgusted by politicians, legacy media, and academia!
politics, education, ngo work - one big dumping ground for semi educated (if that), unskilled, and fearful people. What else are they going to do to "earn" a living? Work at Starbucks?
They would need training to not spit in people’s coffee & to wash their hands.
Thomas Massie - can certainly fix anything and built his own home, from materials found on his property. Truly an amazing person from Kentucky.
"The purpose of the Senate is to keep 100 middle-aged knuckleheads out of the private sector where they can do real harm." - PJ O'Rourke
Not really middle aged at this point. Most are way past that.
This could be updated to acknowledge those beyond middle-aged and deceased members who are still serving.
I’ve been fond of the saying “You can just do things”.
One politician that can do it all Thomas Massie. He & his wife built their home off the grid & with their own 2 hands in a Kentucky holler. Genius! Watch last year’s Tucker interview if you missed it.
Thanks, I'll look it up. But, you're probably right about Massie's skills.
'"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!"' (ST VI)
Yes, your the first ever to make the quote! Even my X handle is @LooseDogsOfWar, I couldn't fit the whole quote. 😁👍
What, doing your own research!? What's next, invading Poland? FACIST!
The bar to entry in the House is notoriously low. Do you have a pulse? Are you a convicted felon? Welcome aboard the USS Congress.
Very pleased you picked up on Euggypius’ comments, Chris. Curious to see where your thoughts run. I’m still ruminating but one avenue might be the stuff addressed in Robert Malone’s stack recently: a push by the blob to make ‘susceptibility to wrongthink’ a pathology that requires medical treatment. Apparently, TPTB still think the likes of us “need to get our minds right.”
Three nights in the box!
Room 101 is free education AND free healthcare!
Shaking the tree, boss!
Ze cooler
“Three nights in the box”…ah yes, SERE, those were the days!
lol
Also still ruminating, btw, and hoping for a follow-up from Eugyppius, who seems to just be getting started.
Yes it was clearly part 1 with no conclusion
They rather seeded the idea to do exactly that already. One can still find the articles by experts online; where they dance skillfully around the edges of saying if you reject vaccines (Covid in particular), well clearly there appears to be a link to you having cognitive issues of some sort that needs to be addressed.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022395624005491
I have a vague recollection of a number of specific instances of that. The complicating factor is that there was a long history of actual lunatics that had created a cottage industry selling bogus anti-vax conspiracy theories. So, it was easy to lump legitimate dissent in with the crazies.
The attitude you’re naming-that only the ruling elite are qualified to opine-is accurate, but laws that require open meetings, public comments, etc. have made the ruling elite quite accustomed to “listening” to the peasants. They sit on their elevated dais’ at school board and city council meetings and push the timer button and give each “stakeholder” their allotted time to speak. Having met statutory requirements, they check that “stakeholder input” box and do whatever they had already decided long before the “public forum”. Most of them can’t even bring themselves to look up from their phones or computers to acknowledge the speakers.
What’s so foreign and bewildering to them about Elon Musk isn’t that he dares to have an opinion. Their furor is about Elon Musk having an opinion AND POLITICAL AGENCY. His opinion can’t be logged in by the city council secretary and promptly ignored. When Musk says “this CR is bad” or “the Senate should confirm Pete Hegseth”and “let your representatives know”, tens or hundreds of thousands of constituents speak up in unison. They threaten to primary entrenched politicians as usual, but for the first time, their threats have teeth. Musk can afford to fund primary challenges. For the first time in my lifetime, the peasants have an actual voice. I pray that Musk is truly one of the good guys.
We have witnessed the lengths to which the ruling class was willing to go to silence Donald Trump’s opinion accompanied by political agency. With the help of a complicit media and a lot of dirty tricks, they completely contained Trump in his first term. This time around, their media accomplices are neutered. My guess is they will compensate with even more dastardly dirty tricks, because they certainly have no plans to abandon their projects or align themselves with the governed.
Depending on a billionaire to spark one to action is a repetition of a mistake - the billionaire becomes the new ruler - "When Musk says “this CR is bad” or “the Senate should confirm Pete Hegseth”and “let your representatives know”, tens or hundreds of thousands of constituents speak up in unison" - but from this we find our own power. We must act as united citizens in a republic and not wait for an oligarch to lead us...
