What is the "Deep State" and who does it REALLY work for, other than itself. I am going to look at the topic, but my first guess is there are entities out for themselves, and you can put a name on it, and them, but they have always existed.
The only real Deep State is one for the super rich. The true purpose of the Deep State is to enable the rich to watch us, left and right, liberal and conservative, fight with each other and suspect each other while they get richer.
That is my gut feeling because the deeds of a "Deep State" require millions of dollars, maybe billions. Or maybe I am wrong.
"Deep-Six the Notion of a "Deep State"
Paul Pillar, 7 March 2017
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/paul-pillar/deep-six-the-notion-deep-state-19700
"Different interests, at different times and for different purposes, have promoted the idea of a “deep state” in the United States that supposedly affects American politics and policy. That notion does not correspond to reality, it has no value in helping to understand American politics and policy, and it ought to be discarded."
"For those who have not worked there, the fundamental point to bear in mind in understanding why the deep state concept is fantasy concerns the raison d’être of the agencies involved and of the jobs of people who work there. It’s all about objective and nonpartisan service, involving tasks such as collection or analysis of intelligence, under whatever political leadership the American people have elected. If there were to be any straying from that ethic—which is as well-entrenched as any occupationally related culture—then the agencies involved and the individuals within them would become far more vulnerable than they are now. There would be reason for each new political leadership to be able to fire the whole bunch. Employees of the security agencies have no incentive to move things in that direction."
"The presumption that the bureaucracies concerned have a collective political intent, which is part of the notion of a deep state, runs up against two problems. One is that political preferences are not worn on sleeves in these places, and not discussed in the course of doing the work, because there is no good reason to discuss them."
"The second problem is that to the extent one can glean political preferences indirectly—through things, such as bumper stickers on cars in agency parking lots, that do not violate the Hatch Act—one would see that people who work in these agencies, like other Americans, exhibit a diversity of preferences."
"Accusations about leaking have been a customary part of rhetoric about a deep state, and such accusations lose sight of two relevant realities. One is that the leaker is not necessarily to be found in whatever department or agency originated the document or information that was leaked."
Deep State believers seem to think every bureaucrat has a James Bond in them and can cleverly leak information. It is not true.
"The other is that employees of intelligence agencies have more to fear for their jobs and careers, and thus more of a deterrent against any temptation to leak, than do most other government employees, given the special security scrutiny, including periodic polygraph examinations, to which they are subjected regarding their handling of classified information."
"A traditional purveyor of the deep state notion for years has been a body of opinion, concentrated mainly on the political left, that holds that the national security bureaucracy and the intelligence community in particular distorts its judgments and hypes threats in order to sustain or increase their budgets."
The solid argument that the Deep State, in whatever form people like Rush Limbaugh wish to see it, is not inclined to go against Tweety Twump as he increases the defense budget and sabre rattles for bombing and shooting Russian ships out of the sea.
"Now the idea of a deep state is being promoted from an additional direction: President Trump and defenders. Here we are seeing another application of Trump’s technique, which he learned at the feet of Roy Cohn, Joseph McCarthy’s sidekick, always to strike back at any source of embarrassing information and never to admit or apologize for anything. Amid the battering the president and the administration have taken over the multifaceted issue of relations with the Russians, attacking the intelligence community as the core of a supposed deep state is just one more application of this technique.
Looking at both these applications of the notion of a deep state exposes one of the contradictions in the notion itself. The intelligence community budget tends to rise or fall with the overall defense budget. Trump has proposed an increase in defense spending even while slashing most of the rest of the federal budget. If those supposed deep staters really were most concerned about their budget, they would be supporting Trump and would have no reason to undermine him. So much for the idea that intelligence estimates about things like Russian behavior are shaped by the estimators’ budget concerns. And so much for the idea that the intelligence community has a selfish and narrow motivation to undermine Trump. The intelligence community does not have a problem with the budget, and Trump does not have a genuine problem with the intelligence community; he has a problem with the truth."
"There Is No American 'Deep State'"
Experts on Turkish politics say the use of that term misunderstands what it means in Turkey—and the ways that such allegations can be used to enable political repression.
A shattered window at police headquarters in Ankara following a failed July 2016 coup attempt Osman Orsal / Reuters
David A. Graham
Feb 20, 2017
"But experts on Turkey are not so quick to follow suit. They see a couple of problems with the analogy. First, it’s not a precise application of the term; it portrays any sort of resistance to the regime as a “deep state,” failing to isolate what truly makes the shadowy structures in places like Turkey different. Second, a review of Turkish politics over the last decade shows the dangers in allowing a deep state to become a real menace in the mind of the public."
We cannot prove a negative, and the Deep State is mostly more unsupported conspiracy theory.
"“Be careful playing with the deep-state idea, because it can so easily get out of control that it becomes a monster that helps whoever’s in charge curb freedom and intimidate dissidents, because it’s such a nebulous concept,” said Soner Cagaptay, who directs the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “You don't have to prove that it exists. Once [the notion is] out there, and the public starts to believe it, anybody can be attached to it.”"
Here is Rush Limbaugh's UNSUBSTANTIATED, even illogical opinion.
"Barack Obama and His Deep State Operatives Are Attempting to Sabotage the Duly Elected President of the United States"
Mar 2, 2017
No need to read Rush comments; useless as usual. Sorry Rush.
"How the Press Serves the Deep State"
March 1, 2017
by Daniel Lazare
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/03/01/how-the-press-serves-the-deep-state/
Daniel uses reverse psychology, and I think he is wrong. His book titles show his inclination to a logic that is unusual. I'm not inspired to read them.
