Deep Thoughts

In season four of the 1990’s television drama The X-Files, there is a scene where one of the villains is meeting with his subordinates. Staff members are asking their boss how they should rig things like Hollywood award shows and sports events. The boss says that he will not allow the Buffalo Bills to win a Super Bowl and one of the staffers questions if that is possible. Another staffer then explains how the boss was able to rig the 1980 Olympic hockey tournament.

The villain is a famous character from the show called Cancer Man or the Smoking Man, because he is a chain smoker. No one seems to know his real name. He just seems to be a guy who is at the heart of every conspiracy and coverup, one step ahead of everyone, especially the protagonists. He appears to work for the government, but he also represents the interests of a shadowy group of old white men who may or may not control the governments of the world.

That is what makes that scene memorable. To that point the show was a little dodgy about the nature of the various conspiracies. Most of the time the protagonists are racing to expose a coverup by the government. At other times, it appears they are being manipulated by some shady actors using their investigations as a way to coverup some more sinister plot. In that scene we see that the deep state literally controls the things we take for granted, like sporting events.

The X-Files franchise was a huge success because people like to think that their world is controlled by someone. This is a feature of the human condition. Early man thought the sprits that animated the natural world altered the behavior of man. The ancients thought the gods manipulated the affairs of man. Of course, Christianity starts with the assumption that God created a rational world and he intervenes from time to time to nudge man in a certain direction.

This is why the intelligent design concept is popular. For most people, the idea of a chaotic, purposeless world is upsetting. Even though the basics of intelligent design contradict the fundamentals of Christianity, many Christians would rather believe God is endlessly tinkering with his creation than accept evolution. Even though evolution fits in with the concept of maker’s knowledge and the perfection of God, people struggle with the seeming randomness of the natural world.

This also explains the appeal of the deep state. It is possible that the raid on Trump’s villa was carried out by bit players exploiting an opportunity. A regional FBI officer saw a chance to make a name for himself, got a nutty judge to sign off on the search warrant and now we have a scandal. This is a very unsatisfying explanation for most people, so they reach for the deep state as an answer. This raid is part of some plot run by shady characters who will never let Buffalo win a title.

None of this is to suggest that there are no conspiracies. A central feature of human nature is cooperation, which is another way of saying that it is the nature of man to plot with other men. Politics is defined by the plots hatched and executed by factions within the political system. Court intrigue has been with us since the first man was named the leader of his people. Often, these plots take on a life of their own. The original plot gets away from the plotters and becomes a scandal.

The Russian collusion hoax is a good example. We now know the idea was hatched by Clinton operatives as a political dirty trick. They made up some phony evidence showing Trump was in league with Putin. Then they fed it to the media and the FBI in order to force it into the general conversation. The paranoid bigots of the far-left then turned it into something the JFK conspiracy. The grifter-right then turned that into a moneymaking scheme blaming the deep state.

The Russian collusion hoax is a good entry point in understanding the appeal of the deep state concept. Most of the people who hated Trump could not tell you why they hated him so much. The deep state concept filled that whole. Trump was in league with those dark forces that manipulate the world. On the other hand, Trump supporters could rely on the deep state to explain why the system attacked Trump. Both sides of the Trump story could sense the Cancer Man in the room.

John Derbyshire famously said, “The ordinary modes of human thinking are magical, religious, social, and personal. We want our wishes to come true; we want the universe to care about us; we want the approval of those around us; we want to get even with that s.o.b. who insulted us at the last tribal council. For most people, wanting to know the cold truth about the world is way, way down the list.” From that it should be easy to see why the deep state is a popular villain.

Another reason people like the idea of secret actors controlling events is that it is easier to hate a person than a process. Anyone who has worked with big complex systems knows the frustration of not having someone to blame. The people are all doing the right thing, both morally and technically, yet the results are wrong. There is no one to blame but the system and the system is the result of all of those correct and well-intended actions by the people involved.

Blaming the system for American decline is too much for most people. They were raised to worship the idea of America. Blaming the system for why things are getting progressively worse is like burning the flag. It is a lot easier to blame some corrupting forces that are manipulating events. The same phenomenon set in with the Soviet Union after Stalin. Blaming bad actors operating in the shadows of the party was safer than questioning the system.

The deep state is why popular government is a terrible idea. In popular government, in theory at least, policy reflects the popular will. Therefore, bad results must be the fault of the people. How can this be possible when most people never wanted the bad result? It must be something else. Whether communism, socialism or liberal democracy, the people can never blame themselves, so they will find someone to blame, even if they have to invent him.

In personal rule, everyone knows who to blame. If gas prices go up, the people go down to the ruler’s house and demand he lower gas prices. There is no deep state in personal rule as there is no need for one. The motivations behind public policy are real and easily assigned to the people in charge. Popular government needs a deep state onto which the sorrows of the people can be cast. Otherwise, they will figure out who is responsible and abandon the system in favor of personal rule.

From a dissident perspective, the deep state concept is mostly useful as it is a vehicle for normal people to the land of doubt. The millions of Trump supporters who think their man is the victim of the deep state are losing faith in the system. The reckless shenanigans of mostly midlevel players make others wonder if there really is a secret cabal manipulating things. The deep state may simply be a sign that the system is in severe decline and nearing collapse.


If you like my work and wish to kick in a few bucks, you can buy me a beer. You can sign up for a SubscribeStar subscription and get some extra content. You can donate via PayPal. My crypto addresses are here for those who prefer that option. You can send gold bars to: Z Media LLC P.O. Box 432 Cockeysville, MD 21030-0432. Thank you for your support!


Promotions: We have a new addition to the list. Havamal Soap Works is the maker of natural, handmade soap and bath products. If you are looking to reduce the volume of man-made chemicals in your life, all-natural personal products are a good start. If you use this link you get 15% off of your purchase.

The good folks at Alaska Chaga are offering a ten percent discount to readers of this site. You just click on the this link and they take care of the rest. About a year ago they sent me some of their stuff. Up until that point, I had never heard of chaga, but I gave a try and it is very good. It is a tea, but it has a mild flavor. It’s autumn here in Lagos, so it is my daily beverage now.

Minter & Richter Designs makes high-quality, hand-made by one guy in Boston, titanium wedding rings for men and women and they are now offering readers a fifteen percent discount on purchases if you use this link. If you are headed to Boston, they are also offering my readers 20% off their 5-star rated Airbnb.  Just email them directly to book at

sa***@mi*********************.com











.


255 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Yman
Yman
2 years ago

It’s more of an ethnically motivated conspiracy.
The folks who came to Ellis Island in the 19th century had a lot of problems.
even fascism and nazism in Europe would be overwhelmed by what they have achieved.

Mischa
Mischa
2 years ago

Whewee. No-one reads this far down the comments. However I don’t buy Z’s bland dismissal of deeper conspiracies, because for one thing they don’t reckon with the institutionalized tradecraft of the letter agencies in creating narratives and deception. This is something the world has never seen before, deep pockets, scientific research and secrecy in propagandising the nation and the world. For example, they supplied advisors to the x-files to plant certain story lines, on the scientifically proven basis that if audiences have seen this weird, out-there and obviously fictionalized story about a nefarious government, they will not believe that it… Read more »

Gman
Gman
Member
Reply to  Mischa
2 years ago

I do—I read them all!

Spingehra
Spingehra
Reply to  Gman
2 years ago

I used to.
defeatism becomes tiresome.

