Several years ago, I posted an account of what is called ‘The Deep State.”
There is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. The former is traditional Washington partisan politics: the tip of the iceberg that a public watching C-SPAN sees daily and which is theoretically controllable via elections. The subsurface part of the iceberg I shall call the Deep State, which operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power.
That article was one of several around that time (2014) about the Deep State.
History suggests that this low-intensity conflict within the ruling Elite is generally a healthy characteristic of leadership in good times. As times grow more troubled, however, the unity of the ruling Elite fractures into irreconcilable political disunity, which becomes a proximate cause of the dissolution of the Empire if it continues.
I recently proposed the idea that Wall Street now poses a strategic threat to national security and thus to the Deep State itself: Who Gets Thrown Under the Bus in the Next Financial Crisis? (March 3, 2014)
That didn’t happen but the Deep State is in the news again as an enemy of Trump.
It stands to reason that “the Swamp” he talked about draining is coterminous with “The Deep State.”
With the resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn in the face of a howling media mob, the knives are now out not only for other administration officials, but for President Trump himself. Make no mistake about what’s happening here: this is a rolling coup attempt, organized by elements of the intelligence community, particularly CIA and NSA, abetted by Obama-era holdovers in the understaffed Justice Department (Sally Yates, take a bow) and the lickspittles of the leftist media, all of whom have signed on with the “Resistance” in order to overturn the results of the November election.
Mike Flynn, a good man who saw the enemy clearly, and had the courage to name it, saw Russia not as an enemy but a geopolitical adversary with whom we could make common cause against Islam — and who also vowed to shake up a complacent and malfeasant IC — was its first scalp, and an object lesson to new CIA Director Mike Pompeo should he have any reformist notions. As for the media, having previously failed to take down Trump aides Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, Flynn was the next best thing; their joy today is unbounded.
One seeming priority for the bureaucracy and the Deep State is protection of Obama’s Iran Deal.
Why is this so important ? I certainly don’t know.
Former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes, who bragged about creating an “echo chamber” in the media to help sell the Iran deal to the public, was reportedly among those leading the effort to publicly discredit Flynn.
The purpose of the anti-Flynn campaign, according to the Free Beacon, was “to handicap the Trump administration’s efforts to disclose secret details of the nuclear deal with Iran that had been long hidden by the Obama administration.” Flynn was reportedly gearing up to publicize details of the Iran deal that the Obama administration had kept secret from the public.
Why is this so important ? Iran has threatened “consequences” if the deal is revealed.
What are they ?
What does that mean ? I suspect they don’t know either.
In the meantime, the successful coup against Flynn will not satisfy the left. It will just encourage them to try the next assassination.
And you’re either gonna keep giving them scalps or you’re gonna put your foot down and move on and tell ’em to go pound sand. I mean, this man had worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency. He was a patriot. He’d worked for both administrations, a pro-life Democrat. His only sin was that he was in the Trump administration. And I’ll tell you what this is. You know what this is really all about? I’ll tell you what this is. This is what the Democrats are so irritated, and this is why I know that Obama’s post-presidential sabotage program is here.
What is this about? This is about Flynn, the incoming national security adviser, calling the Russians to talk about sanctions. Well, what sanctions? Well, it just so happens these are the sanctions that Obama slapped on the Russians for their supposed hacking of our election. I’m sorry, folks, but that’s a bogus premise to begin with. The Russians had nothing to do with whoever won our election. That, they could not have done. Did they try? Who knows? Do they always try? Probably.
This is part of the script.
Beneath the script is a serious campaign to overthrow the Trump government. The bureaucracy thinks it can run the government without the political offices. The French bureaucracy ran France for years while governments came and went.
Then the Germans came.
The deep state dropped the ball. Hilarious but somewhat unexpected, and now they are in a full on war with Trump.
Obama got the ball rolling with the, Russians hacked our election crap, and it’s been a circus ever since. Trump will have to have his wits about him, as they will do whatever it takes to maintain American preeminence in the world, and he most certainly threatens that.
