New Book: Rejecting the Ideology of Progress
‘The Agrarian Imagination: Development and the Art of the Impossible’ (2025), published by The Critical Globalisation Collective (UK & India), is available on Figshare. All the author’s work is released under an open access framework and is freely available for non-commercial use.
The open access book The Agrarian Imagination Development and the Art of the Impossible is a critique of the dominant global economic and political model often termed ‘development’ and based on a warped notion of ‘progress’. In it, through 16 essays, it is argued that this system, driven by the needs of private (finance)…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/25/new-book-rejecting-the-ideology-of-progress/
‘The Agrarian Imagination: Development and the Art of the Impossible’ (2025), published by The Critical Globalisation Collective (UK & India), is available on Figshare. All the author’s work is released under an open access framework and is freely available for non-commercial use.
The open access book The Agrarian Imagination Development and the Art of the Impossible is a critique of the dominant global economic and political model often termed ‘development’ and based on a warped notion of ‘progress’. In it, through 16 essays, it is argued that this system, driven by the needs of private (finance)…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/25/new-book-rejecting-the-ideology-of-progress/
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Soft Censorship on Free-Speech Twitter?
We don’t get much engagement on Twitter (X, whatever). At ~63,000 followers we’re hardly a huge account, but an engagement rate of around 0.07% is incredibly low.
Our content generally gets low-double digit “likes”.
For what it’s worth, checkers that claim to able to detect these things say we aren’t shadowbanned.
We’ve accepted that we’re in the soundproof free speech booth, allowed to say whatever we want as long as no one hears us.
But, every so often, we get something to pierce the shield (at least a little bit). That happened on the 21st of November when the…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/26/soft-censorship-on-free-speech-twitter/
We don’t get much engagement on Twitter (X, whatever). At ~63,000 followers we’re hardly a huge account, but an engagement rate of around 0.07% is incredibly low.
Our content generally gets low-double digit “likes”.
For what it’s worth, checkers that claim to able to detect these things say we aren’t shadowbanned.
We’ve accepted that we’re in the soundproof free speech booth, allowed to say whatever we want as long as no one hears us.
But, every so often, we get something to pierce the shield (at least a little bit). That happened on the 21st of November when the…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/26/soft-censorship-on-free-speech-twitter/
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This Thanksgiving in the New Normal
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Guess who’s back, back again? Bird Flu’s back, tell a friend
We have a new bird flu scare! Just in time for the Holidays, isn’t that weird?
In the US, the “first ever human fatality” was attributed to H5N5 bird flu earlier this week, when an unnamed and ungendered individual (allegedly) succumbed to the disease in Washington State. The deceased was supposedly elderly…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/27/this-thanksgiving-in-the-new-normal-2/
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Guess who’s back, back again? Bird Flu’s back, tell a friend
We have a new bird flu scare! Just in time for the Holidays, isn’t that weird?
In the US, the “first ever human fatality” was attributed to H5N5 bird flu earlier this week, when an unnamed and ungendered individual (allegedly) succumbed to the disease in Washington State. The deceased was supposedly elderly…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/27/this-thanksgiving-in-the-new-normal-2/
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This Time They’ve Gone Too Far
There is no fool like an old fool, I was thinking, standing on the deck in the cooling night air with a plate of cat food. I called out, and they came—the three of them—soft violet shadows emerging from the indigo dark.
There were once five. Two are gone now. I accept this with a sadness that is clean and uncomplicated. The wolves, the owls, the foxes—they take their measure of life here in the night. Their presence is neither cruel nor kind; it simply is. Loving these three raccoons does not grant them immunity from the wild, nor…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/28/this-time-theyve-gone-too-far/
There is no fool like an old fool, I was thinking, standing on the deck in the cooling night air with a plate of cat food. I called out, and they came—the three of them—soft violet shadows emerging from the indigo dark.
There were once five. Two are gone now. I accept this with a sadness that is clean and uncomplicated. The wolves, the owls, the foxes—they take their measure of life here in the night. Their presence is neither cruel nor kind; it simply is. Loving these three raccoons does not grant them immunity from the wild, nor…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/28/this-time-theyve-gone-too-far/
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It Isn’t That Big of a Deal
Another thing you hear all the time from the sheep grazing complacently on the other side of the hill is, “It just isn’t that big of a deal,” or “It just won’t get to that,” or “Why do you always think the worst of everything?”.