Götterdamn-it-all
Götterdamn-it-all
Reply to  Mischa
2 years ago

We now know that Garland signed off on the raid, so…yes, it was the Deep State, or whatever you want to call it. They’re even spreading the rumor that Trump took “nuclear codes” with him from the White House. So don’t be surprised if something like that is “found” among the things the FBI took away from Mar-a-Lago. The FBI is famous for planting evidence.

miforest
Member
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

The “we were looking for “NUCLEAR Secrets” is clearly so patently ridiculous that it boggles the mind. What exactly are nuclear secrets? ho to build a device – nope common knowledge already. if north Korea can do it , anybody can. is it who has them , nope , public knowledge. where they are? pretty much common knowledge since the advent of satellites.
A dangerous sounding term that really dumb people will believe? probably

c matt
c matt
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Obviously he was lying about the DOJ and FBI protecting citizens’ rights, being fair and impartial, having ethics, saving us from domestic terror plots (since the FBI creates them), having any integrity, etc. The one thing he probably did not lie about was approving the warrant.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Götterdamn-it-all
2 years ago

Question: my security system at home allows me to reprogram my security password/code rather easily, so wouldn’t it be prudent to change the nuclear codes periodically, and at least on a change of administration, you know, for NUCLEAR WEAPONS???

John Pate
Member
2 years ago

Although, speaking for myself, I’m still hoping for it turn out it’s lizard people or 5th dimensional aliens, sadly the reality is rather more prosaic and available in detail on the UN and WEF website. There is a global conspiracy for a New World Order and it’s all out in plain sight and major government leaders continually make speeches about it. You can find lists of companies and people involved on the official websites.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  John Pate
2 years ago

Exactly. They are TELLING us, fer chrissake! If someone tells me they want me dead, I tend to believe them.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
2 years ago

So we tend to personalize things?
(*Looks at Bible.*)

Of course. That’s the first and most important lesson we learn before we can speak. It’s an intuitive shorthand.

Thanks, Z. This really helps. I get so wrapped up in my personal mission it bleeds onto these pages. My approach is wrong, I’m driving away readers and trashing my favorite bar. Gotta cool it.

miforest
Member
2 years ago

clearly coincidences exist. but some time you have to wonder. lots of fires in food related facilities this year , and biden warned months ago about a coming ” food shortage” . here is the latest coincidence https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/08/devastating-fire-completely-destroyed-pendleton-flour-mills-oregon/

Coalclinker
Coalclinker
2 years ago

I have 2 questions. Maybe this will help settle the perennial topic here as to whether or not there is a deep state, or a cabal. Who is it who says we will have electric cars whether we like it or not, we have no say in it, and if you don’t like it, tough sh!t? The second question is, who is it that keeps talking about us peons are gonna have to learn how to eat bugs to save the Earth? They’re even putting up famous actresses showing us how to eat bugs. So who is it who’s behind… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Coalclinker
2 years ago

Both of which are being imposed across the entire western world (US/Canada/Aus/N\/UK/EU) despite exactly no one voting for them and intentionally being used to make a shit existence for the said citizens

Huge amount of Legislative preparation and bills passed for years in place to bring it about, supra-national policy groups and working parties outside representative voting, state funded NGOs and administrative depts created and staffed to enforce the surrounding rules.

Yeah pretty much seems like it meets the definition of a large coordinated conspiracy.

Coalclinker
Coalclinker
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

I notice no one posted anything right here saying there is no cabal or deep state. I myself think there is a group behind the scenes running the show. We have all of these media organs telling us what we’re going to have to do but the movers and shakers tend not to show their faces. It all sounds like a deep state to me, who takes their orders from higher-ups. All we need to know is who owns the banks, and from whom the politicians get their dineros from and then deposited into their private accounts.

Anson Rhodes
Anson Rhodes
Reply to  Coalclinker
2 years ago

There is no cabal or deep state as envisaged.
There you go. I was just tired of saying it.
Certainly there are cliques and opportunistic machinations, but a true deep state in the US? No. It’s far easier to believe that people are just paranoid and insecure and will believe anything, because we have solid evidence for that.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Anson Rhodes
2 years ago

But the point is that whether there is a tangible DS or not, the result will be the same. They want us dead. Do you think that when this happens, it will matter to us whether it was those guys in Room 46 of the WEF building or just a loose bunch of interests and coincidences that did us in?

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Coalclinker
2 years ago

I guess the terms cabal or deep state may be throwing some off a bit making it sound more formal than it is. Maybe more a cartel or club. But there does appear to be some group of like-minded folks at the top “setting the tone” so to speak with enough formal or informal control over various institutions to get that tone adopted by enough power players, and then it trickles down to the npc level.

John LeJeal
John LeJeal
2 years ago

For the most part I like your comments. But after a time of reading your posts I find a pattern that can only be explained by you using an AI program to help you complete your posts. Regarding this post, how do explain this fine human, the DOJ AG in his actions and announcements? Just another little bad actor? Call it what you want. There is clearly an us against them here. Good vs Evil.

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
2 years ago

Never put to conspiracy that which cannot first be explained by mediocre intellects + emergent behavior.

miforest
Member
Reply to  SamlAdams
2 years ago

yes, but the level of coordinated sophistication and scale of what’s happening around the world , in concert, CANNOT be explained by mediocre intelligence. so now where plato…

c matt
c matt
Reply to  miforest
2 years ago

The more power you wield, the less intelligence it takes to get things done. 2020 election fraud is a perfect example – no sophisticated skullduggary needed. Just stuff boxes to your hearts content, kick out/block observers, pause proceedings, etc. all pretty much in the open if not on live tv..

c matt
c matt
Reply to  c matt
2 years ago

I.e., the small fox needs to be wily; the large bear just needs to show up.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  c matt
2 years ago

To be clear, I am not saying conspiracy/coordination is not involved, just saying it doesn’t take genius level villains to pull it off.

Whiskey
Whiskey
2 years ago

The Deep State is the result of two crossing phenomena, which also explain the weirdness and seeming stupidity of our masters. The first is the hereditary nature of the rulers, which is well known, and their passing along of positions as best they can in the hierarchy, which most especially includes NGOS, federal bureaucracy, as well as politics which is better known. The second less well known is that as MANAGERS they OWN NOTHING. And have great insecurity. It is why Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell, Fauci, Biden etc. all in their 80s or very near it won’t retire. Their power, their… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Whiskey
2 years ago

Whisky, your conjecture is highly persuasive. The first thought that enters my mind after reading it is “If the managers have so little stake in the system, nor true power to defend it, doesn’t that make them easy prey for [unknown predator(s)]?”

Gedeon
Gedeon
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Hold my beer…

“Your comment is too short. Try again.”

WTF

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Whiskey
2 years ago

an interesting perspective.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Whiskey
2 years ago

In other words, they are the usual mix of effeminate eunuchs and demented psychopaths who are always to be found when a regime is in its final throes. What I find fascinating is how completely interchangeable they all are: Truss/Trudeau/Macron/that turd in NZ…No personality, never held a real job, crappy educational histories, etc.

James J. O'Meara
James J. O'Meara
2 years ago

Once again, the Deep State is NOT a “secret group of hidden actors.” The Deep State = Media and celebrities + Govt + Organized Crime. The names of all these people are well known (especially “celebrities”). The origin of the term is: “The Susurluk scandal developed after a car accident on 3 November 1996 near Susurluk in Balıkesir province. In this accident, former Deputy Chief of Istanbul Police Hüseyin Kocadağ, the leader of the Grey Wolves (Nationalist Action Party’s youth organization) Abdullah Çatlı, and a woman named Gonca Us [Turkish supermodel] died; DYP Şanlıurfa MP Sedat Bucak, who was also… Read more »

Hun
Hun
2 years ago

“A regional FBI officer saw a chance to make a name for himself, got a nutty judge to sign off on the search warrant and now we have a scandal.”

It doesn’t look like this is what happened. This goes all the way to the (political) top.