Someone has odds on how long he is gonna last. I should find em’ and place my bet. I’m guessing he will not make 2018.
The TV comedy “Yes Minister” is less fictional every year.
This essay should be required reading.
Just substitute “The Deep State” for “The Administrative State.”
You need a deep state.
Just watched a congressional committee being lectured by 3 think tanks. Very entertaining but the level of knowledge displayed by most of the committee was stunning. They are almost child like in their appreciation of the situation in Syria. The 3 tanks were on point, on message, like good sheep dogs, but some of the sheep have attention problems. ;)
Just looked at the Crimea series of Trump tweets. Good lord, this man is ignorant.
Depend upon it, sir, a politician is a man occasionally adept at hiding his ignorance.
I think the odds of Trump going wobbly are low, but this is a problem unlike anything else. When you purchase a new company, or try to build something, you don’t face widespread sabotage as you try to get things done.
How do you fight an enemy (and that’s what Trump is facing here, just look at John Schindler’s increasingly unhinged twitter feed) that is nameless and in the shadows? Shine a light on them. Trump should have the power at this point to find, and name, everyone in the system who would have been aware of the spying on Flynn (what possible reason was there for the Obama holdover acting AG to even know about this???). Name them and shame them. Go nuclear. These people think they’re untouchable. Show them they’re not.
Penny, I don’t look to Congressional hearings to see wise statements. The “think tanks” are part of the Deep State. They live off government.
I think the odds of Trump going wobbly are low,
No, but Congress is already going wobbly on Puzder, probably an unequalled expert on the franchise and fast food industry. The unions are going all out.
Mike I read ten think tanks every day, just see what the official message is. The hearing was linked from a CSIS article. They are pretty well the boss think tank actually.
” I read ten think tanks every day”
I don’t doubt it. That must be why you understand us so well.
“No, but Congress is already going wobbly on Puzder, probably an unequalled expert on the franchise and fast food industry.”
Who cares? If we don’t have a Labor Secretary, what possible harm would be done?
More on how Flynn was taken out.
And why he was taken out.\
Lots of new stories today.
“The Obama administration knew that Flynn was going to release the secret documents around the Iran deal, which would blow up their myth that it was a good deal that rolled back Iran,” the source said. “So in December the Obama NSC started going to work with their favorite reporters, selectively leaking damaging and incomplete information about Flynn.”
“After Trump was inaugurated some of those people stayed in and some began working from the outside, and they cooperated to keep undermining Trump,” the source said, detailing a series of leaks from within the White House in the past weeks targeting Flynn. “Last night’s resignation was their first major win, but unless the Trump people get serious about cleaning house, it won’t be the last.”
Curiouser and curiouser.
I maintained throughout the election process that if Hillary was elected and tried to do any of the things she promised, there would be open civil war within 6 months [think like the former Yugoslavia]. If Trump were elected, and tried to do any of the things that he promised, that it would be to the benefit of the country, and there was a chance of avoiding that civil war.
Note that it was a chance, not a certainty. As we speak, the Left has thugs in the streets silencing opposing speech, assaulting those who refuse to submit, burning property, and all under the active protection of law enforcement that works not for the government but for the Democrats. It has been released that just before leaving Obama gave Federal intelligence and law enforcement authority to spy on elected and appointed officials, and apparently use anything found for their own benefit.
We are in the early stages of that civil war unless Trump does the equivalent of hanging, drawing, setting fire to the bowels before their eyes, quartering, and somewhere along the line a bit of an Edward II treatment on the Deep State regardless of supposed party.
Alongside that, a strict return [highly involuntary] to the rule of law for the street thugs has to be done right smartly. Because people are getting tired of seeing the new Brownshirts/Blackshirts/Red Guard/Rainbow freaking SJWarriors attack people.
