Yes, There Is a Deep State. but Trump Has It Wrong

The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives! (President Trump’s Tweet, Aug 22, 2020)

There is no doubt that the U.S. has what many refer to as “a permanent government” — people who run the Pentagon, CIA, FBI, NSA, NHS, CDC, FDA, and other powerful institutions. This seems to be what a lot of people, including Trump, call the “deep state.”

There is no doubt that this permanent government influences U.S. policies. It also has the ability to dig deep into our personal lives. Especially in these times of high tech, it needs oversight and more checks and balances than it currently has.

However, that does not mean that our government is part of a conspiracy that, among other things, is hell bent on “making it difficult for drug companies . . . to test vaccines.” As I wrote in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man:

Some would blame our current problems on an organized conspiracy. I wish it were so simple. Members of a conspiracy can be rooted out and brought to justice. This system, however, is fueled by something far more dangerous than conspiracy. . . a concept that has become accepted as gospel. (page xii)

That gospel, as I’ve pointed out in previous writings, has created a corporatocracy, a global cadre of rich men who have the ability to exercise a great deal of influence over all our lives. The one thing that drives them is a belief in that accepted gospel: The only responsibility of business is to maximize short-term profits for a few wealthy shareholders (them), regardless of the social and environmental costs.

It is a gospel that has given us a form of predatory capitalism that is totally failing us, a Death Economy that is consuming itself into extinction, polluting the planet, destroying environments, and creating huge income gaps that too often inspire violence and terrorism.

The corporatacy is not a conspiracy, but its members do endorse common values and goals. One of the corporatocracy’s most important functions is to perpetuate and continually expand and strengthen the system. The lives of those who “make it,” and their accoutrements — their mansions, yachts, and private jets — are presented as models to inspire us all to consume, consume, consume. (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, page xiii)

Perpetrating, expanding, and strengthening the system means that members of the corporatocracy will do everything in their power to keep the profits rolling in. They create loopholes so they and their corporations pay little to no taxes, cut back regulations that protect environments, fight wage increases, enact laws that allow them and their corporations to legally bribe elected officials through campaign financing, and support their nefarious actions through the media they own (either outright or with their advertising dollars).

The real deep state, the corporatocracy, is empowered when elected officials lull us into a trance of believing that the deep state is comprised of doctors and scientists who delay the testing of a COVID-19 vaccine for political gain, rather than legitimate medical reasons.

The real deep state is strengthened when the words of a Russian President about Russian meddling in U.S. elections influence U.S. policy more than the warnings of our own U.S. intelligence agencies. The real deep state is fortified by laws that support the rich and powerful in their ceaseless drive to increase their riches and power.

When we the people are lulled into a trance by conspiracy ideas aimed at convincing us that we are powerless, that voting poles are rigged, and that government agencies dedicated to protecting us from foreign powers and viruses are out to “get” the president, we empower the real deep state, the corporatocracy.

Once lulled into that trance, we become robotic soldiers fighting for, not against, the deep state. Let’s not allow that to happen.