Along with "laws", "citizen" is another word that's no longer used. We're now consumers observing guardrails in a rules-based world. And so much worse for it.
Hello Bill Astore... Laws are only effective when they are enforced... DJT should have been Bankrupt, AGAIN, except his MAGA Cultists keep sending him $$$ for his Legal Bills... The Lawyers that he retains are just legal whores.... Look at Pam Bondi, and Todd Blanche... DJT is getting more impetus, unrestrained, as DJT's Dementia proceeds, and unimpeded... The Best Solution Is Divine Intervention Soon...
I think the boat has sailed as far as "officials of integrity and courage." Seems that we, the people, have to work on developing those traits in ourselves. The two-party system is useless.
The Mises Institute’s Ryan McMaken explains WHY AMERICA’S TWO-PARTY SYSTEM WILL NEVER THREATEN THE TRUE POLITICAL ELITES... :
Whenever a new US president is sworn in, media pundits and court historians gush about the supposed “peaceful transfer of power” that is taking place. This has become a key tenet of the mythology and ideology surrounding democracy—that governing elites willfully abandon their control over the machinery of the state in response to election outcomes.
Indeed, this narrative about democracy is absolutely foundational to the perceived legitimacy of democracy. The contention that elections lead to a “peaceful transfer of power” reinforces the idea that the governing elites are determined by elections, and therefore by the “will of the people.” If “we the people” vote for a new group of rulers, then the old leaders will step aside a new group will take over.
At least, that’s how the story goes.
The first problem with this myth is that there is no “will of the people.” This is a fantasy that not even mainstream political scientists believe. The notion of the “general will“ is simply a doctrine of a civic religion that is employed to claim that elections grant government officials a “mandate” to rule.
The absurdities of political “representation” and “the will of the people” are problematic, for sure, but in this column I want to address the central claim of the myth of the “peaceful transfer of power.” Namely, that power is meaningfully transferred from one group of governing elites to another. .......
Here's one way, Auntie Jean, that the Will of at least some of The People could be very easily represented in elections [posted here on BV in April, 2022]:
I read your article and truly appreciate your enthusiasm. Alas, I believe that we have reached a point of a fascist in power, who is willing to use his ICE stormtroopers to keep protestors down. I hate to be negative, but I think we are fooling ourselves to believe that elections will matter at all (even if vote NOTC). My heart aches.
Another word to toss on the pile of empty political jargon - along with "rules-based international order" (again, versus laws). As Orwell wrote (more or less) - political language is just there to make lies sound acceptable and murder justified.
Gary D Barnett nails it in his 8 Feb 26 piece: AMERICA: THE NOW TYRANNICAL SADISTIC POLICE STATE... :
“A police state is a country run by criminals” ~ Robert Harris
If it was not so serious, it would be almost laughable; that is the inversion of ‘thought’ among the competing factions called red or blue, republican or democrat, left or right. There is a reason to have two major political parties, or even any political parties, as this type of ruling structure guarantees mass division and hate; the two things necessary so that the criminal State thugs in politics can tame and control the entire population. There has never been a time where this is more obvious than today.
The evil red side supposedly is more inclined toward capitalism, gun ‘rights,’ war, and anti-civil rights, but of course that is all a farce. The blue side is supposedly for civil rights, welfare, gun confiscation, and anti-war, but that is also all a farce. Both sides accept most anything, so long as their political ‘god’ is in power. This time around, the evil red team has built a massive police state, mass surveillance, extreme censorship, and war, while the evil blue team has gone along with some things, shunned others, created protest and riots, but reversed on core positions. The gun question in particular has now inverted, as Trump has said no guns, no guns on the street, while the left is now for guns due to the ICE martial law and brutality. You can’t make this up.
Both the right and left love war so long as their guy’s in power, they both want dependency on government, they both desire money, power and control, they both cheer on censorship, mass surveillance, and full digitization. They both supported the fake ‘covid’ lockdowns and mass murder of the elderly, they both, especially Trump, wanted poisonous lethal injections for all, they both want to spend and advance trillions in debt, all while the people starve. So what is the real difference? There is none.