Funny how the same people can be utterly convinced that their own pet catastrophes—Trump returning to power, climate change, systemic racism, white supremacy, overpopulation, or the rise of the far right—are existential threats that will end life as we know it unless we surrender every freedom immediately to…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/29/it-isnt-that-big-of-a-deal/
Another thing you hear all the time from the sheep grazing complacently on the other side of the hill is, “It just isn’t that big of a deal,” or “It just won’t get to that,” or “Why do you always think the worst of everything?”.
Funny how the same people can be utterly convinced that their own pet catastrophes—Trump returning to power, climate change, systemic racism, white supremacy, overpopulation, or the rise of the far right—are existential threats that will end life as we know it unless we surrender every freedom immediately to…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/29/it-isnt-that-big-of-a-deal/
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WATCH: Spoil the Vote! – #SolutionsWatch
The anti-war crowd likes to ask: What if they started a war and no one showed up? So, perhaps statists should be asking: What if they held a (s)election and no one voted? Join James today for an exploration of ballot spoiling, from Mexican presentations to Irish presidential (s)elections to Nobel prize-winning literature.
Sources, shownotes and links – as well as audio versions and download options – can be found here. Previous episodes of #SolutionsWatch can be found here andhere.
Follow us on Telegram for regular updates & commentary...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/30/watch-spoil-the-vote-solutionswatch/
The anti-war crowd likes to ask: What if they started a war and no one showed up? So, perhaps statists should be asking: What if they held a (s)election and no one voted? Join James today for an exploration of ballot spoiling, from Mexican presentations to Irish presidential (s)elections to Nobel prize-winning literature.
Sources, shownotes and links – as well as audio versions and download options – can be found here. Previous episodes of #SolutionsWatch can be found here andhere.
Follow us on Telegram for regular updates & commentary...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/11/30/watch-spoil-the-vote-solutionswatch/
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Giving Thanks for Our Blessings Means Saying ‘No Thanks’ to Police State Tyranny
We find ourselves approaching that time of year when, as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, we’re supposed to give thanks as a nation and as individuals for our safety and our freedoms.
It’s not an easy undertaking.
The contrast between George Washington’s…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/01/giving-thanks-for-our-blessings-means-saying-no-thanks-to-police-state-tyranny/
“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
Daniel Webster
We find ourselves approaching that time of year when, as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, we’re supposed to give thanks as a nation and as individuals for our safety and our freedoms.
It’s not an easy undertaking.
The contrast between George Washington’s…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/01/giving-thanks-for-our-blessings-means-saying-no-thanks-to-police-state-tyranny/
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Beneath the Concrete, the Soil Still Whispers
Gleaming office buildings, concrete flyovers and ever-sprawling housing developments and industrial parks, the modern city is increasingly presented as a symbol of progress. But what if this very ‘progress’ conceals a destructive order? What if the modern city represents the command-centre of an extractive, neoliberal order that has reshaped land, labour and life itself?
If policymakers believe that urbanisation is the natural evolution of a modern nation-state, they should stop to consider that it is based on the deliberate outcome of policies that undermine rural self-sufficiency, commodify soil and force agrarian communities into precarity.
Once traditional farming systems have…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/03/beneath-the-concrete-the-soil-still-whispers/
Gleaming office buildings, concrete flyovers and ever-sprawling housing developments and industrial parks, the modern city is increasingly presented as a symbol of progress. But what if this very ‘progress’ conceals a destructive order? What if the modern city represents the command-centre of an extractive, neoliberal order that has reshaped land, labour and life itself?
If policymakers believe that urbanisation is the natural evolution of a modern nation-state, they should stop to consider that it is based on the deliberate outcome of policies that undermine rural self-sufficiency, commodify soil and force agrarian communities into precarity.
Once traditional farming systems have…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/03/beneath-the-concrete-the-soil-still-whispers/
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A Visit by the German Thought Police
Three armed Berlin police officers arrived at my door this morning with a warrant to search my apartment. They conducted the search, interrogated me and my wife, and confiscated my computer.
The search warrant was issued in connection with a new criminal investigation of me by the Berlin State Prosecutor. Once again, as in 2023, I am accused of disseminating pro-Nazi material, the pro-Nazi “material” in question being my book, The Rise of the New Normal Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020-2021).
