Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

It defies all reason he could be elected again.

"“These are folks who saw him up close and personal and saw his leadership style,” Matthews said.

“The American people should listen to what these folks are saying because it should be alarming that the people
that Trump hired to work for him a first term are saying that he’s unfit to serve for a second term.”

Yet the critics remain a distinct minority."

[...]

Trump’s also got the backing of former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, former Interior Secretary and Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, and Russell Vought, who ran Trump’s Office of Management and Budget.

Vought said in a post on X that Trump is “the only person I trust to take a wrecking ball to the Deep State.”

Your -- https://apnews.com/article/former-trump-officials-criticize-2024-e202861911ab37cadfcf058b5b163fb9

See again:

12yearplan, The “deep state” is real. But it’s not what Trump thinks it is.

"I'm confused 12. If we are supposed to embrace the middle ground/muddle thru that means accepting a lot."

Best to understand the middle ground is a more palatable reality that extremes on either side are. Reality of course is a muddle in many ways. If you crave certainty believe in fate. In a controlling God. That way you don't have any control, no say, so no worries. It's interesting so many who crave certainty are Christians who believe Trump's bs about the deep state. He knows how to tap into peoples fears. Into their insecurities. Into need for certainty. One thing you can be certain of he is a prick. You know that, so when you feel attracted to his "deep state" bs think about what a manipulative s.o.b. Trump is.

"Hysterical Putin Pals Claim the Deep State Took Out Tucker Carlson"

[...]

David Rohde is an editor at the New Yorker and the author of In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth About America’s “Deep State .. https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Truth-about-Americas-State/dp/1324003545?ots=1&ascsubtag=[]vx[p]20983205[t]w[r]google.com[d]D .” It’s a fair-minded look at the deep state and the various conspiracy theories surrounding it. The term “deep state,” Rohde argues, has become a way for Trump and his supporters to deflect criticism — but it’s also a real idea that can help us think through some legitimate issues, namely how we consider the limits of presidential power and the nature of government accountability.

I spoke to Rohde by phone about how the “deep state” has evolved into a sprawling conspiracy theory and if he thinks Trump’s complaints about it are at all justified. Ultimately, Rohde believes the “deep state” is both a real thing and a toxic distraction.

[...]

What’s the origin of this term? When did it take on the meaning it has now?

David Rohde

For decades, the term “deep state” was applied to Turkey .. https://daily.jstor.org/the-unacknowledged-origins-of-the-deep-state/ . It was a reference to the Turkish military and their efforts to slow the spread of democracy there. Some applied it to Egypt and the Egyptian military to describe the same thing. The first time I found that the term deep state was applied to the US government was a book written in 2007 .. https://www.amazon.com/Road-11-Wealth-Empire-America/dp/0520258711?ots=1&ascsubtag=[]vx[p]20983205[t]w[r]google.com[d]D .. by a University of California Berkeley professor named Peter Dale Scott.

I interviewed Scott for my book, and he used the term “deep state” to describe what liberals typically fear, which is the military-industrial complex. Scott wrote about a sense that the military and defense contractors had driven the country repeatedly into wars and maybe helped fuel 9/11 and the wars that followed. For Scott, it also applied to large financial interests, like Wall Street banks.

[...]

Sean Illing

Could we maybe say that, in the most generous sense possible, the term “deep state” is a way for both sides to describe parts of the government — or forces that interact with government — that aren’t elected or are beyond the conventional checks and balances of our system?

David Rohde

I think that’s fair. But I also think it’s extraordinarily effective political messaging that Trump uses to discredit rivals or people who question him.

His use of it has evolved, too. First, it was a reference to the FBI’s Russia investigation, and then it was extended to the CIA as well. But more recently he declared the Pentagon part of the deep state when some Pentagon officials questioned his defense of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes. And now, some of Trump’s supporters are absurdly declaring [head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases] Dr. Fauci part of the deep state as well.

[...]

David Rohde

Most current officials I’ve talked to say they’re trying to do their jobs and keep their heads down and they don’t want to be part of the political brawl. And a lot of them think they’ve been hurt by the outspokenness of people like former FBI Director James Comey and others like him. They think that damages them and makes their job harder.

Sean Illing

How so?

David Rohde

They think it feeds the conspiracy theories Trump and his supporters are spinning up every day. And, to be fair, a lot of them know there was already a lot of distrust of their work after the Ed Snowden leaks [in 2013, Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents about NSA spying programs], and so that’s a cloud hovering over everything. Trump, in his own way, has exploited that lack of trust.

One of the reasons I wrote the book was a 2018 poll that found that more than 70 percent of Americans think that there is a group of unelected officials who secretly influence policy in Washington. Something like 80 percent believe they are being surveilled by the government, and the groups that had the highest belief in this or had the highest fear of this were on the right side of the spectrum.

Sean Illing

Is there a case for a more robust deep state, especially when the power of the American presidency keeps growing? Is it necessarily bad to have an alternative check on the executive?

David Rohde

I don’t think that civil servants should be resisting lawful policies being carried out by elected officials. If a civil servant doesn’t want to work for the Trump administration, they should just quit. A core ideal of our democracy is that there is a mandate that comes with elections every two, four, or six years. That mandate has to mean something. If we start playing this game of allowing unelected officials to intervene when they think it’s necessary, that’s dangerous and unpredictable.

Every president has expressed frustration with Washington when they came into office. Reagan complained about the State Department not wanting to fight communism as aggressively as he did. Barack Obama feared that Pentagon officials were leaking possible numbers for a troop increase in Afghanistan as a way to box him in and force him to send more troops than he wanted to Afghanistan. It’s the way it’s always been.

So I think if it’s a lawful policy or order, civil servants should carry it out.

[...]

Conspiracy-theory encyclopedia Wikispooks is thriving during the coronavirus pandemic, seeing huge traffic gains from search engines

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