You are right. But I think we did find our own power. We continue to find our own power. We shall see what today brings. But he is providing the platform.
If he provides the platform, then he manages it to bring about his own pre-determined ends - as in Twitter/X, which he manages in order to do so - not as blatantly as the previous politically correct crowd - but definitely to the same extent. "Wrongthink" is monitored and controlled, but much more intelligently and thoroughly.
"The rainbow logic of change is your key to navigating this site. You will see it again and again and it's your key to understanding how the CHANGE process works.
The color scheme of the diagram is intended to have a certain logic.
It starts with red for CARE, think hot, angry, upset but not necessarily thinking too clearly.
Then, as various people get involved in constructive ways, it cools down to orange in RELATE, and then YELLOW, as in “Let’s figure out what the real problem is that we are so upset about.”
As we move toward solutions, (ACQUIRE and TRY) the world becomes greener, and when the solution spreads (EXTEND), we enter the clear blue sky of solution land." https://changeagentsguide.com/
I've watched this play out time and time again, in "citizen involvement" sessions and "townhalls", where pre-decided changes are introduced and sold - using a "change agent" and shills in the audience, so the result looks "bottom-up", where in actuality it is totally top-down...
And what if the billionaire is smarter than an average citizen (a lot smarter) and leads in the right direction ? Ignore him? Wait for someone less wealthy to appear on the scene? IMO the substance of what he says is more important than his finances.
The best propaganda is 85% true, it's the 15% "payload" you have to watch out for. People become billionaires because they are both cunning and obsessed with acquiring money and power. They do what they do for the reason of acquiring power and money - it is an all-consuming addiction - people like that are by no means normal, a lot of them are simply predatory. So, like wolves, you have to be careful with them - and about them. And the substance of what they say is actually less important than their finances - you have to look at what they *do*, and too often that will turn out to be self-serving.
I am not sure of Musk’s predatory nature. He was a pioneer in introducing EVs to the world market and does so much in space exploration. A lot of what he does benefits the humankind. And I think he is a patriot. Taking a stand for government efficiency and against progressives’ insanity leads me to believe it. Buying Twitter appears more of a political action against censorship and pro-freedom of speech than strictly for-profit.
I will not pretend to understand how Musk’s mind works. Geniuses are not like us. But they are the ones who drive the progress IMO.
My grandmother's first car was an EV, back in 1912 - and an EV set one of the first speed records at Daytona in 1904 - it went 70mph - so EVs are nothing new. Similarly, a lot was being done in space exploration from the 1960s to the 1970s, it just got militarized and the bureaucracy choked it off, and the MLM leftists just took over academia and retarded the progress. Finally people are wising up about the DEI/CRT trash - and putting it where it belongs...
It depends on the billionaire. Some billionaires are lex Luther (bill gates) others are Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark(Elon) you just have to be aware
Musk has amassed his taxpayer-financed fortune by acting smart, he's very effective at managing governance to suit his own ends. And the more money he gets, the more effective he is.
"The rainbow logic of change is your key to navigating this site. You will see it again and again and it's your key to understanding how the CHANGE process works.
The color scheme of the diagram is intended to have a certain logic.
It starts with red for CARE, think hot, angry, upset but not necessarily thinking too clearly.
Then, as various people get involved in constructive ways, it cools down to orange in RELATE, and then YELLOW, as in “Let’s figure out what the real problem is that we are so upset about.”
As we move toward solutions, (ACQUIRE and TRY) the world becomes greener, and when the solution spreads (EXTEND), we enter the clear blue sky of solution land." https://changeagentsguide.com/
I've watched this play out time and time again, in "citizen involvement" sessions and "townhalls", where pre-decided changes are introduced and sold - using a "change agent" and shills in the audience, so the result looks "bottom-up", where in actuality it is totally top-down... It's "soft robbery" of "goverment money" - all of which comes from taxpayers.
muskrat is a puppet who serves as cover for the fascists behind him, to get all the bitcoin bros and libertarians onboard with the great reset. look at all the spooks working at twitter (yaccarino et al). spacex and tesla are deep state/wall street confluences disguised as "entrepreneurship." lookit how he landed that rocket right back on its launching pad, isn't he brilliant?