Unlike the previous charges against me, which were based on two Tweets featuring the…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/04/a-visit-by-the-german-thought-police/
Three armed Berlin police officers arrived at my door this morning with a warrant to search my apartment. They conducted the search, interrogated me and my wife, and confiscated my computer.
The search warrant was issued in connection with a new criminal investigation of me by the Berlin State Prosecutor. Once again, as in 2023, I am accused of disseminating pro-Nazi material, the pro-Nazi “material” in question being my book, The Rise of the New Normal Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020-2021).
Unlike the previous charges against me, which were based on two Tweets featuring the…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/04/a-visit-by-the-german-thought-police/
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The Future of British “Justice” is HORRIFYING
The recent changes being made to British law are undermining the rights of citizens to a fair trial and presumption of innocence, and could turn our legal system into a truly dystopian nightmare.
Here’s how…
The reports
The calls for reforms, reviews and all the other R words come from three relatively recent reports.
First, there was the first report of Lord Leveson’s Crime and Justice Report, which was “leaked” in April:
https://off-guardian.org/2025/04/15/goodbye-jury-trials-hello-digital-id-10-recommendations-from-the-crime-and-justice-commission/
And which we covered in depth here when they were published in July (his second report is due to be…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/05/the-future-of-british-justice-is-horrifying/
The recent changes being made to British law are undermining the rights of citizens to a fair trial and presumption of innocence, and could turn our legal system into a truly dystopian nightmare.
Here’s how…
The reports
The calls for reforms, reviews and all the other R words come from three relatively recent reports.
First, there was the first report of Lord Leveson’s Crime and Justice Report, which was “leaked” in April:
https://off-guardian.org/2025/04/15/goodbye-jury-trials-hello-digital-id-10-recommendations-from-the-crime-and-justice-commission/
And which we covered in depth here when they were published in July (his second report is due to be…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/05/the-future-of-british-justice-is-horrifying/
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Money for Nothing
British people are glum and grumbling after Rachel Reeves’ budget, but what did they expect? They should know by now that government is an extortion racket.
While many voters regret their decision in last year’s general election, die-hard Labour supporters continue to make excuses: Tory mismanagement and Brexit ruined the economy. Daily Mail readers, meanwhile, have been told that the budget has taken from hard-working families to give to benefit claimants.
This is exactly what the powers-that-be want people to believe, not only as the old divide-and-rule strategy, but because society needs to understand that jobs are disappearing rapidly,…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/06/money-for-nothing/
British people are glum and grumbling after Rachel Reeves’ budget, but what did they expect? They should know by now that government is an extortion racket.
While many voters regret their decision in last year’s general election, die-hard Labour supporters continue to make excuses: Tory mismanagement and Brexit ruined the economy. Daily Mail readers, meanwhile, have been told that the budget has taken from hard-working families to give to benefit claimants.
This is exactly what the powers-that-be want people to believe, not only as the old divide-and-rule strategy, but because society needs to understand that jobs are disappearing rapidly,…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/06/money-for-nothing/
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Let’s talk about…the looming flu “crisis”
A school in Caerphilly is shutting down after 250 students and staff were diagnosed with flu. A school in Northern Ireland has got 170 students off sick.
“It’s worse than Covid”, said one headmaster, to the likely delight of headline writers everywhere.
This is all because of a very serious illness outbreak, and is not even slightly the knock-on effect of Christmas-eager kids and overly cautious parents taking advantage of official recommendations that anyone with flu-like symptoms should stay home.
Meanwhile, the NHS is “bracing” for an “unprecedented” flu season.
The flu…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/06/lets-talk-about-the-looming-flu-crisis/
A school in Caerphilly is shutting down after 250 students and staff were diagnosed with flu. A school in Northern Ireland has got 170 students off sick.
“It’s worse than Covid”, said one headmaster, to the likely delight of headline writers everywhere.
This is all because of a very serious illness outbreak, and is not even slightly the knock-on effect of Christmas-eager kids and overly cautious parents taking advantage of official recommendations that anyone with flu-like symptoms should stay home.
Meanwhile, the NHS is “bracing” for an “unprecedented” flu season.
The flu…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/06/lets-talk-about-the-looming-flu-crisis/
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Great Was Its Fall
Early morning and the first heavy snow is falling. It is beautiful. I walk around the lake in the holy hush. Alone except for two newly arrived ducks swimming on an open patch of icing water.
