Rails to Ruin: Iryna Zarutska and the Architects of Chaos by Jeff Callaway

 Rails to Ruin: Iryna Zarutska and the Architects of Chaos

By Jeff Callaway

Texas Outlaw Poet

The light-rail hummed like a coffin on steel rails that night in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The hum was mechanical, indifferent, soulless — the sound of a machine carrying the living toward their destiny, like cattle to the slaughterhouse.

Inside sat Iryna Zarutska, 23 years old, a refugee who had crossed oceans and continents to escape Russian bombs. She had been promised safety here. She had been promised a chance to work, to study, to live. But the promise of America, as she would discover, is a promise written in disappearing ink.

A man boarded the same train. His name was Decarlos Brown Jr. He was not new to the system. He was not new to the courts, nor to the jailhouse, nor to the 911 operators who had heard his paranoid rants about government microchips and shadow plots. He was a man with a brain on fire — a brain untreated, uncared for, left to cook in its own delusions until it boiled over into murder.

And murder he did. In a flurry of steel and rage, he stabbed Iryna to death before a car full of witnesses, before cameras that would make her death into a grotesque TikTok of the day. Blood pooled on the floor of the train. The passengers screamed and fled. And somewhere, far from that railcar, the puppet masters smiled.

Because this is what they want.

Yes, they — the faceless “they” who have been dismissed as a paranoid fiction, the “shadow government,” the cryptocracy, the invisible ruling class.

They do not fear chaos.

They do not fear blood.

They thrive on it.

This was no random act of violence. It was an event meticulously prepared for by years of institutional neglect, policy decisions, budget cuts, media conditioning, and a culture that worships the spectacle of death.

The train kept running, even as it became a crime scene. And so does the system that made this inevitable.

I. A System Built to Fail

We are told that government exists to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. But look closely at the case of Decarlos Brown and you will see the opposite: a system designed to keep the guilty free until they can hurt the innocent, and then designed to make the innocent fight each other about why it happened.

Brown’s history reads like an alarm bell ringing for years, unanswered.

At least 14 prior arrests.

Robbery with a dangerous weapon.

Breaking and entering.

Repeated misuse of 911.

Assault.

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He told people he had a chip in his head. He called police again and again, demanding help, demanding answers, crying out from the depths of a mind breaking apart. His family tried to have him committed — they were denied. A judge ordered mental health evaluations — they were never done.

And still, the revolving door spun.

Cashless bail policies set him free earlier in 2025. He boarded that light rail a free man — not because he was healthy, not because he was innocent, but because the machine had decided it was cheaper to let him roam than to house him, treat him, restrain him.

And we are supposed to believe this is incompetence? That this is just “a tragic failure” as Charlotte’s mayor called it? No.

This is the system working exactly as it was designed to work.

Because fear keeps the public obedient. Fear keeps the ratings high. Fear keeps the politicians funded.

A nation that actually wanted safety would fund its mental hospitals. It would build capacity for involuntary commitment. It would follow through on court orders.

But America has learned that fear is a profitable industry. And so the cracks in the system are not accidental. They are deliberate stress fractures — engineered to keep us anxious, divided, ready to fight the wrong enemies.

II. The Puppet Masters’ Theater

This is where the phrase “shadow government” comes into focus.

People hear that term and roll their eyes. They imagine tinfoil hats, grainy YouTube videos, secret cabals drinking blood in a hidden castle. And yes — there are those who have taken the idea into cartoon territory. But step back and ask a simple question: Who really benefits when systems collapse?

Look at the last 50 years of policy.

Look at who profits from privatized prisons, from overburdened public defenders, from pharmaceutical monopolies, from underfunded transit systems, from mental health deserts.

Look at who benefits when violent offenders are dumped back on the street to commit crimes that justify new police budgets, new surveillance programs, new emergency powers.

There is no need for a smoky backroom when you have a network of donors, think tanks, global economic forums, and bureaucrats all aligned by mutual interest. The puppeteers don’t even need to meet in secret. They already know the script.

And so, when Iryna’s blood hit the floor, the reaction was instant:

Trump blamed “soft-on-crime” Democrats.

Charlotte’s mayor blamed the courts.

Cable news blamed each other.

Each side took the tragedy and used it as ammunition — not to fix the problem, but to fire at their rivals.

Meanwhile, the real problem — the network of policies, neglect, and profiteering that left Brown untreated — remains untouched. Because if you solve the problem, you lose the fear. If you lose the fear, you lose the power.

III. The Media Machine: Rage as the New Religion

The media are not the watchdogs they pretend to be. They are the town criers of the new ruling order, shouting whatever keeps the mob enraged.

They show you just enough of the blood to make you furious, then cut to commercial to sell you beer and car insurance.

They host “debates” designed not to seek truth but to keep you shouting.

They profit off the division.

Social media has weaponized this into a science. The algorithms know exactly what will keep you scrolling. They show you videos that confirm your anger, that deepen your resentment, that make you believe the “other side” is out to get you.

And soon, you are not angry at the elites who failed to stop this killing — you are angry at your neighbor.

You are angry at refugees.

You are angry at Black men.

You are angry at “liberals” or “MAGA Republicans.”

You are angry at everyone except the people who actually have the power to fix this.

This is not journalism. This is psychological warfare.