Libertarians are Fascists?
no, fascists are posing as libertarians
re - twitter et al - see https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/fear-outrage-amygdala-hijack-social - and Facebook began as a DARPA project, perhaps part of Total Information Awareness... Algorithm-driven social media is a big part of modern perception management - and it's no surprise that platforms like Twitter/X and Facebook get funding and insurance from anti-trust actions from the Blob. Musk is a salesman - a confidence artist, someone who is very good at managing perceptions. It's the people who work for him who are the brilliant ones.
good stuff, thanks
FB was launched as "privatized" version of DARPA's lifelog the day after lifelog was officially shut down https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/04/investigative-reports/the-military-origins-of-facebook/
biderman's chart of coercion
https://samim.io/static/upload/bidermans-chart-of-control-1400x2306.jpg
Is he leading, or is he providing focus?
Great question… I like to think focus.
Great question…
They’re having “house parties” with local charmers (retired social worker/school volunteer) to reinforce narrative and messaging. What feels like a neighborhood bonding event is in reality a class in rebranding.
"The rainbow logic of change is your key to navigating this site. You will see it again and again and it's your key to understanding how the CHANGE process works.
The color scheme of the diagram is intended to have a certain logic.
It starts with red for CARE, think hot, angry, upset but not necessarily thinking too clearly.
Then, as various people get involved in constructive ways, it cools down to orange in RELATE, and then YELLOW, as in “Let’s figure out what the real problem is that we are so upset about.”
As we move toward solutions, (ACQUIRE and TRY) the world becomes greener, and when the solution spreads (EXTEND), we enter the clear blue sky of solution land." https://changeagentsguide.com/
I've watched this play out time and time again, in "citizen involvement" sessions and "townhalls", where pre-decided changes are introduced and sold - using a "change agent" and shills in the audience, so the result looks "bottom-up", where in actuality it is totally top-down...
It's illustrative of the problem which I sort of think goes back to the Clinton era, that Republicans are ALSO upset - quietly - at having their shenanigans upended by Musk and other non-public servants. It's not just Democrats who want to dissolve democracy in a chemical vat. A lot of reps want it to. Many of our elected officials want to hold office ad infinitum and do so without oversight by the people who put them in office.
But be very wary of Musk, because he has his own agenda - the great majority of his money comes from the taxpayers, his companies are very much a part of the Blob. And a billionaire's agenda is all too often fixated on the goals of acquiring more money and power.
Not how I read Musk. No doubt he hopes to leverage off of government, but if that were his main objective he would have gone Democrat. I think he wants to build things, and figures that the Democrats and establishment Republicans will get in his way. So, Trump.
I don’t really trust Trump to make the right decision but I do trust Elon. But what I really do trust is the union of the two- different strong egos working it out as a group is how great things happen
Remember, they’re not very smart. And they’re not very nice, either. So when they’re confronted by opposing points of view, especially those backed by knowledge, they are too mean-spirited to react civilly, really too stupid to react at all. The answer can be that simple when the people involved are that simple.
It used to be that the bureaucrats were nasty to the public - bureau of motor vehicles springs to mind - and you could complain to a sympathetic ear in “government”. And they at least made noises like they cared.
Now it’s as described. Not everywhere, but enough places that we gave them a massive Shrug in November. Let’s see what they do with it
water seeks its own level.
„ The voting public hates the projects of the governing class, but the governing class doesn’t abandon those projects“
That’s because the governing class isn’t governing. They have willingly become actors and have outsourced the making of decisions to the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy in turn, lacking any corrective inputs, is on autopilot which means growing the bureaucracy at all costs.
This will all come to a head when the social security / pension funding tsunami hits around 2030 - 2035.
Yes. And the bureaucracy, wanting to grow, finds outside funding sources in addition to legitimate fees and tax revenue. Then, whoever controls those third-party funding streams, steers the semi-dependent bureaucracy and runs the government in the interest of those otherwise unwanted projects.
Is anyone else experiencing "taxation without representation" or is it just me?
Amen
Here's how it ends: "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive in rights inherent and inalienables, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, and pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to subject them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 1776.
The way it ends is for people to exercise their right and duty to throw off such government. As I recall, 1776 wasn't an election year, so other means were used...