James J. O'Meara
James J. O'Meara
Reply to  Hun
2 years ago

“Nutty judge” who worked for Epstein. But that’s just a coincidence.

Hun
Hun
Reply to  James J. O'Meara
2 years ago

It’s one big demonic club.

BTW: https://gab.com/disclosetv/posts/108805824476366174

“AG Garland personally approved the Trump raid.”

This doesn’t look like just some chaotic unorganized non-conspiracy where some nobody is trying to make a career.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Hun
2 years ago

He just decided on his own?

The plan just sort of materialized on his desk as if by magic?

drafted by his intern?

It was”t a heads up meeting with the major players all deciding together?

Oh look its smelling like a meeting of unknown power centers in the govt to decide … what is that called again…?

AnotherAnon
AnotherAnon
Reply to  Hun
2 years ago

I tend to agree, Hun. While the lowlife may have hatched the idea, this antic is such a monumental road marker in the formerly normal operation of the Republic, that instinctively this judge would know to get it cleared from the higher ups. To protect himself and be assured of “good standing” in spite of any backlash. This feels like a major turning point. JFK was shocking (and the consequences very drawn out) and the 60s were annoyingly wild. But neither felt like the sign of irreplaceable rot in the internal machinery – unlike the glee with which the Waco… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  AnotherAnon
2 years ago

“unlike the glee with which the Waco people were incinerated. I remember thinking that any society that can do that is on borrowed time” That also is my marker, and was the first time I truly appreciated how dishonest and evil the propaganda organs are; NBC had a made-for-TV, total bullshit movie rushed into production that might as well had presented the Davidians as Satan incarnate (it would have been more subtle). The cucks weren’t quite as cucky then, but ZOG immediately shut down a congressional attempt to get to probe the massacre. It was obvious at that point the… Read more »

Mow Noname
Mow Noname
2 years ago

“The deep state may simply be a sign that the system is in severe decline and nearing collapse.” I agree with both of those suppositions, but the question remains: WHEN? Look up a picture / statue of the Roman emperor Diocletian vs. the empress Zoe or Basil II ~800 years later. The best images of the later look like they were done by 3rd graders. “Severe decline” indeed. Decline and senescence come for all men and all societies. The hardest thing is that I was born into a country that had men walking on the moon and harnessing the atom… Read more »

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Mow Noname
2 years ago

Its all undirected Brownian motion in a dis-interested system, and as we all know in physical systems random molecular movement always leads to a massive super dense pile up of molecules at one end of the tube and a vacuum at the other in all the western countries .at the same time.

Reziac
Reziac
2 years ago

“Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

Almost every single ad removes the white man. Those that do not remove him show him in a couple with a black or brown woman with mixed race children. This occurred immediately overnight after St. George had his Holy Overdose. I just got an advertisement interrupting my YT Scriabin playlist for a new curriculum focused on AP History courses for teachers. It has the standard globo homo imagery. Chinese, Jewish and Middle Eastern court scenes plus Aunt Jamima; and a painting featuring a nude white woman appearing as an angel in the midst of a naval battle. The White man… Read more »

DonnaDraper
DonnaDraper
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

My issue with the complaints of airbrushing white men out of ads (to be clear, it’s irksome and pathetically obvious) is treating it as an arduous strategy, like Gramsci’s long march, instead of mere fashion. Vaccines and cyberbullying laws also come to mind. These activists have no plan, they are acting busy. We inhabit a woman-dominated consumer society of pro-social happy-thoughts morality. The feminine scapegoating of mustache-twirlers is not the stuff of a Sun Tzu meme, we see it commonly because it’s “good enough for government work.” Ironically women will awaken to meritocracy/stringent standards when they log into Zoom and… Read more »

Brandon Lasko
Brandon Lasko
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

What happened to James Lindsey?

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

The Passion of St. George was an accellerant of processes that took root in the late-60s. If you observe advertisements from that period, you will see nuggras creeping into the picture. The present madness has been gestating for over half a century.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

For several days on Zero Hedge, I think it was, one of the ads was for (I think) a moving or storage service. The still is of a smiling Negro carrying a box with an approving White woman nearby. It occurs to me that this is clever advertising: the messaging is ambiguous; it can be taken as the Progressive dream of a bi-racial couple, or (given the conservative audience) the man is the worker just offloading the goods to the white lady.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

Ben: We’re moving shortly and, as soon as our house was listed, began to get inundated with mailers from moving companies. Any one of them with a picture of a non-White (either as mover or movee) we tossed.

vlantic
vlantic
2 years ago

Many years before Katrina, the Smoking Man was shown to be nominally in charge of FEMA, which a character in the first X-Files movie referred to as “the secret government”. In the show’s mythology, when the aliens finally showed up to colonize the earth, a state of emergency would be declared and FEMA would take control of the US.

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  vlantic
2 years ago

It’s a good plot-line. FEMA has resources stashed around the country, is known to move in fairly quickly, and is generally not held in much suspicion by the public at large. They are also given the local credibility as they cannot actually move in until they have been requested by the states’ Governors.

trackback
2 years ago

[…] ZMan looks at the Deep State. […]

Krustykurmudgeon
Krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

What I find the most interesting is trying to use associations to suss out what’s going on. Like those maps people make with constellations and various nodes linking them together are really cool. One guy to do a deep dive on would be David bazelon. He’s a long forgotten name but he was appointed to the DC circuit in 1949 became chief judge in 1962 and remained chief until he took senior status during the Carter era. He was widely scene as sort of a wizard of oz figure who was the “tenth justice” during the warren court era. He… Read more »

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  Krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

Murray Rothbard has a lot of analysis on this phenomenon. A lot of it is centered around the beginning decades of the Progressive Era. A major journalist pushing muckrakers who is the brother-in-law of the meat packing industry that is tired of upstart rivals and wants them, “regulated.” He gets pretty extensive. One thing about this is that the brother-in-law doesn’t have to be in on anything. You just mention an outrage at dinner and he develops a passion for solving a great injustice. The legislation gets passed and when the champagne is broken on the bow of the brother-in-law’s… Read more »

Mike
Mike
Reply to  Krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

Krusty, I have a book at home that goes into depth about this guy. I’m going to find it and read that part of it again. That guy was a mob lawyer for Capone in Chicago, moved to CA and gained more influence and power there. He was responsible for the confiscation and sale to his fellow mobsters the assets of imprisoned Japanese Americans during the war. A lot of the businesses and properties were sold at 10 cents on the dollar or less I believe. After all that he was put up for the DC Circuit Court of Appeals,… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

On a related (?) theme, I learnt today that the judge who issued the Trump warrant is basically a contractor. They are normal in the Federal judiciary, but the problem is they escape the Senate confirmation process. (Search on “insight” to get to the relevant section)

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/-coffee-and-covid-wednesday-august-573

Glenfilthie
Glenfilthie
Member
2 years ago

LOL “Greetings fellow chitpoaters and dissidents? You can buy the “Defund the FBI” Tee Shirts and hats at my website!” Z you must either chit or get off the pot. A rogue FBI flunky? Deciding to make a splash by raiding a former US president? And a random lunatic judge? Please – let us have some honesty and clarity. The judge in this case represented Epstein in his pedophilia case. The client list was made to go away by the entire judicial class. What are there never random lunatic judges that go the other way? You would think at least… Read more »

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

“Warm up those credit cards for the big win, patriots!”

Speaking of the X-Files, the pilot episode of the spinoff show The Lone Gunmen aired an episode about airliners flying into the WTC in March 2001:

https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/Pilot_(The_Lone_Gunmen)

Quite eerie in retrospect, whether the plotline was coincidental or not.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

“Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes”?

Mysteerious Rooshian Vooman
Mysteerious Rooshian Vooman
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

(((The judge))) in this case … .