But now we are at a crossroads, because heinous police-state tactics; tracking, tracing, full surveillance, censorship, warrantless searches and seizures, masked Gestapo-type cretins on the streets, martial law, property confiscation, elimination of due process, and State IDs are accepted by both when in power, but met with feigned ‘resistance’ when out of power. Contradictory, hypocritical; of course it is, but that is the way of politicians and all those who accept and support them.
I prefaced my main point because none of this could be happening unless both political parties, all those who support them, and a majority of others were on board and accepting of this totalitarian insanity. The United States is now a tyrannical sadistic police state, and these ICE goons are the face of this system.
guardrail is a common metaphor for a boundary line, particularly in the contexts of personal development, leadership, ethics, and technology
My article posted on the 1st Day of this New Year of Christ Jesus 2026, is all about a "guardrail" only it's called "The Boundary Line" in the article, 'https://rayjc.com/2026/01/13/abyss-and-the-rogue/'
Bill is diagnosing the symptom: the guardrails are gone, and the vehicle is careening.
I am diagnosing the disease: the vehicle was never on the road to begin with; it was built to operate in the abyss, and it has now reached the Boundary Line of its own fraudulent existence.
The "Rogue Order" is a system that by design removed all divine and moral "guardrails" (covenant, law, truth) and replaced them with its own "guardrails" of power, fear, and deception (the "Babylonian gold dome").
Now, as it accelerates, it is discovering that those human guardrails were illusions. It is hitting the real, unyielding Boundary Line of reality: the point where its foundational lies can no longer hold, and foreclosure becomes inevitable.
My article states the principle: "When a rogue power crosses the boundary line into the abyss, it does not fall in. The abyss rises to meet it."
I am just documenting in real-time. The "abyss" of nihilism, lawlessness, and "New World Disorder" is not a future threat.
It is the present condition that has risen to meet the rogue powers who thought they could rule by creating it for others.
Guardrails means suggested guidelines. Laws to restrict the Executive Branch don't exist and never really have existed, as Trump brutally exposed in his first Awful Office squat. However, the Executive branch should have and could have had laws to restrict it. The only restriction over the short life of the Republic was only the appearance of impropriety, as is actuality the case for the other two branches of government.
The peoples of the other Branches (including the vaunted fourth branch), Branches that were supposed to check the other branches have long abrogated their Duties to the people of the US. They only advocate for the oligarchy and the illegal entity that is isreal or anyone with enough money and power to affect them in good or bad ways.
I've read that there are actually more branches of this US government, the lobbying, the Blackrock branch, I. E. Israel branch, the Oligarchal branch and more, which in my opinion can be and should be restricted or removed by any or all of the Constitutional Branches.
Nuanced… I too have noticed the phenomenon, with a sense of inchoate unease. This clarifies, articulates. I’ll submit it’s further manifestation of enveloping capitalist nihilism, or nihilism wrought by capitalism. “All that is solid melts into air,” Marx and Engels, in “The Communist Manifesto” (1848).
What is at work here, X K, is not "capitalist nihilism." It is Corporatist nihilism. There is a big, Big difference.
“Corporatism” is the term Mussolini created as a friendlier-sounding label for “Fascism.”
Corporatism is the marriage at the hip of Governments ~ particularly at the National, Federal level ~ with Corporations and other privately-owned economic enterprises.
It is a system whereby cultural, social, civil, and, particularly in this case, economic Vested Special Interests [VSIs] can gain ready and easy, but expensive access to the legal power, the administrative authority, and, above all, the spending capacity and capability of that Government as governed by its elected politicians, entrenched bureaucrats, and anointed appointees. And use that access to advance the agendas, profits, and returns-on-investments of those individual, group, organizational, and institutional VSIs.
That is NOT “Capitalism” by any stretch of any definition. Capitalism is the COMPLETE Separation of The Economy and State; just like there is supposed to be a COMPLETE Separation of Church and State. [EMPHASES added.]