Here's when it ends: "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1857-frederick-douglass-if-there-no-struggle-there-no-progress/
The psychopathic abuse will continue until it is stopped, sometimes by words, usually by blows. Bullies must be beaten, and beaten until they run away - like Assad in Syria, for a recent example. Peaceful protest rarely does the trick.
Many of our politicians don't know the difference between "managers," and "elected representatives." They treat us all like we're the night shift at Wal-Mart.
^^This!^^
Next handful of years are gonna be rough on our managerial elites. North America and Europe both. Perhaps they should take a suggestion of Brecht’s. The citizenry not being up to snuff, they could just “dissolve the people and appoint a new one.”
Of course they’ve been trying this already via open borders, but the West just isn’t being swamped fast enough.
This essay by Euggypius has been cited in several places. Definitely struck a chord!
It's happening fast. Vox Populi is suddenly being heard!
Yes, Eugyppius’s essay is excellent, and thought provoking.
His premise that almost every type of government, including democracies, are controlled by oligarchies, makes a lot of real world sense, especially in light of what the democrat party, the uni-party, and the DC establishment has become. How do you fix something that may not be fixable? Is our government really no different from that of the Brits, the Germans, or even the Russians, Iranians, and Chinese, except for the (benevolent?) oligarchs we have in charge?
Elite Theory in action like Academic Agent explains in his books
The next step in this process is to decide that the citizens aren't qualified to choose elected officials.
What you describe is exactly what the Elites want. Reduce democracy to little more than a symbolic ritual; monopolise ‘science’; control religion; and eliminate ‘the common man’ from public discourse. The one world government they are trying to introduce demands nothing less.
"Our rulers" ... that's the "phrase which pays". That's the antithesis of Jefferson's (small-r) republicanism. "Rulers" is what we fought the Revolution to be rid of, although the Federalists and their ideological progeny have been trying to defeat republican government from the outset - and "Our Rulers" would be see as an enemy far worse than George III by the likes of Jefferson, George Mason, and Patrick Henry - and Philip Freneau, who wrote the following in Jefferson and Madison's National Gazette in 1792 - a writing which is quite relevant to, and resonant with, the present:
"In drawing all bills, resolutions, and reports, keep constantly in view that the limitations in the Constitution are ultimately to be explained away. Precedents and phrases may thus be shuffled in, without being adverted to by candid or weak people, of which good use may afterward be made.
For this purpose it will be particular useful to confound a mobbish democracy with a representative republic, that by exhibiting all the turbulent examples and enormities of the former, an odium may be thrown on the character of the latter... till the people be made, if possible, to tremble at their own shadows.
But the grand nostrum will be a public debt, provided enough of it can be got and it be medicated with the proper ingredients. If by good fortune a debt be ready at hand, the most is to be made of it. Stretch it and swell it to the utmost the items will bear. Allow as many extra claims as decency will permit. Assume all the debts of your neighbors - in a word, get as much debt as can be raked and scraped together ... To be brief, let the whole be such a mystery that a few only can understand it; and let all possible opportunities and informations fall in the way of these few to cinch their advantages over the many. ... It must not be forgotten that the members of the legislative body are to have a deep stake in the game. This is an essential point, and happily is attended with no difficulty. A sufficient number, properly disposed, can alternately legislate and speculate, and speculate and legislate, and buy and sell, and sell and buy, until a due portion of the property of their constituents has passed into their hands to give them an interest against their constituents, and to ensure the part they are to act. ... The management of a great funded debt and a extensive system of taxes will afford a plea, not to be neglected, for establishment of a great incorporated bank. the use of such a machine is well understood. If the Constitution, according to its fair meaning, should not authorize it, so much the better. Push it through by a forced meaning and you will get in the bargain an admirable precedent for future misconstructions. In fashioning the bank, remember that it is to be made particularly instrumental in enriching and aggrandizing the elect few, who are to be called in due season to the honors and felicities of the kingdom preparing for them, and who are the pillars that must support it. ... besides the direct benefit to be drawn from these artificial divisions, they will tend to smother the true and natural one, existing in all societies, between the few who are always impatient of political equality and the many who can never rise above it; between those who are to mount to the prerogatives and those who are to be saddled with the burdens of the hereditary government to be introduced - in one word, between the general mass of the people, attached to their republican government and republican interests, and the chosen band devoted to monarchy and Mammon. ... The expediency of seizing every occasion of external danger for augmenting and perpetuating the standing military force is too obvious to escape. So important is this matter that for any loss or disaster whatever attending the national arms, there will be ample consolation and compensation in the opportunity for enlarging the establishment. A military defeat will become a political victory," And so forth and so on - not bad for 232 years ago. You can read the rest at
https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/rules-for-changing-a-limited-republican" History may not repeat itself, but it rhymes...