FIFY:
“If you are wondering if Bruce Reinhart is Jewish or not, then he appeared on the board of a South Florida synagogue but he has not confirmed his religion yet.”
https://trendingpal.com/does-bruce-reinhart-have-a-jewish-faith-religion-and-gods-explained

OR … you could just look at his face.

Federalist
Federalist
Reply to  Mysteerious Rooshian Vooman
2 years ago

You don’t really need an article or even look at his face to know this judge is Jewish. It’s covered by the Rule of Every Single Time.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

“You can buy the “Defund the FBI” Tee Shirts and hats at my website!”

Don’t look now, but …

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/democrats-scorched-earth-policy/

So … yeah.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  Glenfilthie
2 years ago

The Deep State doesn’t seem that deep, maybe it’s at the point where it’s a Shallow State, because so much is out in the open, yet nobody gets punished. It’s like they’re saying, “yeah, and whaddya gonna do about it?”

Mycale
Mycale
2 years ago

I even read a post somewhere with a guy claiming that Trump no really super-secretly set it all up to out a mole in his camp, and now that Trump knows the mole he can, I dont know, cross the rubicon? Give me a break. Even after all this happened people still cannot come to grips with the idea that, maybe just maybe, the federal government is run by people who just hate Trump that much and are doing everything they can to destroy him, and they can do a lot. FWIW the FBI is out there bragging about how… Read more »

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Mycale
2 years ago

What normie also fails to realize is that the rules are there to be applied to normie, and not to the people running the system.

RedBeard
RedBeard
2 years ago

One of the many remarkable aspects of Christianity when brought to the Celtic people, was the new concept that the world was not random and controlled by a cabal of angry gods. St. Patrick was instrumental in fostering the belief that the world was entirely the christian God’s. This does not, however, preclude us from misfortune or suffering or the works of evil men but it does strengthen our resolve to know that there is a plan.

Hoagie
Hoagie
Reply to  RedBeard
2 years ago

There’s a big difference between knowing there is a plan and knowing what that plan is. And therein lies the rub.

jethro
jethro
Reply to  RedBeard
2 years ago

The idea of a universal god was not invented by some mangy Celt.

trackback
2 years ago

[…] Deep Thoughts […]

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
2 years ago

Sometimes conspiracy theories happen by accident. The fact that the judge in this case represented Epstein was an amazing coincidence. This judge had a law practice in Palm Beach, and is one of the chosen people. That drastically increases the odds of having represented Epstein. Sometimes you do have amazing coincidences. Epstein was an X Files character out of central casting. The FBI couldn’t find a worse person in Florida to have signed this warrant, conspiracy theory wise. In an additional twist the judge recused himself in the Trump vs. Clinton lawsuit as he thought it was too politically sensitive… Read more »

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

JRW intentionally mis-spelling “cohenincidence”?

Is this supposed to be sarcasm or irony or drollery some higher form of linguistic legerdemain?

PS: For the record, “cohenincidence” means “NOT a coincidence”.

As in, “It is NOT a coincidence that Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer signed the Mar-a-Lago warrant.”

NOT a coincidence.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

There may be coincidences, but that a particular judge signed a warrant is not necessarily a coincidence. From what I hear from LEO’s, there are judges that are “friendly” or easy going wrt warrants and then there are those who are a pain in the ass wrt LEO’s and their warrant requests—like requiring further information, adding stipulations, and such. Of course, when listening to these descriptions from LEO’s, I hold my tongue, but can’t help thinking that these judges they “avoid” are precisely the one’s who in all likelihood have my (as a citizen with “rights”) best interests in mind.… Read more »

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

The bar is low for that.

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

What’s needed is an annual audit of Judges search warrants.
“Probable cause” means greater than 50%. An audit to uncover what is actually discovered and what charges if any result should be published . The same, of course, should apply to every DA office applying for warrants.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

The FBI went judge shopping and settled for a Tribal pedophile enabler who bought a position as a magistrate. I think that is a perfect encapsulation of the current zeitgeist of the Banana Empire.

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

But its Palm Beach, the Southeastern HQ for the Tribe since the 70’s. You’re going to get a judge from the tribe. It would be like looking for a podiatrist in Sherman Oaks. Likely mostly tribal members. And Trump lives in the heart of it. Trump always wanted to be one of them. Strangely the way they always wanted to be one of us before the 1950’s and never could.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

There are tribal federal district judges there without Epstein ties, though. The FBI went straight to someone who they correctly thought was dirty enough to issue the warrant. Granted, we cannot rule out straight up idiocy and arrogance, either.

Federalist
Federalist
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

And this judge is a magistrate judge, not an Article 3 judge who is confirmed by the Senate and serves for life, etc. A magistrate judge’s role is to do a lot of the day-to-day work that a “real” federal judge is too high and mighty to deal with.
This thing would look more legit if a federal district judge had signed a warrant pertaining to a former president.

Krustykurmudgeon
Krustykurmudgeon
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

Epstein is the master key to everything. If we can ever figure out what Epstein actually was – then a lot of the questions over the past 10-15 years can be answered

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
Reply to  Krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

A billion dollar honey trap of a foreign (((government))).

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

Hooray, someone solved the impenetrable mysterious enigma of a puzzle.

Let’s go tell the press… oh wait… maybe the intelligence agencies… no on second thought… oh maybe congress… or we’ll tell a mass audience using tech platforms… whoops!

yeah okay so it actually makes no difference if we know or not.

The scary thing is that both our enemies and us have mutually realized that they dont even have to hide it anymore. There’s no check on their power of any significance left

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

Here’s the thing about Epstein, though: he was serving a foreign government that trailer trash worship and Regtime trash like FBI agents depend upon for side gigs. Why the fear? Both the Regime and the Tribe Worshippers would defend Epstein’s employer if raw footage emerged showing him and half of the Knesset raping and setting afire little goy girls.

The Junta apparently still has a misplaced fear of a violent uprising over little things like state-sponsored child rape.

Does anyone have any doubt who Epstein served, and how the Regime enabled him and his employer?

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

Even his Wikipedia biography, which I naturally assume has been extensively touched up, shows a most remarkable career trajectory.

Sometimes it’s not hard at all to fill in the blanks.

NoOneAtAll
NoOneAtAll
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

Don’t look now but state sponsored child rape is old news… the new hotness is state sponsored child surgical sexual mutilation. It’s not a secret either.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Krustykurmudgeon
2 years ago

Its just a continuation of stuff like Operation Midnight Climax which ran fro 10 years from 1954.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Midnight_Climax

It just got expanded, joined up the major agencies as a unified group and became a self funding business like all the other operations.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

“The FBI couldn’t find a worse person in Florida to have signed this warrant, conspiracy theory wise. In an additional twist the judge recused himself in the Trump vs. Clinton lawsuit as he thought it was too politically sensitive at his level.”

But–somehow–he seems to have forgotten how to recuse himself:
https://defiantamerica.com/judge-who-reportedly-signed-off-on-mar-a-lago-raid-has-anti-trump-social-media-posts-and-they-are-not-looking-good/

Odd that.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Its about rubbing your face in it for a laugh.

I am sure the idea caused much laughter and delight when they suggested it.

If they had Clinton’s personal lawyer as a sitting magistrate they would have gone with that.

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Exactly! None of this is done on purpose. It’s the same with Pelosi’s fridge and AOC’s white dress at the Met Gala, among many, many other examples. They know that we know, and they don’t care. Why would you care about the feelings and opinions of those you despise?

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  Outdoorspro
2 years ago

Meant to say, none of this is accidental. Work is distracting me from more important things.

