Although Michael Rectenwald wrote this commentary a few days ago, before our (lying?) eyes saw Uncle Joe sitting in the (real?) oval office, he makes some very important points. He also comes to a conclusion – but perhaps a century (or more) late that the facts more than support.

The Republic is dead. The zombie corpse that replaced it under Wilson (if not Teddy or even earlier) has started to fall apart – limbs not just dragging but rotting apart.

And “our democracy” that supposedly replaced it? That, too, to continue the simile, has had its heart staked. Because it too was a fraud, a sham, a play-act that lulled any and all to their doom. And the doom of the authoritative and increasingly centralized empire that replaced the Republic.

Either there is no longer any need in the eyes of the cabal of masters of 330 million of us? Or they have grown so confident, so arrogant, that they no longer worry too much about spilling the beans.

To put it another way, Mr. Rectenwald points out that the abused elderly meat puppet, Uncle Joe, has outlived his usefulness as a shill or illusion or whatever. He is being discarded. (We can feel pity for him because he is human. As far as his mistreatment for the last four-plus years (including the 2020 campaign), well, even he deserves to enjoy family and friends (the ones he admits to) for a while before his body decides to shut down completely. But sadly, he is probably beyond hope even for repenting of the evil that he has done – if he even remembers what he has done or understands any longer the difference between right and wrong.

But the Republic, not being human, has no opportunity for an afterlife, whether in Paradise or in Hell. We’ve long pointed out that the Republic, the Union (the real one, not the rump that prosecuted the War against the South), was mortally wounded during that War and finally killed by a combination of Teddy’s “Progressivism” and Wilson’s evil regime aided and abetted by a wide-spread political machine that built on Honest Abe’s and Teddy’s misdeeds.

We are sure we are alienating readers of this commentary in multiple ways. But truth is truth.

Mr. Rectenwald calls what we have today is a shadow government. (Note that current American usage of the term is very different from the traditional King’s English usage.) Wikipedia tries to portray it as a type of conspiracy theory: “The shadow government, also referred to as cryptocracy, secret government, or invisible government, is a family of theories based on the notion that real and actual political power resides not only with publicly elected representatives but with private individuals who are exercising power behind the scenes, beyond the scrutiny of democratic institutions. According to this belief, the official elected government is subservient to the shadow government, which is the true executive power.” The article clearly tries to discredit the idea of such a thing, in part by explaining how someone believes that the shadow government is a bunch of extraterrestrials. At the same time, Wickedpedia also attempts to dismiss the idea of a “deep state” as being a fantasy of The Donald and Trumpistas.

In an amusing way, Mr. Rectenwald writes: “No longer can anyone in their right mind think that “our democracy” means anything other than their pathocracy—masked, ever-so-thinly, by the spectacle of so-called democracy.” The link in the quote is to an article in Psychology Today. An article that literally features Boris Johnson and Donald Trump as two poster children for “government by psychopaths – defined as “when individuals with personality disorders (particularly psychopathy) occupy positions of power.”

We would not argue with this – except to point out that the same personality disorder can be found in a lot more people than Johnson (either Boris or Mike or LBJ) and Trump. Consider Schumer, Pelosi, Newsom, De Santos, Abbott, to name just a few. Indeed, is it not reasonable to state that virtually every successful politician at the State and Federal level has personality disorders? Narcissism and egotism to start with. Add extreme and irrational selfishness, greed, and a whole bunch more personality traits that seem to be symptoms of sociopathy and psychopathy? Perhaps the amazing thing is that government, which attracts people like this like flies to raw meat, is not more predatory than it is.

Liberty from such monsters – monsters in power and well as those obviously recognized as criminals – is much to be desired. And to be worked towards.