Otherwise, all bets are going to be off and everybody’s dance card is going to be full. We do have the advantage that most of the enemy lives in large urban areas at the end of long and tenuous lines of logistics that have many choke points. It would pay to ponder the concept of siege warfare as applied in a modern context. Actually, there are modern texts on the subject, and a moment or two’s thought shows exactly how tenuous those lines are.
Really quite challenging. I’m at a loss to name a previous administration that’s faced such obstruction. No doubt due to what occurred during the past eight years. I do hope there exists a “deep state” working feverishly to expose those lost years and their figurehead. Much has been “leaked”, when will those details start to drip?
The Flynn narrative seems seems to be collapsing.
Maybe Trump fired him too quickly. I have had the feeling that Pence is a rigid guy and may have over reacted.
But the biggest story is that CNN is reporting not only that the FBI will decline to further investigate or prosecute the short-lived national security adviser, but that Flynn’s FBI interview is being described as “cooperative and truthful”:
I would not be terribly surprised to see him in another job when the uproar settles down a bit.
Pence seems like one of those dopey conservative movement types who have spent the last 50 years failing miserably at fighting the left – in part because they never really tried. The kind that gets along well with John McCain and thinks the borders of Ukraine and Israel are more important than those of the US. Pence is the complete opposite of assassination insurance. If he were in charge things would go right back to normal a la Dubya and his daddy.
Pence stepped on his d**k with the Religious Freedom Act in Indiana.
In 2015, Pence initially signed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA. He then backpedaled on language that critics feared could be discriminatory against gay people, but that some evangelicals felt was essential to defending religious freedom.
Social conservatives saw the move as a disappointment at best, and at worst, a betrayal””and some are still smarting over it.
He chickened out when threatened like North Carolina was.
Better Pence than Kaine.
Two Fox interviews come to the same conclusion about the difficulties facing Trump: McCullough’s with Shaffer and Carlson’s with Hume; both are sympathetic and chilling.
We saw one failure of Harry Reid trying to use the Deep State to kill Yucca Mountain.
He got Bush to appoint Reid’s staffer to chairman of Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The new chair tried to bully the technocrats there and wound up getting pushed out by Congress.
There are a few honest agencies in the Deep State. I think the NRC is one I know well. They are living up to the original concept of civil service. A pain in the pootey sometimes but they work to a clear objective.
“There are a few honest agencies in the Deep State.”
I actually think we have to be a bit more careful about what we’re talking about here. The problem is not the NSA, CIA, FBI, as a whole. The problem is the political pukes at the very top. The Sandy Bergers, the John Brennans, etc. They are the trash that need to be crushed. The average rank and file in these agencies wouldn’t dream of leaking (mostly because they know they’d be sent down the river for life if they did), and the jackals and vipers in the MSM wouldn’t talk to them anyway.
*Of course what I just said doesn’t apply to the EPA and some other explicitly political orgs. There the rot goes all the way down.
Pence got into trouble with some Indianapolis companies like Angie’s List who feigned outrage over the law. He and his predecessor Mitch Daniels had been selling Indiana as a business friendly state. They poached dozens of Illinois companies with thousands of jobs through their ‘Illinnoyed’ campaign. When Salesforce threatened to leave, he had to compromise with some amendments. The law is still in effect, and Salesforce has hired over a thousand new employees since it passed. Meanwhile since Illinois passed a gay marriage law in 2013 our population has declined by 80,000.
As far as borders go, when Pence was in Congress he got a 92% rating from the United States Border Control Foundation and a 0% rating from the Arab American Institute. Sounds good to me. He definitely proved as governor that he knows how to get jobs to cross over the border, and that’s a big priority now.
Oh, I think Pence is fine but it is early and he may have been embarrassed by the Flynn thing and demanded his head.
The problem is the political pukes at the very top.
I think it may go down the ranks a way. Valerie Plame is an example of rot and she was maybe a GS 10.
I would lop off everything above GS 8.
Parallel to the level the backhoes at the Standing Rock (& various others) encampment; they need to scrape the soil far enough so the river won’t be contaminated by human waste (material and biological) in the spring melt.
