Within this gap, government's Big Brother operatives have had nearly a free run of it.

So this week, I'm going to explain what has happened, what is happening, and why this is every bit as ugly as what Diocletian did to the Romans 1,700 years ago.

When I'm done, Doug French pulls off his gloves and hits the national security state… and hard. You shouldn't miss it.

Let's get to it.

In 284 AD the Roman empire was in deep trouble. But then a soldier named Diocletian rode into town as the new emperor. This was the man who rearranged Rome and set it up to endure (even as it declined) for another 180 years.