America is not now, nor has it ever been a “Capitalist” Nation.
What needs to be changed in America is that those Corporatist VSIs can and do have access to that Government’s power, authority, and ability to print, control, and distribute money. And until that Is changed, NOTHING is going to change. Except to get worse.
And this is nothing new.
There were all sorts of Vested Special Interests very much at work crafting what became America’s system of Governance as established by the Constitution in 1788. And successive generations of VSIs ~ thru their owned, operated, commanded, and controlled politicians, bureaucrats, and judges ~ have manipulated and modified that Constitution and its system of Governance so that that power and authority of ~ and, particularly, that control and distribution of wealth by ~ the Government, has grown and grown to what it is today.
Again: The REAL PROBLEM is the fact that that Government has all that legal power and administrative authority, and, above all, that ability to create and spend or give away money.
That is what really needs to be changed. And again: Unless and until it is changed, things are only going to get much worse than they are becoming now.
And they can and will only get worse as long as America is controlled by an autocratic, oligarchic. plutocratic, patriarchal Ruling Political Class/Caste and its Deep State: the military-industrial-congressional complex, the banking finance-printing press web, the techno-infotainment matrix, the petro-food-guns-n-drugs cartels, the pharmo-medicoinsurance-legal cabals, and the surveillance-secrecy-security-censorship-propaganda panopticon that owns and operates, and commands and controls the politicians, bureaucrats, and political appointees at center stage in America's Reality TV Soap Opera Extravaganza; and America's $ 1 = I Vote system of Government and Governance that gets, puts, and keeps them there.
So the Real Question is: How do Americans go about getting rid of that Ruling Political Class/Caste and its Deep State?
Especially before it mutates in a full-blown, bottom line, bullet-hits-the-bone Dictatorship. Which could happen very, Very soon.
Thanks for the explication. I was driving at what you define, describe better. That being said, I still have problems with capitalism's exploitation, instability, inequalities, social harms. Correct, relevant, vital question is, how rid ourselves of the deeply entrenched Ruling Political Class/Caste and its Deep State? With that Class' Supreme Court - engineered by one of the Class' prime exponents, Mitch McConnell - concocting a "money is free speech" rationale, representative government is only past tense now.
I don't see any way out other than the system collapsing of its own weight and fundamental flaws and overreach, or outright revolution. Neither gonna be pretty.
Thank You, X K, for the positive feedback on my effort to explain the difference between Capitalism and Corporatism. i've been working on that idea for a bit now, and it's starting to come together.
And know that i have the same problems with the exploitation, instability, inequalities, and social harms, but of Corporatism's, and not Capitalism's.
And finally, there is another alternative to Collapse or Revolution: And that is Dictatorship, which i commented on earlier.
Important to know precisely what we're talkin' about. I may either have missed the earlier comment on dictatorship, or have become resigned to the likelihood, given present circumstances...
Capitalism is come to the end of it's rope for violating the Spiritual Law expressed these ways, 'No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and MONEY. The love of MONEY, not money, is the root of all evil. Hardly ever will a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. It's easier for a camel to enter the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The Rich man and Lazarus, and so many similar admonitions' in Scripture.
This World will now, is now, experiencing the results of their value systems and what they want and serve in this Material World.
I actually wrote to Pope Francis a few years ago respectfully suggesting he renounce being referred to as 'The Holy Father.'
That would be a radical as John Paul I abdicating the 1000 year Papal Crown and Throne, the trappings of POWER, to conform with Christ Jesus' teaching, 'Call NO MAN ON EARTH your Father for WE have ONE Father in heaven.'
Looking into this Material World from that perspective, it becomes fundamentally obvious, in a MONEY DRIVEN World, the existence of $Billionaires IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY!
Whatever is coming to the end of its rope, Ray, it isn't Capitalism.
As i stated earlier to X K, the problem is Corporatism, and not Capitalism, which does not exist now; nor has it ever existed.