When I stop to watch them, the soft sound of the falling snow grows gradually louder, beating drums, like truly listening to Beethoven, not the lionized one, about whose honored status James…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/07/great-was-its-fall/
When it comes, it comes on slowly
The day feels holy, a hush falls down
Whispered names, remembered faces
From desperate places, all gather ‘round
Tom Paxton, “Come on, Holy”
Early morning and the first heavy snow is falling. It is beautiful. I walk around the lake in the holy hush. Alone except for two newly arrived ducks swimming on an open patch of icing water.
When I stop to watch them, the soft sound of the falling snow grows gradually louder, beating drums, like truly listening to Beethoven, not the lionized one, about whose honored status James…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/07/great-was-its-fall/
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Christmas Q&A – Do you have a question for the Independent Media Alliance?
It’s December, and to wrap up the year The Independent Media Alliance is having its final livestream of 2025!
On Friday December 12th, to mark the holidays, a panel of IMA regulars will be fielding questions submitted by you — our shared audiences of viewers and readers.
No question is too big or small, serious or silly.
Politics to pop culture
history to humour
Any and every subject is fair game…
So ask away!
If you have a question you’d like one or all of the IMA to address you can do any of the following –
💢send it…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/07/christmas-qa-do-you-have-a-question-for-the-independent-media-alliance/
It’s December, and to wrap up the year The Independent Media Alliance is having its final livestream of 2025!
On Friday December 12th, to mark the holidays, a panel of IMA regulars will be fielding questions submitted by you — our shared audiences of viewers and readers.
No question is too big or small, serious or silly.
Politics to pop culture
history to humour
Any and every subject is fair game…
So ask away!
If you have a question you’d like one or all of the IMA to address you can do any of the following –
💢send it…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/07/christmas-qa-do-you-have-a-question-for-the-independent-media-alliance/
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The Constitution vs. the Commander-in-Chief: The Duty to Disobey Unlawful Orders
Every military servicemember’s oath is…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/08/the-constitution-vs-the-commander-in-chief-the-duty-to-disobey-unlawful-orders/
“The United States boldly broke with the ancient military custom of swearing loyalty to a leader. Article VI required that American Officers thereafter swear loyalty to our basic law, the Constitution… Our American Code of Military Obedience requires that, should orders and the law ever conflict, our officers must obey the law…This nation must have military leaders of principle and integrity so strong that their oaths to support and defend the Constitution will unfailingly govern their actions.”
“Loyalty to the Constitution” plaque located on the grounds of the United States Military Academy
Every military servicemember’s oath is…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/08/the-constitution-vs-the-commander-in-chief-the-duty-to-disobey-unlawful-orders/
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WATCH: The Royal Family’s Pedophile Problem
Now that Randy Andy has been exposed as an Epstein-associated degenerate, even the most dyed-in-the-wool defenders of the British royal family are starting to question their fealty to the House of Windsor. But do you know just how many pedophiles have personally mentored and advised King Charles himself? Strap in, because you’re about to learn just how deep the royal rabbit hole really goes.
Sources, links, download options and a full transcript are available HERE....
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/09/watch-the-royal-familys-pedophile-problem/
Now that Randy Andy has been exposed as an Epstein-associated degenerate, even the most dyed-in-the-wool defenders of the British royal family are starting to question their fealty to the House of Windsor. But do you know just how many pedophiles have personally mentored and advised King Charles himself? Strap in, because you’re about to learn just how deep the royal rabbit hole really goes.
Sources, links, download options and a full transcript are available HERE....
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/09/watch-the-royal-familys-pedophile-problem/
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How We Can Resist The UK Dictatorship – Part 1
Recently, the deputy PM and justice secretary, David Lammy, announced that the UK government is planning to scrap jury trials for all but suspected murder, manslaughter and rape cases. The push-back has been considerable, but we are supposed to believe that the only place where resistance has any meaningful chance of success is in parliament.
This is not true, and over this and the next article we’ll consider why it isn’t. In doing so, we will hopefully develop a collective understanding of what the UK dictatorship is and how we can work together to resist…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/10/how-we-can-resist-the-uk-dictatorship-part-1/
Recently, the deputy PM and justice secretary, David Lammy, announced that the UK government is planning to scrap jury trials for all but suspected murder, manslaughter and rape cases. The push-back has been considerable, but we are supposed to believe that the only place where resistance has any meaningful chance of success is in parliament.