"This may be too sweeping. Nonetheless, if the press really wanted to get to the bottom of what the Russians are doing, they would not begin with the question of what Trump knew and when he knew it. They would begin, rather, with the question of what we know and how we can be sure. It’s the question that the press should have asked during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but failed to. But it’s the question that reporters should be asking now before the conflict with Russia spins out of control, with consequences that are potentially even more horrendous.
It’s not easy making Donald Trump seem like a peacenik, but that’s what the billionaire’s press has done."
Daniel Lazare is the author of several books including The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy (Harcourt Brace).
"Is the “deep state” a threat to Donald Trump — or to democracy?"
Updated by Zack Beauchamp@zackbeauchamp zack@vox.com Feb 22, 2017, 8:50am EST
http://www.vox.com/world/2017/2/22/14598834/trump-deep-state
"The key point of comparison when it comes to spies interfering with democracy — the country for which the term “deep state” was actually coined — is Turkey. And experts on the country are deeply skeptical of the comparison.
“I think I speak for every scholar of Turkey, when I say, please, please do not apply language of ‘deep state’ to [the] US,” Howard Eissenstat, a professor of Middle East history at St. Lawrence University, tweeted."
"“[The intelligence community] is very seriously worried — not about their own position, about this man,” Hess, who spent his post-government career studying leaks at the Brookings Institution, says. “And they have a right to be worried.”"
"It’s unlikely anyone other than a handful of high-level members of the Trump campaign knew about these calls [with Russians officials], and the odds that they would talk — and implicate themselves in a potentially major scandal — are next to zero. Getting Russian sources to talk would have been equally difficult.
If the intelligence community failed to leak the intercepted calls, the public might well never have found out about them. What the leakers are doing, then, is more like whistleblowing than political campaigning: calling attention to a scandal that otherwise might have flown under the radar."
Russia interfered in the election, unequivocally. It is absolutely essential to know why and to whos benefit? So, why were none of the Tweety Twump campaign staff up front about their contacts with Russian officials? Why? It is a simply question NO ONE HAS ANSWERED!
Sorry to Daniel Lazare, these are things we know, so contrary to your proposal to get to know more on our side, America want to KNOW WHAT TWEETY KNOWS.
To get an answer America wants Tweety to release his TAX RETURNS.
"The Deep State vs. President Trump"
by Gary Olson, Published on Sunday, March 05, 2017, by Common Dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/03/05/deep-state-vs-president-trump
"Corporate media like CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and elements within the intelligence community are singing from the same hymnal in denouncing and demonizing President Trump and are not at all subtle in suggesting that only impeachment can "save democracy." Democratic Party leaders hope to parley this into retaking the White House."
Recognize in this that Tweety is the one still campaigning for the Presidency, no one else.
"To be sure, Trump is a neo-fascist demagogue and his actions should be resisted at every step. However, this is not what's motivating most of these critics. To understand why that's the case, I highly recommend Mike Lofgren's book, THE DEEP STATE: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government (NY: Penguin, 2016). Lofgren began his Capital Hill career as a traditional Republican, serving three decades as a high level staff analyst for the House and Senate Budget Committees."
Definition, hurray!
"What is the Deep State? It's a hybrid network of structures within which actual power resides. It includes the military-industrial complex, Wall Street, hordes of private contractors whose sole client is the government, national security agencies, select (not all) members of the State, Defense, CIA, Homeland Security, a few key members of the Congressional Defense and Intelligence Committees, and so on."
OK, now how does the "Deep State" choose who to benefit, who to serve? One entity served by the Deep State is the defense industry, i.e., the "Military Industrial Complex" Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about in the '50s. Ever increasing defense budgets pleases the Deep State. Going against NATO displease the DoD
"The Term “Deep State” in Focus: Usage Examples, Definition, and Phrasebook"
Posted on February 20, 2017 by Lambert Strether
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
This is a grand collection of Deep State definitions and ten (10) brief definitions. They do ot suggest rich folks are the Deep State, but I am still not ready to completely discard the idea. These definitions suggest independent individuals possible acting on their beliefs of how they think America should function.
"So now I’m [Lambert Strether] going to aggregate the properties suggested by these 10 sources, and make some judgements about what to keep and what to throw away. Throwing out Noonan’s concept of “a government within a government”, I get this. The deep state:
1. Gains power through (legal) control of state functions of secrecy and deception
2. Is “permanent”
3. Is not monolithic
4. Is composed of “cross-institutional” networks of individuals in both state (agencies, law enforcement) and civil society (media, contractors)
5. Is not democratic in its operation; and (potentially) is not accountable, not normal, not constitutional.
(Individuals within the deep state belong to factions that compete and cooperate, often in addition to their “day jobs,” rather as in a “matrix management” construct.)"
"Is the ‘Deep State’ Moving Against Trump?"
By Julian Sanchez On 2/28/17 at 11:16 AM
http://www.newsweek.com/deep-state-moving-against-trump-562156
"The public interest in knowing these facts is clear enough, and under the circumstances, it is not hard to reconstruct why officials within the intelligence community might regard the drastic step of going directly to the press as necessary under extraordinary circumstances."
Maybe even Sean Spicer is authoring leaks?
"In what I’ve somewhat crudely called the Hoover Scenario, the intelligence establishment can become a kind of unaccountable “double government” free to serve its own interests and agendas. But that may be the lesser evil when compared with an intelligence bureaucracy that is too completely the tool of the political branches—more loyal to the president to whom they owe their careers than to the norms and mission of their agencies, and more concerned with keeping him satisfied than telling uncomfortable truths."
Julian Sanchez is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