Recall that before Corporatism, there was Mercantilism. And with it, the close linkage between The Crown, the Quest for Empire, and the Pursuit of individual, organizational, and institutional Power and Wealth.
Thank You for another outstanding Thought-Provoker, Bill.
When did that happen? When ~ and How ~ did America’s “Rule of Law” morph into its “Rule of Men”? Or was it never truly a "Rule of Law"? In any event, permit me to offer this as a response...:
THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION
The Crisis confronting America is not that some sociopathic politician wants to become America’s King or Emperor.
It is that the people, groups, organizations, and institutions of America’s Ruling Political Class/Caste that own, operate, command, control, script and choreograph that politician ~ and virtually every other politician in Washington, DC ~ want a Dictatorship.
And Donald Trump fits the billing perfectly.
The Most Important Question confronting every American still capable of thinking for her or himself is as follows:
Is this Nation on the precipice of a fully functional and operational authoritarian, autocratic, plutocratic, oligarchic, patriarchal, totalitarian Dictatorship?
Based on what has happened since January 20, 2025, this Nation is as close to a Dictatorship as it has ever been in its 249+ year history; including the Great Depression/New Deal/World War II era of the last century, and the Civil War the century before.
These past 385 days of TRUMP 2.0 have been a masterfully planned and executed Psychological Warfare Operation intended to determine just exactly how able and willing the American Peoples are to accept ~ and to just get on with the rest of their lives in ~ a Dictatorship.
All of which leads me to ask myself ~ and to ask those other Americans still capable of thinking for themselves to ask themselves ~ the following Questions:
1. Do You agree that the United States is on the edge of a precipice, and that a full blown, bottom line, bullet-hits-the-bone Dictatorship is very possible in America’s near future?
2. If You don’t agree with that assessment: Can You explain Why?
3. If, on the other hand, You Do agree with that assessment: What ~ if anything ~ can be done to prevent that Dictatorship from happening? Or is it already too late to stop it?
4. If it cannot be stopped and in fact happens, what would be the most appropriate and effective reaction and response of those who oppose the Dictatorship?
5. If that Dictatorship CAN be confronted, combatted, conquered, and disintegrated, what system of National Government and Governance would replace it? The same one America has now, that enabled TRUMP 2.0 to happen in the first place; but just with different names, faces, promises, proposals, and agenda? Or something different?
6. Do You agree that a significant number of Americans ~ and a number of people who are socially, economically, and/or politically “significant” ~ would very probably welcome a Dictatorship; as long as it was her or his guy or gal who was the Dictator?
7. Will the United States of America survive to celebrate its 250th Birthday on July 4, 2026, 145 days from today. February 9, 2026?
8, And if it does survive, will the American Peoples be in any condition or mood to celebrate anything?
If You think these Questions merit consideration, please share them with Your Family and Loved Ones, Friends and Neighbors, Colleagues, Cohorts, and Compeers; and any public officials and media outlets that You think might be interested.
The Reality-TV Soap Opera Extravaganza unfolding in Washington, DC promises only to get even juicier and dicier as Winter unfolds into Spring. Stay Safe, Strong, and ~ in a World going increasingly Insane ~ most of all, stay Sane.
I should have added: We already have something much better than "guardrails." They're called "laws" -- and they have teeth.
Too bad those laws are so often defanged when it comes to the rich and powerful.
Along with "laws", "citizen" is another word that's no longer used. We're now consumers observing guardrails in a rules-based world. And so much worse for it.
Hello Bill Astore... Laws are only effective when they are enforced... DJT should have been Bankrupt, AGAIN, except his MAGA Cultists keep sending him $$$ for his Legal Bills... The Lawyers that he retains are just legal whores.... Look at Pam Bondi, and Todd Blanche... DJT is getting more impetus, unrestrained, as DJT's Dementia proceeds, and unimpeded... The Best Solution Is Divine Intervention Soon...
I think the boat has sailed as far as "officials of integrity and courage." Seems that we, the people, have to work on developing those traits in ourselves. The two-party system is useless.