Can any of you, or the MSM tormenters remember exactly what you discussed in a phone conversation over 3 months ago? I can’t.
That said, it seems that this is a tempest in a teacup, and has been overblown by Central Casting, Chucky, to be ‘the worst think since Teapot Dome’.
Horse pellets.
The President should have, IMO, told the MSM to pound sand, instructed VP Pence that there were likely inconsistencies, but we all have suffered that on occasion, and he should get over it.
The MSM should have been ignored. Again, IMO.
Richard Fernandez is getting more pessimistic about the future.
The danger of America dividing in the face of an opportunistic enemy should be obvious to the combatants. But the factions of American politics may be too enraged to stop out of fear of a common threat. Noooo! echoes like a howl through the woods. Suicidal factionalism has torn apart famous nations before, Rome’s Crisis of the Third Century being the most famous example.
And If Trump is overthrown by the Deep State in a year, he’s unlikely to be the last. If neither faction will suffer itself to be governed by the other, whoever succeeds Trump can expect his term to be short. America could have its own period of the 26 presidents. That will be good news for the Barbarians, waiting at the edge of the Baltics, in the South China Sea, and on Europe’s borders, ready to move in.
I’m not that pessimistic but it does not look easy. McCain is now out there trying to throw sand in the gears for reasons that escape me.
I watched Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday this morning (2/19/17) said he had never heard of a shadow government also called the deep state. Is he so “up the butt” of the establishment that he doesn’t even see how DC works against the interest of the American people ie: he doesn’t see what is before his eyes? He later asked if he was being too sensitive to criticism of the media. The answer is yes and he is also too rapped up in Washington DC to see that there are states, other cities, and people who are not beholden to DC establishment types.
Until we get serious about draining the swamp and having honest journalism instead of journalists that speak for the deep state we are in deep deep trouble.
This is Trump’s PATCO if he has the wit to make it.
He should give the NSA/DOJ on the order of 72 hours to find the leak. Failing that, invite the resignation of the top couple of dozen managers,on the basis of lost confidence. Failing that, pull their security clearance. They’ll probably still draw a salary but will be out of the loop and a living deterrent.
Security clearances are 100% at the discretion of the Executive.
An increase in pessimism, or perhaps in reality, is not necessarily unjustified. A whole lot of enemies who were posing as friends have outed themselves as mortal enemies. McCain being one, and much of the GOPe is in that group. It is the simplest thing. They are enemies of country and Constitution. They prefer a totalitarian Democrat state.
I am assuming that Trump and his people have been playing canary trap games. An as yet unconfirmed report, that is spreading on the blogosphere is that they have caught at least one of the moles that has been leaking classified data to the Leftist media. On several sites one Kate Walsh, Deputy White House Chief of Staff [one of three people directly under Reince Priebus] has been named as such. She was in charge of voter outreach at the RNC during the election, and was a #NeverTrumper during the primaries.
Once again, unconfirmed, but if she suddenly decides that she needs to spend more time with her family . . .
Subotai Bahadur,
President Trump has a better understanding of real high end personal security, open source intelligence and counter-intelligence of any president since IKE.
The National Security and Intelligence Feds have a real hard time acknowledging the excellence of financial cyber-security and personnel screening for institutional reasons. As in, if they acknowledged it, they would have to do something effective about it…and they are not that good.
And the best financial cyber-security and personnel screening are in the gambling industry.
The following is a quote from a…gray hat…once removed, regards Fed cyber-security — ‘government background checks and security verification are Lulz.’
IOW: Background checks, polygraphs, etc, etc, for even the highest level of security by the US government are minor compared to what Trump people have accepted for decades as the cost of doing business.
You simply cannot get the DC in-bred culture to accept what people who work in high end banking and finance know is the (personal and financial) cost of doing business in terms of real security.
Now consider that President Trump built his fortune on hotel gambling and has kept the mob out for decades.
