Deep State USA, Is There One? And the answer is . . .

(This is the final part of a series of posts on the possibility of an American Deep State and may not make sense unless you've read the preceding installments.  The previous posts are on January 23, 2017, January 25, 2017 and February 2, 2017.) 

We've got all the ingredients.  It's as if the box from Blue Apron has been opened, and everything you need to make the meal is neatly lined up on the kitchen counter.  But, we haven't made the meal yet (even if the delivery of the box earlier in the week will show up on this month's credit card cycle).

Consider:  For the last 15 years the War on Terror has involved the created of a national security apparatus which although focused on external threats, can easily be redeployed to address domestic issues.  As a matter of fact, given that virtually all incidents of terrorism on U.S. since 9/11 have been committed by U.S. citizen that redeployment (and the elimination of easy public access to any weapon that can hold more rounds than, say, a six-shooter)is what any competent security personnel would recommend if you're worried about domestic 'carnage,' to use the Caudillo's word.

Consider:  The only real impediment to doing so are fussy legalistic objections, blather about the rule of law and norms of decency, the sort of stuff that any committed revolutionary would sweep away in a heartbeat(whether from the right, like Mr. Bannon, or on the left, like, well, she hasn't surfaced yet).  The noise about frustrating the judicial review of the executive order announcing a travel ban by signing a new order before review of the current one has even concluded is a minor first step in that process.  

Consider:  National security, the safety of the Homeland (Fatherland? Das Reich?) has historically made an acceptable justification for suspensions of ordinary rules, procedures, safeguards, right.  Can anyone grok 'State of Emergency'?  How about, 'State of Siege'?  A new set of Black prisons would be another, bigger step.  Rendition of people apprehended within the borders of the U.S. to these new black prisons would be a much bigger step after that.  Or maybe just push them out of the helicopter on the ride to the their final destination for an Argentine swim? And so on.  It's not hard to imagine a progressive implementation of domestic security measures to crush popular dissent and preserve domestic order and tranquility (for a little while).

Consider: the dynamic of the previous considerations leads to the development of an embedded element in the bowels of the national security establishment, answerable to no one, hard to pinpoint, with a self-appointed mission to protect the nation from all threats, internal and external.  It would only be a matter of time before such an element turned on and tamed its political 'masters'.

And that, gentle reader, is the definition of a Deep State.