The Mises Institute’s Ryan McMaken explains WHY AMERICA’S TWO-PARTY SYSTEM WILL NEVER THREATEN THE TRUE POLITICAL ELITES... :
Whenever a new US president is sworn in, media pundits and court historians gush about the supposed “peaceful transfer of power” that is taking place. This has become a key tenet of the mythology and ideology surrounding democracy—that governing elites willfully abandon their control over the machinery of the state in response to election outcomes.
Indeed, this narrative about democracy is absolutely foundational to the perceived legitimacy of democracy. The contention that elections lead to a “peaceful transfer of power” reinforces the idea that the governing elites are determined by elections, and therefore by the “will of the people.” If “we the people” vote for a new group of rulers, then the old leaders will step aside a new group will take over.
At least, that’s how the story goes.
The first problem with this myth is that there is no “will of the people.” This is a fantasy that not even mainstream political scientists believe. The notion of the “general will“ is simply a doctrine of a civic religion that is employed to claim that elections grant government officials a “mandate” to rule.
The absurdities of political “representation” and “the will of the people” are problematic, for sure, but in this column I want to address the central claim of the myth of the “peaceful transfer of power.” Namely, that power is meaningfully transferred from one group of governing elites to another. .......
Full article continued at https://www.lewrockwell.com/2026/02/ryan-mcmaken/why-americas-two-party-system-will-never-threaten-the-true-political-elites/ .
True, elections don't represent the will of the people.
Here's one way, Auntie Jean, that the Will of at least some of The People could be very easily represented in elections [posted here on BV in April, 2022]:
"Reforming America's Elections the NOTC Way," at https://bracingviews.substack.com/p/reforming-americas-elections-the-notc-way .
I read your article and truly appreciate your enthusiasm. Alas, I believe that we have reached a point of a fascist in power, who is willing to use his ICE stormtroopers to keep protestors down. I hate to be negative, but I think we are fooling ourselves to believe that elections will matter at all (even if vote NOTC). My heart aches.
The first question, Aunty Jean, is: Will there even BE Mid-Term Elections in November?
And if there is, will the results be accepted by the Losers?
I honestly don't know. Tulsi Gabbard showing up in Georgia with the FBI to raid an elections office does not bode well.
Another word to toss on the pile of empty political jargon - along with "rules-based international order" (again, versus laws). As Orwell wrote (more or less) - political language is just there to make lies sound acceptable and murder justified.
“America is not like this because he is President. He is President because America is like this.” Said by a Canadian news anchor.
The Rule Of Law
is a joke
Gary D Barnett nails it in his 8 Feb 26 piece: AMERICA: THE NOW TYRANNICAL SADISTIC POLICE STATE... :
“A police state is a country run by criminals” ~ Robert Harris
If it was not so serious, it would be almost laughable; that is the inversion of ‘thought’ among the competing factions called red or blue, republican or democrat, left or right. There is a reason to have two major political parties, or even any political parties, as this type of ruling structure guarantees mass division and hate; the two things necessary so that the criminal State thugs in politics can tame and control the entire population. There has never been a time where this is more obvious than today.
The evil red side supposedly is more inclined toward capitalism, gun ‘rights,’ war, and anti-civil rights, but of course that is all a farce. The blue side is supposedly for civil rights, welfare, gun confiscation, and anti-war, but that is also all a farce. Both sides accept most anything, so long as their political ‘god’ is in power. This time around, the evil red team has built a massive police state, mass surveillance, extreme censorship, and war, while the evil blue team has gone along with some things, shunned others, created protest and riots, but reversed on core positions. The gun question in particular has now inverted, as Trump has said no guns, no guns on the street, while the left is now for guns due to the ICE martial law and brutality. You can’t make this up.
Both the right and left love war so long as their guy’s in power, they both want dependency on government, they both desire money, power and control, they both cheer on censorship, mass surveillance, and full digitization. They both supported the fake ‘covid’ lockdowns and mass murder of the elderly, they both, especially Trump, wanted poisonous lethal injections for all, they both want to spend and advance trillions in debt, all while the people starve. So what is the real difference? There is none.