What that means is that Trump has the best personal electronic counter-intelligence capability of any American President…ever.
Note, regards Trump’s personal and financial cyber security — his hotels have been hacked twice in a major way.
Both times it was his off the shelf credit card system for his hotels.
The 2015 report read like someone inserted a code in the system, physically, to be loaded into a device to be removed -physically- later.
There are implications in that thought regards Trump cyber-security and personal screening.
See:
http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/30/technology/trump-hotels-hack/?iid=EL
Trump hotels hacked, credit card data at risk – Sep. 30, 2015
money.cnn.com
Hackers snuck a computer virus into Trump hotels across the United States and Canada, potentially stealing customer credit card data for an entire year.
The Trump Hotel Collection recently acknowledged the computer infection on its website.
Apparently, hackers managed to hide inside the company’s computers for a long time. The hotel chain warned that anyone who visited a Trump hotel between May 19, 2014 and June 2, 2015 “may have been affected.”
The list of hotels includes two locations in New York and one in each of the following cities: Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Toronto and Miami.
According to Trump hotels, hackers placed special software on the Trump hotel chain’s payment systems. That malware touched sensitive payment information, like credit card numbers, expiration dates and security codes on the back of cards.
It seems that, as customers or hotel employees typed in payment information, the malicious software quietly grabbed it in the background. But the company isn’t quite sure if the hackers managed to pull out that data from the computer system.
“An independent forensic investigation has not conclusively determined that any particular customer’s payment card information was taken,” the company stated.
and see also
http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/05/technology/trump-hotels-hacked/
Trump Hotels attacked by hackers — again
money.cnn.com
Trump Hotels were attacked by hackers, and now Secret Service is investigating — hinting at a credit card breach.
“Like virtually every other company these days, we are routinely targeted by cyber terrorists whose only focus is to inflict harm on great American businesses,” Eric Trump said in a prepared statement sent to CNNMoney.
He added that the company is “committed to safeguarding all guests’ personal information and will continue to do so vigilantly.”
Subotai Bahadur,
It should be noted that most cybersecurity is off the shelf (OTS) in one form or another. That is why when someone comes up with an exploit, it’s a ‘one day exploit’ for any other system using that security.
Trump’s casino financial system’s and especially his personal systems are all custom built from the ground up. It was all made by and is protected by some of the best in the world because Trump can afford to hire the best.
Which means individuals have to explore to find a specific exploit just for that one system. You can’t just download a hack.
Trump’s cyber-systems have been described as “labrynthian, boobie-trapped and has top people watching for that sort of run,” this is not something a ‘conscript script kiddie’ from North Korea or China can do sucessfully.
The gray hat feedback regards Trump’s personal devices — which have been systematically probed by a lot of serious high end hakers — runs to ‘a boobie-trapped labyrinth. The weirdest cybersecurity I’ve ever seen. Almost alien.’
And by ‘boobie-trapped’ it means that Trump’s personal cyber-security people are not limited by federal law regards hardware wrecking countermeasures to probes.
Background checks, polygraphs, etc, etc, for even the highest level of security by the US government are minor compared to what Trump people have accepted for decades as the cost of doing business.
That’s pretty interesting.
I am now reading “Code Warriors,” about the history of the NSA.
I have always enjoyed books about hacking and cyber matters.
Mike K,
What is really interesting was that every time US Customs got Trump’s cell and put NSA spyware on it…
…It was an opportunity for Trump’s cyber security team to run an analysis of the latest Fed spyware.
No wonder Hillary and Obama were surprised by Trump’s campaign.
“And by ‘boobie-trapped’ it means that Trump’s personal cyber-security people are not limited by federal law regards hardware wrecking countermeasures to probes.”
So if I get frisky Trump will blow up my computer? Is that what you mean?
You can get some hardware to do silly things that would hurt it, although any good OS will put a stop to that kind of thing.
I could, completely passively, get a pretty good idea about the networks involved in Trump’s security. Beyond that is another game, I’m not prepared to play.
