pcr says something i've been saying for some time about the empire;

Governmental Dysfunction Rises with Time

Paul Craig Roberts

The US Constitution with the Bill of Rights dates from 1789.  All of the safeguards against central government growth and ability to indebt the country have been eroded.  Today the Federal national debt is $30 trillion, about two times the gross domestic product of the 28 countries that  comprise the European Union, whose combined populations of 447,007,596 is approximately 120,000,000 larger than the US population.

Except for the 2nd Amendment, all of the civil liberty protections against tyrannical central government in the US Constitution have been eroded.  Always, the excuse for setting aside the civil liberties protected by the US Constitution is some perceived threat.  During the 1930s, the “depression threat” gave executive branch agencies control over law by giving newly created regulatory authorities the authority to devise the rules that implemented the law.  In the 1930s Congress, both House and Senate, became essentially authorizers for executive branch agencies to write the law as it applied. With the New Deal the power of Congress was compromised. Congress lost its constraint on the Executive Branch.

Skipping over other times and instances of constitutional rights erosion, the fabricated “war on terror” during the 21st century permitted the US government during the George W. Bush and Obama regimes to override both habeas corpus and the prohibition on execution of US citizens without trial and conviction of a capital crime. The US Federal Government claimed and exercised the rights to detain suspects indefinitely and to execute them on suspicion alone. Widespread spying on the population violates the privacy provision and became routine. In almost every respect the George W. Bush and Obama regimes destroyed the US Constitution...........read more.......