But now we are at a crossroads, because heinous police-state tactics; tracking, tracing, full surveillance, censorship, warrantless searches and seizures, masked Gestapo-type cretins on the streets, martial law, property confiscation, elimination of due process, and State IDs are accepted by both when in power, but met with feigned ‘resistance’ when out of power. Contradictory, hypocritical; of course it is, but that is the way of politicians and all those who accept and support them.
I prefaced my main point because none of this could be happening unless both political parties, all those who support them, and a majority of others were on board and accepting of this totalitarian insanity. The United States is now a tyrannical sadistic police state, and these ICE goons are the face of this system.
Full article continued at https://garydbarnett.substack.com/p/america-the-now-tyrannical-sadistic .
Hello JG... This is Very Dark, and Cannot 'Like' This...
guardrail is a common metaphor for a boundary line, particularly in the contexts of personal development, leadership, ethics, and technology
My article posted on the 1st Day of this New Year of Christ Jesus 2026, is all about a "guardrail" only it's called "The Boundary Line" in the article, 'https://rayjc.com/2026/01/13/abyss-and-the-rogue/'
Bill is diagnosing the symptom: the guardrails are gone, and the vehicle is careening.
I am diagnosing the disease: the vehicle was never on the road to begin with; it was built to operate in the abyss, and it has now reached the Boundary Line of its own fraudulent existence.
The "Rogue Order" is a system that by design removed all divine and moral "guardrails" (covenant, law, truth) and replaced them with its own "guardrails" of power, fear, and deception (the "Babylonian gold dome").
Now, as it accelerates, it is discovering that those human guardrails were illusions. It is hitting the real, unyielding Boundary Line of reality: the point where its foundational lies can no longer hold, and foreclosure becomes inevitable.
My article states the principle: "When a rogue power crosses the boundary line into the abyss, it does not fall in. The abyss rises to meet it."
I am just documenting in real-time. The "abyss" of nihilism, lawlessness, and "New World Disorder" is not a future threat.
It is the present condition that has risen to meet the rogue powers who thought they could rule by creating it for others.
Guardrails means suggested guidelines. Laws to restrict the Executive Branch don't exist and never really have existed, as Trump brutally exposed in his first Awful Office squat. However, the Executive branch should have and could have had laws to restrict it. The only restriction over the short life of the Republic was only the appearance of impropriety, as is actuality the case for the other two branches of government.
The peoples of the other Branches (including the vaunted fourth branch), Branches that were supposed to check the other branches have long abrogated their Duties to the people of the US. They only advocate for the oligarchy and the illegal entity that is isreal or anyone with enough money and power to affect them in good or bad ways.
I've read that there are actually more branches of this US government, the lobbying, the Blackrock branch, I. E. Israel branch, the Oligarchal branch and more, which in my opinion can be and should be restricted or removed by any or all of the Constitutional Branches.
Nuanced… I too have noticed the phenomenon, with a sense of inchoate unease. This clarifies, articulates. I’ll submit it’s further manifestation of enveloping capitalist nihilism, or nihilism wrought by capitalism. “All that is solid melts into air,” Marx and Engels, in “The Communist Manifesto” (1848).
What is at work here, X K, is not "capitalist nihilism." It is Corporatist nihilism. There is a big, Big difference.
“Corporatism” is the term Mussolini created as a friendlier-sounding label for “Fascism.”
Corporatism is the marriage at the hip of Governments ~ particularly at the National, Federal level ~ with Corporations and other privately-owned economic enterprises.
It is a system whereby cultural, social, civil, and, particularly in this case, economic Vested Special Interests [VSIs] can gain ready and easy, but expensive access to the legal power, the administrative authority, and, above all, the spending capacity and capability of that Government as governed by its elected politicians, entrenched bureaucrats, and anointed appointees. And use that access to advance the agendas, profits, and returns-on-investments of those individual, group, organizational, and institutional VSIs.