Eloi
Eloi
Reply to  trumpton
2 years ago

Absolutely trumpton. Hillary even sent out emails for a fundraiser mocking “but her emails.” And still somehow people still think this is somehow “winning” like a cracked out HIV positive Charlie Sheen.

They have made Trump look weak and humiliated him. Somehow this makes Trump stronger lol…/sarc

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  JR Wirth
2 years ago

Perhaps you are being arch, but your statement about God writing a cosmic best-seller full of bizarre plot twists is actually rather sobering and unsettling. What if, not only God exists, but he’s a borderline malicious prankster? Now I’m a Christian, and I do not believe this is the case, but it’s a less absurd explanation for our travails than many others I’ve heard.

Eloi
Eloi
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
2 years ago

Or perhaps Shakespeare had it correct, and Hell is empty/ and all the devils are here.
Maybe, just maybe, the Devil is in control, and his minions, TPTB, are really Satanic pedophiles who enjoy nothing more than spreading evil and abusing children. Certainly explains why we see grooming everywhere.
Full of scorpions is my mind!

David Wright
Member
2 years ago

You don’t like the Deep State (with capitalization)?
How about Kaos, “the international organization of evil”?

TomA
TomA
2 years ago

Today’s post is one for the ages. Hugely brilliant insight that gets to the root of why we languish in malaise rather than go grab up the pitchforks and rally in the street. The Deep State concept is amorphous and therefore impossible to attack directly, so Normie self-justifies remaining on the couch and rage-whining along with Tucker every night. It keeps the restless natives on their back foot because there is no one to go punch in the face. And soooooo, it is in the interest of the Deep State to perpetuate the Deep State Conspiracy Theory!!!!! But what if… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

The Troubles.

American whites like to think in big battle terms. Glorious battles between uniformed armies. One side win, the other loses. The war is over.

That’s not what most civil wars are like. (Yes, our Civil War was like that, showing again what kind of war American whites like to fight.) Most civil wars are long, slow grinding affairs where the violence anything but glorious and often quite personal.

Diversity Heretic
Member
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

The Arabs’ war against the French in Algeria may be what the upcoming American civil war will resemble. Lots of local violence, violence between and within factions and extra-judicial trials and executions. Never was a pretty picture?

TomA
TomA
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Not indiscriminate, not personal. That just spreads chaos and misery. Disease cells really exist. Yes, they vary in intensity and impact, but even the minor ones fester and lead to gangrene, so not trivial. Focus and precision are vitally important. And we live in a new high tech era. During WWI, artillery was dumb and therefore used as a blunderbuss. Today, a GPS guided shell can reliably hit a one meter MOA from 30 km. And don’t get me started on micro-drones. So not the Troubles.

Jethro
Jethro
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

The post-American elite won’t show the restraint of the British.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

“That’s not what most civil wars are like. (Yes, our Civil War was like that … .”

We have never had a civil war. The term “civil war” has hard-and-fast definition.

So does “woman.”
So does “vaccine.”
So does (economic) “recession.”
So does “gender.”
So does “gay.”
So does “drag.”

A war between two independent, sovereign nation-states is not a civil war.

A man in a sun dress is not a woman, no matter what that now-Justice Jumanji negress said.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

the south had to win the civil war to be(come) sovereign. i wish they had, but they didn’t.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Citizen: It needs to be quite personal. The people erasing your history and humiliating your children and destroying everything you love have faces and names and addresses. Everyone ought to be keeping a mental tally at the very least. Just for a mental exercise, of course.

TomA
TomA
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

People make mistakes when things are personal and emotional, and that weakness can be exploited by the Stasi. It’s the reason that so many good men fall victim to entrapment ops. Be the nobody on nobody”s radar. Unconventional. Spontaneous. And long gone having left no trace. Think outside the box. There are now a gazillion delivery drivers in the US. The Stasi can’t entrap or monitor all of them all the time. Ditto for maintenance workers, pool cleaners, maids, the list is endless. Hell, think of what a few sex workers in DC with COVID could do. Destroying societal trust… Read more »

CredulousPatsy
CredulousPatsy
Reply to  TomA
2 years ago

Good Ol’ TomA always here to publicly propose terroristic violence for the one thousandth time. Hey I hear the Gretchen Whitmer lady is a real battle axe too, maybe something should be DONE ABOUT HER, right guys?

TomA
TomA
Reply to  CredulousPatsy
2 years ago

Since I’ve never seen your name here before, I’m assuming that you were on the Stasi entrapment team in Michigan with the lead agent who severely beat up his wife for not agreeing to join a swinger group and be banged by a few dozen “good guys” not in uniform. Yeah, you agents are special alright.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  CredulousPatsy
2 years ago

Every member of the Power Structure has it coming.

AntiDem
AntiDem
2 years ago

I forget exactly who it was, but someone once noted that strong popular ideology is often mistaken for conspiracy, because they both cause the same thing to happen: that is, large numbers of people working toward a single goal. Yes, it’s possible that they can all be doing that on command because some rich guy in a hollowed-out volcano arranged it. But it’s more likely that they’re all just wrapped up in a runaway ideology and are independently working for its benefit. Nobody had to tell them to do it, they just did it to feel righteous. That’s how ideology… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  AntiDem
2 years ago

But if the smaller units are of the same mixed “components” as the single larger unit they came from…?

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

they won’t be, by definition.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

You’d need to name some for me to believe such is possible without great violence and uprooting, as occurred in with the India/Pakistan split.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  AntiDem
2 years ago

“Yes, it’s possible that they can all be doing that on command because some rich guy in a hollowed-out volcano arranged it. But it’s more likely that they’re all just wrapped up in a runaway ideology and are independently working for its benefit. Nobody had to tell them to do it, they just did it to feel righteous. That’s how ideology can be dangerous.”

True, but utterly immaterial and unrelated to what is going on.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  AntiDem
2 years ago

The pretense kept the peace, though, so it held for centuries.

“I suspect that what we’re headed for is a breakup into a bunch of smaller units, all of which claim to be the “real America”, and all of which are ruled by someone who talks like Thomas Jefferson but governs like Huey Long.”

Well said. But unlikely, IMHO.

“Well, if we’re lucky, that is.”

We won’t be. If we ARE lucky, the water and electricity will not be permanently interrupted. THAT would be lucky. But like a Jefferson/Huey Long hero, it is unlikely.

Mcleod
Mcleod
2 years ago

The Deep State is not that complicated. Spend some time around public “servants” and listen to what they talk about. Pensions. Pensions. Pensions. What is your pension date? What is your pension multiplier? Does your sick leave get tacked on to your pension? Do you get retirement health insurance with your pension? If this guy gets elected I’m safe. If the other guy gets elected I’m not. etc.

Want to get rid of the administrative state? Get rid of their pensions.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Mcleod
2 years ago

Pensions aside (they need to go for public sector), do well off boomers talk about their 401’s any less? Not from what I hear on the radio wrt ad’s for advisory firms. Seems those who do not talk about retirement are the majority of folk who simply have no ability to earn enough to plan for a future longer than the next paycheck—which of course I often lament upon as those people must vote for a “living”.