This is not true, and over this and the next article we’ll consider why it isn’t. In doing so, we will hopefully develop a collective understanding of what the UK dictatorship is and how we can work together to resist…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/10/how-we-can-resist-the-uk-dictatorship-part-1/
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LIVESTREAM: Independent Media Alliance – Christmas Q&A
The fourteenth Independent Media Alliance livestream marks the holiday season by tackling audience-submitted questions.
Our own Kit Knightly is playing host as IMA regulars Derrick Broze, Ryan Cristian, Iain Davis, Hrvoje Moric, Steve Poikonen and Charlie Robinson tackle questions big and small.
The video will be going LIVE AT 7pm GMT/2pm Eastern.
You can read the Independent Media Alliance mission statement HERE and view past panels HERE....
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/12/livestream-independent-media-alliance-christmas-qa/
The fourteenth Independent Media Alliance livestream marks the holiday season by tackling audience-submitted questions.
Our own Kit Knightly is playing host as IMA regulars Derrick Broze, Ryan Cristian, Iain Davis, Hrvoje Moric, Steve Poikonen and Charlie Robinson tackle questions big and small.
The video will be going LIVE AT 7pm GMT/2pm Eastern.
You can read the Independent Media Alliance mission statement HERE and view past panels HERE....
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/12/livestream-independent-media-alliance-christmas-qa/
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The Evidence is Clear: Masks Don’t Do Anything.
We’re being hit with the “Super Flu” (allegedly), and that means everyone wants us to wear masks again.
We went over this (a lot) in 2020. Then we went over it again in 2023. Masks don’t work, they never worked, and – prior to 2020 – the academic literature was very clear on this.
In a 2016 literature review, infection control expert Dr John Hardie found [emphasis added]:
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/13/the-evidence-is-clear-masks-dont-do-anything/
We’re being hit with the “Super Flu” (allegedly), and that means everyone wants us to wear masks again.
We went over this (a lot) in 2020. Then we went over it again in 2023. Masks don’t work, they never worked, and – prior to 2020 – the academic literature was very clear on this.
In a 2016 literature review, infection control expert Dr John Hardie found [emphasis added]:
Between 2004 and 2016 at least a dozen research or review articles have been published on the inadequacies of face masks…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/13/the-evidence-is-clear-masks-dont-do-anything/
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Let’s talk about…the Bondi Beach attack
Earlier today, two gunmen allegedly opened fire on attendees of a Chanukah by the Sea event on Bondi Beach in Sydney.
So far, authorities have claimed 12 people are dead, eleven civilians and one gunman, with a further twenty nine in hospital, includ8ng the second alleged gunman.
One suspect has been named as Naveed Akram, a 24 year old living in Sydney. Authorities also claim to have discovered an “explosive device” in a car “linked to” the attacker.
It’s only been a few hours, but the Independent has a personal opinion piece headlined:
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/14/lets-talk-aboutthe-bondi-beach-attack/
Earlier today, two gunmen allegedly opened fire on attendees of a Chanukah by the Sea event on Bondi Beach in Sydney.
So far, authorities have claimed 12 people are dead, eleven civilians and one gunman, with a further twenty nine in hospital, includ8ng the second alleged gunman.
One suspect has been named as Naveed Akram, a 24 year old living in Sydney. Authorities also claim to have discovered an “explosive device” in a car “linked to” the attacker.
It’s only been a few hours, but the Independent has a personal opinion piece headlined:
Bondi…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/14/lets-talk-aboutthe-bondi-beach-attack/
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Government Unchained: The Year the Constitution Lost Its Guardrails
We now live in a nation where constitutional rights exist in theory, not in practice.
Yet what good are rights on paper when every branch of government is allowed to ignore, circumvent, chip away at or hollow them out in practice?
Two hundred and thirty-four years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791, the safeguards meant to shield “We the people” from government abuse…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/15/government-unchained-the-year-the-constitution-lost-its-guardrails/
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
Abraham Lincoln
We now live in a nation where constitutional rights exist in theory, not in practice.
Yet what good are rights on paper when every branch of government is allowed to ignore, circumvent, chip away at or hollow them out in practice?
Two hundred and thirty-four years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791, the safeguards meant to shield “We the people” from government abuse…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/15/government-unchained-the-year-the-constitution-lost-its-guardrails/
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