That is NOT “Capitalism” by any stretch of any definition. Capitalism is the COMPLETE Separation of The Economy and State; just like there is supposed to be a COMPLETE Separation of Church and State. [EMPHASES added.]
America is not now, nor has it ever been a “Capitalist” Nation.
What needs to be changed in America is that those Corporatist VSIs can and do have access to that Government’s power, authority, and ability to print, control, and distribute money. And until that Is changed, NOTHING is going to change. Except to get worse.
And this is nothing new.
There were all sorts of Vested Special Interests very much at work crafting what became America’s system of Governance as established by the Constitution in 1788. And successive generations of VSIs ~ thru their owned, operated, commanded, and controlled politicians, bureaucrats, and judges ~ have manipulated and modified that Constitution and its system of Governance so that that power and authority of ~ and, particularly, that control and distribution of wealth by ~ the Government, has grown and grown to what it is today.
Again: The REAL PROBLEM is the fact that that Government has all that legal power and administrative authority, and, above all, that ability to create and spend or give away money.
That is what really needs to be changed. And again: Unless and until it is changed, things are only going to get much worse than they are becoming now.
And they can and will only get worse as long as America is controlled by an autocratic, oligarchic. plutocratic, patriarchal Ruling Political Class/Caste and its Deep State: the military-industrial-congressional complex, the banking finance-printing press web, the techno-infotainment matrix, the petro-food-guns-n-drugs cartels, the pharmo-medicoinsurance-legal cabals, and the surveillance-secrecy-security-censorship-propaganda panopticon that owns and operates, and commands and controls the politicians, bureaucrats, and political appointees at center stage in America's Reality TV Soap Opera Extravaganza; and America's $ 1 = I Vote system of Government and Governance that gets, puts, and keeps them there.
So the Real Question is: How do Americans go about getting rid of that Ruling Political Class/Caste and its Deep State?
Especially before it mutates in a full-blown, bottom line, bullet-hits-the-bone Dictatorship. Which could happen very, Very soon.
Thanks for the explication. I was driving at what you define, describe better. That being said, I still have problems with capitalism's exploitation, instability, inequalities, social harms. Correct, relevant, vital question is, how rid ourselves of the deeply entrenched Ruling Political Class/Caste and its Deep State? With that Class' Supreme Court - engineered by one of the Class' prime exponents, Mitch McConnell - concocting a "money is free speech" rationale, representative government is only past tense now.
I don't see any way out other than the system collapsing of its own weight and fundamental flaws and overreach, or outright revolution. Neither gonna be pretty.
Thank You, X K, for the positive feedback on my effort to explain the difference between Capitalism and Corporatism. i've been working on that idea for a bit now, and it's starting to come together.
And know that i have the same problems with the exploitation, instability, inequalities, and social harms, but of Corporatism's, and not Capitalism's.
And finally, there is another alternative to Collapse or Revolution: And that is Dictatorship, which i commented on earlier.
Important to know precisely what we're talkin' about. I may either have missed the earlier comment on dictatorship, or have become resigned to the likelihood, given present circumstances...
Capitalism is come to the end of it's rope for violating the Spiritual Law expressed these ways, 'No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and MONEY. The love of MONEY, not money, is the root of all evil. Hardly ever will a rich man enter the kingdom of heaven. It's easier for a camel to enter the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The Rich man and Lazarus, and so many similar admonitions' in Scripture.
This World will now, is now, experiencing the results of their value systems and what they want and serve in this Material World.
I actually wrote to Pope Francis a few years ago respectfully suggesting he renounce being referred to as 'The Holy Father.'
That would be a radical as John Paul I abdicating the 1000 year Papal Crown and Throne, the trappings of POWER, to conform with Christ Jesus' teaching, 'Call NO MAN ON EARTH your Father for WE have ONE Father in heaven.'
Looking into this Material World from that perspective, it becomes fundamentally obvious, in a MONEY DRIVEN World, the existence of $Billionaires IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY!