IV. The Class War They Don’t Want You to See

Race is the screen they want you to watch.

Class is the screen they keep turned off.

Because the truth is that both Brown and Zarutska were victims of the same machine.

Brown was poor, mentally ill, abandoned by every system.

Zarutska was working-class, immigrant, barely scraping by, trying to build a life.

Neither of them had access to power.

Neither of them could bend the system to their will.

And yet their tragedy is used to turn us against each other, instead of uniting us to demand a society that actually protects the vulnerable.

This is the genius of the puppet masters: they can take a real grievance — the fear of crime, the desire for justice — and redirect it into culture war.

V. The Historical Echo

We have been warned before.

Eisenhower warned of the military-industrial complex.

The Church Committee exposed the intelligence community spying on its own citizens.

Reformers in the Progressive Era exposed robber barons and political machines.

And each time, the machine adapted. It became smarter, subtler, better at hiding its hand.

Now it hides in plain sight, because we are too distracted to see it.

VI. The Spiritual Dimension: The War Behind the War

Here is where we must speak plainly: this is not just a political problem. It is a spiritual one.

The Apostle Paul told us two thousand years ago that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness.

What do you think he was talking about if not this?

These powers are ancient. They are intelligent. They know how to whisper into the ears of kings and CEOs, of judges and media executives, of ordinary citizens. They know how to turn men like Brown into ticking time bombs, how to turn victims like Iryna into martyrs of fear, how to turn all of us into rage-filled pawns.

This is why QAnon struck such a nerve — not because its details were right, but because it tapped into something real: the sense that there really is a cabal, there really is a dark network, there really are satanic forces pulling the strings.

And there are.

Not men in robes around a table — though some of those may exist too — but fallen angels, principalities, demons that have made the halls of power their thrones.

And until we name the spiritual enemy, we will keep swinging at each other while the real war rages unseen.

VII. The Call to Arms

So what do we do?

First, we refuse the script.

We stop letting media use our emotions as currency.

We demand that judges, prosecutors, and mental health systems actually do their jobs.

We refuse to fight each other and start fighting the corruption that put us here.

And above all, we repent.

Because the real war is not won with ballots or bullets but with prayer, repentance, conversion.

The Devil is not defeated by rage — he feeds on rage.

He is defeated by holiness, by truth, by men and women who refuse to bow to fear.

Iryna’s blood cries out from the ground for justice — not partisan justice, not hashtag justice, but the deep justice that rebuilds the walls, that restores what has been broken, that protects the innocent before the knife is drawn.

If we do nothing, the train keeps running. The next Brown boards. The next Iryna dies. The media cameras roll. The puppet masters smile.

But if we see through the smokescreen, if we name the true enemy, if we unite not left against right but the powerless against the powers and principalities — then maybe, just maybe, the blood on the rails will not have been shed in vain.

So wake up you wandering souls, and hear the thunder of truth rattling through the bones of this broken world! The chaos, the lies, the invisible strings tugging at your hearts—this is not mere accident or human failing. No, this is the master plan of Satan himself, the ancient serpent who prowls like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). He spreads his smoke and mirrors through every screen, every whisper, every headline crafted to sow division, confusion, and despair. Paul warned us of this, saying in Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” These manipulations are designed to make us turn on one another, to bleed our souls fighting shadows, while he smiles from the abyss. Every outrage he fans, every fear he exploits, every lie he wraps in half-truths is a chain forged to enslave your mind and rob you of the peace Christ promised. And how often do we, blinded and distracted, fall for it? How often do we let anger and judgment divide our brothers and sisters, giving him foothold in our hearts? This ends now!

We must rise with fire in our veins and the Word of God in our mouths. Jesus said in John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” It is the truth of Christ, not the venom of false narratives, that breaks the chains of control. The Devil thrives on division; we must meet his darkness with unity, with peace, with the relentless love of God that transcends fear. We must lay down the weapons of gossip, of bitterness, of suspicion, and take up the armor Paul commands in Ephesians 6:13-17: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit. This is our blueprint: speak truth boldly, forgive quickly, bind yourself to the community of the faithful, resist the seduction of chaos, and proclaim the Gospel with unwavering courage.

Every act of kindness, every prayer for our neighbors, every insistence on justice tempered by mercy is a hammer blow against the Devil’s designs. We do not fight with lies, we do not fight with anger; we fight with the power of Christ, the only power that can truly redeem, restore, and reconcile. Let the shadow governments scheme, let the media manipulate, let the false prophets multiply—the kingdom of God will rise in the hearts of those who choose Him. We must choose Him! Choose Jesus over division, choose His peace over panic, choose His wisdom over manipulation. Throw the monkey-wrench in the Devil’s plans by living the Gospel in every breath, every word, every decision. Come together, saints, as one body, one army, clothed in the power of the risen Christ. Only through Him, only through His love, only through His truth can we dismantle the chaos, shatter the lies, and bring light into the darkness. The Devil’s hour is short, but the power of Jesus is eternal. Stand, fight, pray, love, and let the world see that His kingdom is not a whisper—it is a roaring fire that no shadow can extinguish!

“Choose this day whom you will serve—fear, division, and chaos, or Christ, unity, and eternal truth. The Devil counts on your silence. Will you rise?”

~ by Jeff Callaway

Texas Outlaw Poet

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