Wow. That is the most accurate foretelling of our present sorry circumstances I’ve yet seen.
I’ve no doubt the fix was in shortly after our revolution was won to produce this outcome yet again.
Consider the attention span required to write or read those four paragraph, which were part of a mere magazine essay and not a solemn book. Now consider TikTok.
We're doomed.
The Administrative State exists without any Constitutional basis, and has, since its inception. It has subverted Constitutional process since then, and now strives to overtly overthrow Constitutional governance. It is the living embodiment of sedition, and it itself must be overthrown and abolished at all levels.
"The post-New Deal administrative state is unconstitutional, and its validation by the legal system amounts to nothing less than a bloodless constitutional revolution. The original New Dealers were aware, at least to some degree, that their vision of the national government's proper role and structure could not be squared with the written Constitution: The Administrative Process, James Landis's classic exposition of the New Deal model of administration, fairly drips with contempt for the idea of a limited national government subject to a formal, tripartite separation of powers. Faced with a choice between the administrative state and the Constitution, the architects of our modern government chose the administrative state, and their choice has stuck. ... The United States Congress today effectively exercises general legislative powers, in contravention of the constitutional principle of limited powers. Moreover, Congress frequently delegates that general legislative authority to administrative agencies, in contravention of Article I. Furthermore, those agencies are not always subject to the direct control of the President, in contravention of Article II. In addition, those agencies sometimes exercise the judicial power, in contravention of Article III. Finally, those agencies typically concentrate legislative, executive, and judicial functions in the same institution, in simultaneous contravention of Articles I, II, and III. In short, the modern administrative state openly flouts almost every important structural precept of the American constitutional order." The Rise and Rise of the Administrative State, Gary S. Lawson, Boston University School of Law at https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/open-sedition-by-the-administrative-900
And this goes for governments all the way down to school boards, who are often the worst of them all - and the answer is to do away with them, root and branch - do to them what the Romans did to Carthage - that, or surrender the free exercise of your inherent and inalienable Constitutional liberties. It's a zero-sum game, they win or the people win.
Spectacular summation. The metastasis of the State ensures it is almost impossible to effectively snuff out. There are myriad lanes within each branch of government that allow for the flourishing of administration over Constitutional laws.
If you really want to cut off the part of government that is useless, dangerous, or both, you just need to cut out the parts that are in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution - abolish them, stop the money, and send the employees packing. Those parts and pieces are well-known, even if classified and paid for in the “black budget” - in fact, if the “black budget” is their source of funding, that agency is prima facie unconstitutional and illegal:
“A corporatized, militarized, entrenched bureaucracy that is fully operational and staffed by unelected officials who are, in essence, running the country, this shadow government represents the hidden face of a government that has no respect for the freedom of its citizenry.
No matter which candidate wins the presidential election, this shadow government is here to stay. Indeed, as recent documents by the FBI reveal, this shadow government—also referred to as “The 7th Floor Group”—may well have played a part in who will win the White House this year.
To be precise, however, the future president will actually inherit not one but two shadow governments.
The first shadow government, referred to as COG or Continuity of Government, is made up of unelected individuals who have been appointed to run the government in the event of a “catastrophe.” COG is a phantom menace waiting for the right circumstances—a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, an economic meltdown—to bring it out of the shadows, where it operates even now. When and if COG takes over, the police state will transition to martial law.
Yet it is the second shadow government—also referred to as the Deep State—that poses the greater threat to freedom right now. Comprised of unelected government bureaucrats, corporations, contractors, paper-pushers, and button-pushers who are actually calling the shots behind the scenes, this government within a government is the real reason “we the people” have no real control over our government.
The Deep State, which “operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power,” makes a mockery of elections and the entire concept of a representative government.” https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2016/10/30/deep-state-americas-shadow-government-and-its-silent-coup/, cited in https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/department-of-government-efficiency