I think you may be gilding the lily here Trent. High security has never been a government thing. They were late to the party anyway, and have been playing catch up ever since. Hoovering up all data is not high security.
High security is banks, amazon, paypal and those out there in the storm of hacks. Certainly casinos have good stuff, they have to, and can afford it, but it’s nothing special. Traps are for idiots and will fail on a real stainless steel rat every time.
Either Trump smashes the Deep State, or… he fails, and likely will be deposed.
It looks to me, as I type, that there is an active conspiracy among the usual suspects to conjure the Russia nonsense into his impeachment and removal.
Including, of course, the neverTrump minions of the gop.
On one side are Trump and the people who believe elections should matter. On the other, are people like Bill Kristol who prefer the Deep State to an elected government not to his liking.
Both cannot rule, and in the upcoming struggle, much ugliness will occur.
We live in interesting times, alas.
Subotai: “An as yet unconfirmed report, that is spreading on the blogosphere is that they have caught at least one of the moles that has been leaking classified data to the Leftist media. On several sites one Kate Walsh, Deputy White House Chief of Staff [one of three people directly under Reince Priebus] has been named as such.”
Ah! Back in the early days of the feminist push for more women in high places, the argument was that the world would be a better place if more women were in charge. Women were supposed to be naturally smarter & more reliable than men, as well as more compassionate & caring.
We have now had a few decades to test that hypothesis. Did women in high places make a positive difference to HP, to the IRS, to the US State Department?
I am reminded of an observation a movie critic made about “Shaft in Africa”: Richard Roundtree reminds us that the average black actor is like the average white actor — average. An analogous comment certainly applies to women in positions of power. It is the content of a person’s character that matters … not the color of their skin, nor their gonads.
The Kate Walsh story is worth following as she might be indicted for felonies.
Whether Priebus is implicated is another matter. Probably not as he must know how dangerous this is.
You write, “One seeming priority for the bureaucracy and the Deep State is protection of Obama’s Iran Deal. Why is this so important ? I certainly don’t know.”
Those of us who have been watching the investigative series by George Webb have a pretty good idea WHY Obama’s Iran Deal is being protected. The answer lies in the 650k emails in 19 gmail accounts taken from Anthony Weiner’s computer. It is believed that several nations ”” including Russia, China, Israel AND Iran have hacked into and already know what’s in those emails. The Iranian mullahs used that info to blackmail Obama/Kerry/Jarrett et al into doing the billion dollar, sanction-lifting deal.
And that premise goes a long way toward explaining why the FBI’s Jim Comey and Andrew McCabe STILL HAVE NOT RELEASED all the emails, even though they are NOT protected by the Federal Records Act. Comey and McCabe are complicit with the Clintons in their Foundation and Global Initiative. Comey’s relationship with Hillary goes way back to Marc Rich days.
There’s enough in those emails to collapse Washington’s swamp. Thus, there is ALOT at stake, many lives and reputations and personal fortunes hanging in the balance. Many in positions of power are sweating it and doing whatever they can, whatever is necessary to keep those emails from being released. Think “House of Cards.” It is vicious.
The pressure on Comey under Trump is just beginning. Might be why Trump decided to keep Comey on board, close to him. So that when the screws begin to turn, he’ll have Comey by the (ahem) scruff of the neck and Cmey will have no choice but to release the emails. It’s that, or prison for the rest of his life”¦
Re: Obsession, Iran & Obama’s “legacy” (and who did he think was going to be writing that history?), The Weekly Standard: “The Final Obama Scandal” and “Secret Ties”.” The tensions over these documents are likely to affect the tensions in the Trump presidency as well.
Well, whatever the “Deep State” is, it seems that Sen McCain is a member in good standing, and is being given transcripts of Pres. Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders.
http://truepundit.com/exclusive-white-house-fingers-john-mccain-as-media-leak-believes-u-s-senator-eavesdropped-on-trumps-classified-phone/