AnotherAnon
AnotherAnon
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

California employers are now required to set up 401s (very similar to 401) for all employees – fake SSNs and all. The state assumes that service workers have zero agency and are destined to never develop any. And every “worker” (leftie parlance) should have identical “equity” – from dishwasher to rocket scientist.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  AnotherAnon
2 years ago

Setting up pensions as in 401k’s won’t produce “equity” from low IQ individuals with time preference deficiencies—unless the rules change as well. When I was younger and managing an IT division for campus, an employee came to me and posed an idea. He had about 5 years on the pension plan (mandatory) and he wanted to buy some land and put a trailer on it. However, there was no option to “borrow” from the plan, so he was forced to quit. He thereby would lose the State matching (50%), and need to pay taxes plus penalty for early withdrawal. Hard… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
2 years ago

“Even though the basics of intelligent design contradict the fundamentals of Christianity, many Christians would rather believe God is endlessly tinkering with his creation than accept evolution.” My critique of evolution is that, ultimately, it presupposes life to be stupid and passive. We’re the result of random mutations, and what worked, worked. Randomness is in control. Seems to me life is intelligent and active. We living things adapt. That doesn’t discount survival of the fittest, rather, fitness is the ability to adapt and overcome, rather than hitting the mutation lottery. As for the Christian angle, biology is God’s technology, isn’t… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

The key to understanding your observation is to remember that such takes *time*. We are now reaching your concept of active evolution in our growth. Whether or not we’ve been fast enough in this race is to be discovered.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

If you’ll excuse me, I have to tell a story. I went out with a girl in nursing school years ago. She told me they were teaching her that death is the last stage of life: “How do you know when a patient is dead?” —“Lack of vital signs.” —“So death is the absence of life, in other words?” —“Yes” —“So if death is the absence of life, how is it also the last stage of life?” Lol, obviously satanic shit they were teaching even then. Still, boots on the ground, medicine sees life as normal and death as abnormal,… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

“It kind of puzzles me that science is so schizo about life and death.” Would that be the “science” that we all have to “follow”? Dr Fauci’s “science? Great post by the way! Here’s what Poe said about (to) Science: “Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art! Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes. Why preyest thou thus upon the poet’s heart, Vulture, whose wings are dull realities? How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise, Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies, Albeit he soared with… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

“… Dr Fauci’s “science?”

Something a bit wrong with the above. As I understand—from none other than Fauci himself—is that Dr Fauci *is* the science. 😉

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Thanks for this. Edgar Allen is my man, and has been for many years. I love to read his stories out loud to others, a pleasure that I have seldom had. But a couple of times, I did so for our little family gatherings, embracing me, my wife, my stepson, and my mother in law. I read several short stories, maybe The Masque of the Red Death, or A Cask of Amontillado, stories that fairly beg to be read aloud. But my love for Poe goes back to when I was a little guy of 6-7 years old. I had… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

“My critique of evolution is that, ultimately, it presupposes life to be stupid and passive. We’re the result of random mutations, and what worked, worked. Randomness is in control. “Seems to me life is intelligent and active. We living things adapt. That doesn’t discount survival of the fittest, rather, fitness is the ability to adapt and overcome, rather than hitting the mutation lottery.” Your critique of evolution is not very good, and by that I truly mean no disrespect. Truly. I don’t. Go here and read Chapter 6 “Darwinism” https://www.boervolkradio.co.za/boeke/Imperium.pdf Yockey takes takes Darwinism apart in just a few pages… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Here they are:

Eden, Murray. “Inadequacies of Neo-Darwinian Evolution as a Scientific Theory.” Mathematical Challenges to the Neo-Darwinian Interpretation of Evolution (The Wistar Symposium Monograph No. 5, 1967), pp. 5—12. “Discussion” of the same pp. 12—19.

Eden, Murray. “Heresy in the Halls of Biology—Mathematicians Question Darwin.” Scientific Research, November 1967, pp. 59—66.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Maybe one of my blind spots, then. I might be convinced Martians landed in my back yard before I’m convinced life thrives or even persists by accident 🙂

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

Paintersforms: I take issue with Zman’s assertion that believing human biology is the result of Intelligent Design (a creator) rather than random happenstance, equals a denial of microevolution. Most Christians reject macro evolution – the idea that one distinct species just happened, overtime, to morph into another one . . . not to mention the notable lack of any fossil record. Many Christians do, however, accept that certain aspects of human biology and physiognomy will alter due to time and environmental pressures. God made the world and God designed man, but He does not constantly intervene to keep his creation… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

“God made the world and God designed man, but He does not constantly intervene to keep his creation in stasis.” Yes. And no. This is a question of human language, All words in all human languages refer *originally* and *properly* to things IN and OF THIS world. Therefore it is, as it always has been, impossible to use human language *literally* to talk about transcendent things. Therefore, we have developed a special “way of talking” about these things. We anthropomorphize. We allegorize and use simile and metaphor and poetry and all the rest of it–we HAVE to. The only tool… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

If God made a changing world, he equipped his creation(s) with the ability to adjust to such changes. I’ve never thought otherwise, nor seen any contradiction between general Christian dogma and the theory of evolution. Good point.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

It’s a matter of the mechanism, which I think goes to agency. For instance, environmental factors cause mutations that cause cancer, right? Or do the cells mutate in response to a hostile environment, even over time. If random mutations happen, would it be reasonable to expect random cancers? Yet cancers are consistent enough to be classified, complete with recommended treatments, etc. So there’s an example of one thing mutating into another due to environmental pressure (the only one I can think of off the top of my head), but it’s not random. I’ve heard it said it might even be… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

Tougher sell, I meat to tap out.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

And attributing some kind of intelligence to life, an ordering principle. Agency might be too much, or not, idk.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

Cellular mutation can be natural as well as environmentally induced. The body is not a perfect engine, hence even babies can get cancer without necessarily a harmful environment as being the obvious cause. Most of the time, genetic accidents upon cell reproduction are weeded out through our immune system, but that weakens with age, hence cancer rates go up as we get older.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Sure, malfunctions. Blew my mind when I learned preventing cancer is basically job number 1 of the immune system. Our own FBI.

Idk it’s all too exquisite, a controversial topic, and I don’t spend time arguing my position, so conceded.

imnobody00
imnobody00
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

I have no religious problem with neodarwinism. God could have set up the biological world that way, and it seems a pretty elegant design to me. Being a Catholic, even the Vatican has endorsed evolution.

I have a scientific problem with neodarwinism It is not supported by the data. This has been known for longtime and the theory is a zombie, a walking dead. This is hidden for ideological reasons.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 years ago

You have most things right, but I would clarify a few points where I believe you err. Evolution and inescapably, life itself, are a type of “algorithm.” (This is Dennett’s terminology in his “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea”). Life can be viewed as simply a “machine” whose sole function is to create copies of itself. You are correct that randomness is a crucial part of the process. Random mutations occur. I would dispute the “in control,” part, however. The deciding factor is, as you note, the fitness (survival of the fittest, natural section, basically the same process). The children most fit tend… Read more »

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

It’s a matter of shallow metaphysics for me, when you get down to it. I find it galling and unsatisfying. How anyone can reduce Creation to a ‘mindless algorithm’ is beyond me.

As for the blue-green algae, it has a metabolism. All we can do is crack hydrocarbons and burn them, yet we’re smarter, right 🙂

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Ben the Layabout
2 years ago

I think that life that is asexual in its mode of reproduction may approach the status of being an algorithm. But once sexual reproduction enters the lists, it is a whole new ball game. No longer is the pattern to flawlessly replicate the living being, but rather to embrace the production of beings that are, by their nature not merely flawless replicas of one gene set, but combinatory in their genetic makeup. This accelerates evolution to a radically new set of possibilities. Man and woman he made them. Of course, when spiritual error deranges the potential of assortive mating among… Read more »

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
2 years ago

“Blaming the system for American decline is too much for most people. They were raised to worship the idea of America. Blaming the system for why things are getting progressively worse is like burning the flag. It is a lot easier to blame some corrupting forces that are manipulating events. The same phenomenon set in with the Soviet Union after Stalin. Blaming bad actors operating in the shadows of the party was safer than questioning the system.” The systems underpinning the modern indebted, sprawling, unwieldy American Empire are pretty fragile. Lots of smart folks, from NN Taleb to Zman, have… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Captain Willard
2 years ago

“I offered the observation that the State was now too complex for anyone to manage it competently. Lots of people here on the Zman site down-voted my take on this.” Same here, some months ago. Don’t know why so many intelligent people (the readers of this site) can’t see that hugeness and complexity *necessarily* remove responsiveness and responsibility from the gov’t and all its minions and all its servants and worshipers and supporters. Gov’t of a VAST country through means of a state apparatus whose complexity is more Byzantine than Byzantium ever was *necessarily* regards itself and its functioning FAR… Read more »

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Trump continues to inadvertently do the job that he does best, namely lure our rulers and their minions out into the open.