Whatever is coming to the end of its rope, Ray, it isn't Capitalism.
As i stated earlier to X K, the problem is Corporatism, and not Capitalism, which does not exist now; nor has it ever existed.
Recall that before Corporatism, there was Mercantilism. And with it, the close linkage between The Crown, the Quest for Empire, and the Pursuit of individual, organizational, and institutional Power and Wealth.
Hello JG... This is Very Dark, and Cannot 'Like' This...
Whether You can "Like" it or not, Apache, does the post make sense to You?
Hello JG... Unfortunately Yes...
The solution to violent ruthlessness is not containing it. It's replacing its facilitators.
https://johnrachel.substack.com/p/the-contract-for-american-renewal
https://johnrachel.substack.com/p/the-cfar-is-a-game-changer
https://johnrachel.substack.com/p/talk-is-cheap-if-youre-an-establishment
https://johnrachel.substack.com/p/contract-for-american-renewal-faq
Thank You for another outstanding Thought-Provoker, Bill.
When did that happen? When ~ and How ~ did America’s “Rule of Law” morph into its “Rule of Men”? Or was it never truly a "Rule of Law"? In any event, permit me to offer this as a response...:
THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION
The Crisis confronting America is not that some sociopathic politician wants to become America’s King or Emperor.
It is that the people, groups, organizations, and institutions of America’s Ruling Political Class/Caste that own, operate, command, control, script and choreograph that politician ~ and virtually every other politician in Washington, DC ~ want a Dictatorship.
And Donald Trump fits the billing perfectly.
The Most Important Question confronting every American still capable of thinking for her or himself is as follows:
Is this Nation on the precipice of a fully functional and operational authoritarian, autocratic, plutocratic, oligarchic, patriarchal, totalitarian Dictatorship?
Based on what has happened since January 20, 2025, this Nation is as close to a Dictatorship as it has ever been in its 249+ year history; including the Great Depression/New Deal/World War II era of the last century, and the Civil War the century before.
These past 385 days of TRUMP 2.0 have been a masterfully planned and executed Psychological Warfare Operation intended to determine just exactly how able and willing the American Peoples are to accept ~ and to just get on with the rest of their lives in ~ a Dictatorship.
All of which leads me to ask myself ~ and to ask those other Americans still capable of thinking for themselves to ask themselves ~ the following Questions:
1. Do You agree that the United States is on the edge of a precipice, and that a full blown, bottom line, bullet-hits-the-bone Dictatorship is very possible in America’s near future?
2. If You don’t agree with that assessment: Can You explain Why?
3. If, on the other hand, You Do agree with that assessment: What ~ if anything ~ can be done to prevent that Dictatorship from happening? Or is it already too late to stop it?
4. If it cannot be stopped and in fact happens, what would be the most appropriate and effective reaction and response of those who oppose the Dictatorship?
5. If that Dictatorship CAN be confronted, combatted, conquered, and disintegrated, what system of National Government and Governance would replace it? The same one America has now, that enabled TRUMP 2.0 to happen in the first place; but just with different names, faces, promises, proposals, and agenda? Or something different?
6. Do You agree that a significant number of Americans ~ and a number of people who are socially, economically, and/or politically “significant” ~ would very probably welcome a Dictatorship; as long as it was her or his guy or gal who was the Dictator?
7. Will the United States of America survive to celebrate its 250th Birthday on July 4, 2026, 145 days from today. February 9, 2026?
8, And if it does survive, will the American Peoples be in any condition or mood to celebrate anything?
If You think these Questions merit consideration, please share them with Your Family and Loved Ones, Friends and Neighbors, Colleagues, Cohorts, and Compeers; and any public officials and media outlets that You think might be interested.
The Reality-TV Soap Opera Extravaganza unfolding in Washington, DC promises only to get even juicier and dicier as Winter unfolds into Spring. Stay Safe, Strong, and ~ in a World going increasingly Insane ~ most of all, stay Sane.