Their inability to leave Trump alone reflects their inability to leave Joe Normie alone. Trump Derangement Syndrome is really Joe Normie Derangement Syndrome.

And Joe Normie feels it.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

trump really is king of the normies. mel gibson should do a movie about it.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

“trump really is king of the normies”

He certainly WAS, no question about it. Throwing his supporters under the bus in the statement he made about the “insurrection” right after that happened was proof of what you say.

But unless I miss my guess, Trump has been forced to undergo what I’ll call a Great Awakening. I rather doubt that he is still King of Normies. If his eyes are not open now, well …

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Trump could have been, but he wanted the approval of those who hate him more than the love of millions.

What a fool.

trumpton
trumpton
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

No farmer cares whether the farm animals like them. Its their own species that matters.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

“Trump could have been, but he wanted the approval of those who hate him more than the love of millions.”

Yes! Beautifully put!

imnobody00
imnobody00
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Yes, he could be a character from a Shakespeare’s play. He is the son of a self-made man and he is not accepted in the American “aristocracy” (meaning the oligarchy that is at the top). He is considered a buffoon, a new rich, somebody without manners by this “aristocracy”. He craves this approval by the aristocracy with an intensity that borders the irrationality. I remember watching a documentary about him. He had a hotel or a mansion (was it MAL?) and he put the music at the highest volume only to disturb the “beautiful people” at the other side of… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Trump as the “king” of normies is a pretty good insight, and that Trump was handed his head by TPTB should be an eye opener for Joe Normie who still believes in the system. In that Trump has done us a great service.

Trump played by the rules as he understood them, sound familiar? It does to me. There go I but for the Grace of God… Can anyone here say they were smarter in their youth? I certainly can’t.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
2 years ago

“Most of the people who hated Trump could not tell you why they hated him so much. The deep state concept filled that hole.” The Trump haters, the liberals and the Dems, have never, as far as I know, been enamored of the concept of the deep state. If indeed they are aware of it beyond the level of meme. The concept is mostly the provenance of alt right people like myself. “The deep state is why popular government is a terrible idea. In popular government, in theory at least, policy reflects the popular will. Therefore, bad results must be… Read more »

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

“Mysterious forces operating in the shadows.”

There’s nothing mysterious whatsoever about the fact that Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer signed the Mar-a-Lago warrant.

We all know precisely what that means.

Why are we beating around the bush here?

What’s the purpose of pretending that we don’t notice the 800lb gorilla sitting over in the corner of the room?

Is it simply cowardice?

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

13 does 50
and
2 runs 90

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

“Mysterious forces operating in the shadows.” “There’s nothing mysterious whatsoever about the fact that Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer signed the Mar-a-Lago warrant.” I am not convinced that the left believes–or ever has believed–in a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Certainly the big-wig leftists don’t. As for the rank-and-file nincompoops, they “believe the science” and “follow the science” and nothing more need be said about that and them. Useful idiots. The rank-and-file faithful. The cat women. The tatted gal with nose ring and blue hair on the bus. Male feminists. Or let me say rather “male” “feminists.” And so on. I think the Hillary… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Infant: Well said. Too many mistake your average antifa member for those who internationally siphon money to them. Too many here think the average DC bureaucrat – even the mid-level managers they may know – are aware of the string pullers. My husband and I had some pretty serious clearances back in the day, and today he realizes just how little he knew about who he worked for. He still has occasional knee-jerk lapses of “they’re too stupid to be coordinating all this” and then I read him a few headlines and he reminds himself stupid and crafty are not… Read more »

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Bourbon
2 years ago

cowardice and conditioning.

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

There’s more than a terminological difference there.

Current_left conspiracy theories aren’t about the deep state or oligarchy or the MIC or whatever. They’re *complaints* that the already disempowered right has evaded perfect control, that the mop-up job is incomplete. Ever-more-censored memers are still dogwhistling, pols are flashing “OK” to the insurrection, Trump buried incriminating documents with his wife, etc.

Their paranoid worry is that they *don’t* have absolute power. Ours is that they might.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Hemid
2 years ago

You won’t get better explanations of what we are seeing than these two readable books, the first from 1970:

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/books/politics-of-guilt-and-pity

and the second more recent and–significantly–from abroad:

:https://www.amazon.com/End-Democracy-Christophe-Buffin-Chosal/dp/1944339086

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 years ago

“But what if popular government is a farce and charade and serves as threadbare camouflage for oligarchical rule, in conjunction with bureaucratic forces that have a vested interest in empire (even one in precipitous decline)?” This. Leviathan is or at least was the Deep State and serves United States oligarchs by destroying their enemies, keeping the populace satisfied, and most importantly empowering their interests and allies. “Deep State” has a whiff of paranoia and I understand why it is resisted, but it is good shorthand for current reality. I also agree that, for all its faults, there is nothing that… Read more »

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

“People will tolerate an oligarchic police state as long as they have some prosperity and independent agency, both of which are receding and almost gone. “The post-Civil War arrangements only worked because the oligarchical dictatorship threw crumbs to the White majority and did not openly seek war on them. That’s gone forever, and the die was cast 8/8. None of us knows what the resolution will be, but hopefully a peaceful dissolution will become possible once the dying empire is actually dead.” I entirely concur. What’s kept the union together has been some kind of prosperity, some crumbs thrown to… Read more »

Severian
2 years ago

The concept of a “deep state” is useful shorthand for the kind of bureaucratic Brownian motion we all know and love from the office. It’s like watching sediment settle in a glass of water, or a campfire burn — it seems like there *must* be a pattern there, just at the edges of our consciousness… but there isn’t. To assign conscious agency to a “Deep State,” though, is to forego what we know about people. People plot, yeah, but about the only thing worse than a failed plot is a successful one, and both for the same reason — since… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Severian
2 years ago

“Guys like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have to know they’re next”

Every FBI field agent and every dirty local federal magistrate is a potential hostage for these guys. I’m pretty certain Abbott lacks the balls as do all Republicans at the federal level, but DeSantis might not be hesitant to throw one of these jackboots into a local jail where the sharpened shank awaits. It would do wonders the next time some pig decides to go full Gestapo.

Severian
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

If I’m DeSantis, I am launching my own huge, very public investigation into all this pronto. He has to know he’s Orange Man 2.0, so if he doesn’t want to spend the remainder of his (surely very short) life getting “investigated” (or “audited” by some of the 87000 new IRS agents), he’d best nuke those guys from orbit. Surely he’s smart enough to figure that out….? If he isn’t, I recommend that everybody in any kind of position put Robert Conquest’s The Great Terror on their reading list pronto. Better get the second edition — which alas, he did not… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Severian
2 years ago

I know you are a historian, so please indulge me, but just as a preface there were two Great Terrors, the first also known as the Red Terror under Lenin. It consolidated Bolshevik rule after a purported assassination attempt on Big Red. The United States today is in some ways analogous to the original Red Terror. Sure, the Regime wants the veneer of democracy to keep the Empire’s satrapies in line, but it also has shown a willingness to use more brutal and violent means to consolidate its rule. The United States today is in the process of a consolidation… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

Jack Dobson: Can’t speak to DeSantis, but fully concur Abbott lacks the balls. I’m honestly surprised he’s continued to send the few handfuls of Mestizos north, despite the pushback. He must be feeling some pressure from someone – but I guarantee it’s not the voters; the red Texas repukes soundly rejected the only primary candidate who had the guts to even mention immivaders (a local auto magnate).

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

The President can at any time seize the National Guard, but every state has a State Guard that ONLY the governor of that state commands.

The governors know that, as do the members of the various State Guards, but very few Americans know about that power. The governors are not powerless, even now.

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  Severian
2 years ago

I think that’s what has to be worrying, the signs point to even the highest level of the Justice Department not knowing about this, but still going along with it (whatever sheds of credibility the system has, not being worth saving in the hunt for dissidents). This means that any Stasi who has the favor of the regime, and who has it in for DeSantis has the regime’s backing in whatever endeavor he may want to engage in. DeSantis would never be able to plead to a higher authority because, apparently, there isn’t one.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
2 years ago

Garland has hastily scheduled a press conference. While any fear of the congressional GOP is ludicrous, they are scared of something.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

Jack Dobson: At the risk of sounding spergy, please refer to him by his given name of Morris Garfinkle. It’s true to his physiognomy and politics and lack of Christian morals.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

Fair enough and not spergy at all. His is the evil, monstrous face of every Cheka agent ramming a rifle butt into a little Orthodox girl’s face.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

And (((Garland)))was/is LYING anyway. “We didn’t KNOW” was not a successful defense at Nuernberg.

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

Didn’t Caesar, Pompei and Krakus conspire to bribe, threaten and eventually kill patricians and Senators to get their legislation passed? Didn’t Octavion, Antony and Lepidus conspire to kill off a large number of patricians and Senators to remove their enemies and pocket their wealth? Didn’t Cromwell and his Protestant ministers conspire to sack and loot the abbeys and take the Catholic Church’s wealth and lands for themselves? I could go on and on here. America’s Progressivist State is a corrupt and failed system managed by corrupt and failed minsters. It is predicated on large amounts of debt funding economic growth.… Read more »

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

In addition to the bureaucracy and corporations I neglected to mention the political patronage groups and grifts: – public and private employee unions – race based power political factions – ideological interest groups used by legally protected foundations (think Sierra Club; Greenpeace) – Churches (immigration; anti-racism funds and grants) – Illegal immigration and a massive grab bag of subsidies for churches; lawyers; real estate developers; hoteliers; political machines … – hordes of feral lawyers involved in creating, perpetuating and expanding every single one of the grifts and projects in the Deep State. – Universities and Colleges: student loan subsidies for… Read more »

Urbane V
Urbane V
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

Cromwell did not loot the Catholic church,that would be the French with their innumerable raids into Italy ,especially after their alliance with the Ottoman empire. The Catholic church in England ,in terms of property, became the Anglican church. Wouldn’t have happened if the Catholic church hadn’t blocked Henry’s divorce in the hope that it would force England back into a civil war like the War of the Roses. But the “Catholic church” was a plaything of French and Spanish foreign policy so this anti-Catholic behaviour by the Church led to northern European disaffection. You need to read some history books… Read more »

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  Urbane V
2 years ago

When I travelled all over England at several sites there was a blurb where Henry VIII raided the abbey, arrested bishops and priests … It is well documented that Cromwell and his conspirators looted the churches in England. My post was not a pontification about England and Protestantism. Its point was that there are conspiracies organized and carried out by people at the center of power. I said nothing of the motivations of Cromwell and the intrigues of the Catholic Church, which I know little of. I do appreciate your comment. It underscores my point about conspiracies. It sounds like… Read more »

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

Remember, there were two different Cromwells, separated by a good interval of years, and rising to power under diffferent circumstances at different times. There was the one who served Henry VIII, and then later the one who was a Roundhead tyrant.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Urbane V
2 years ago

“The Catholic church in England ,in terms of property, became the Anglican church.”

Rubbish.

Read “The Servile State” by Hilaire Belloc. And learn.
https://www.alibris.com/The-Servile-State-Hilaire-Belloc/book/6020728?qsort=p&matches=66

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

“Next time you are at a cloud person’s dinner party and someone brings up climate change, imagine them giving up what they have to solve, “the problem.” Try and say it in a nice way and watch their brows wrinkle as they go silent in the first moment of self reflection they have ever allowed to permeate the space reserved solely for pursuing personal gain in the form of status and money.”

I know a MUCH simpler and easier way to manage–no, obviate–that problem.

Mis(ter)Anthrope
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

PeriheliusLux, that is one of the best comments I have read in a long time. Thank you.

Jack Boniface
Jack Boniface
Member
2 years ago

Mulder’s best line from the X-Files: “I’m wondering which lie to believe.”

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
2 years ago

With the “Local FBI team saw a chance to score big, got a local nutter judge to sign off on it” camp.

All government agencies (FBI, Military, NSA, IRS, etc.) have correctly gauged that there are ZERO consequences for overreach, and a massive potential upside if they stumble into pay dirt. Why not roll the dice?

In 2 weeks no one will remember this; on to the next out rage. The “trust the plan, this is 4D chess” people are back out again, so they’re happy.

ChetRollins
ChetRollins
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

The lunatic Judge who signed off on the warrant had lots of Epstein connections. That’ll keep the conspiracy theorists busy for months.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 years ago

“In 2 weeks no one will remember this; on to the next out rage.” I respectfully disagree. There ain’t no comin’ back from this. This is a message–the same message sent by the Bolsheviks by slaughtering the Russian Imperial Family (and their dog): “There is no going back. You peons have nobody around whom to rally and coalesce. You are defeated. Surrender NOW!” They may or may not kill Trump, but the MEAN to put him in prison. The “classified-documents-in-the-toilet-caper is their backup plan in the event that the January “insurrection” caper doesn’t work out as intended. They have a… Read more »

G Lordon Giddy
G Lordon Giddy
2 years ago

As a Christian I have no problem accepting the concept of evolution and a orderly universe with very little intervention from God. It just means those TV preachers much like the leftist cults of Gaia and equality are much easier to discern as phony false prophets because they claim to control the uncontrollable. If we think about it even in the Christian faith God is shown to rarely intervene directly in man’s affairs over great lengths of time. Most of what is happening in the political arena is probably just like this essay implies. Lots of random decisions leading to… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  G Lordon Giddy
2 years ago

“If we think about it even in the Christian faith God is shown to rarely intervene directly in man’s affairs over great lengths of time. Most of what is happening in the political arena is probably just like this essay implies. Lots of random decisions leading to disfunction … .” There is much in the Scriptures to validate your observation: Psalm 81:12 So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. Romans 1:24 “Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another.”… Read more »

Din C. Nuttin
Din C. Nuttin
2 years ago

I’m fascinated by the person inside the Trump household who showed the agents where the goods were kept. Does the FBI keep a spy in all ex-president’s households?

Barnard
Barnard
Reply to  Din C. Nuttin
2 years ago

I would assume they flipped a housekeeper who has been there for years. Probably threatened to deport her family. The only kind of deportation the Biden Administration supports.

Although it could be about anybody. Trump surrounds himself with lowlifes. It wouldn’t be that hard for the FBI to leverage one of them.

PeriheliusLux
PeriheliusLux
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Sounds like a well thought out and coordinated plot orchestrated by a significant number of people inside of a government agency and coordinated over a month long time horizon with the media all timed to coincide with the needs of politically expedient time frames to benefit the establishment political parties. It sounds like the very definition of a conspiracy.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  PeriheliusLux
2 years ago

“Sounds like a well thought out and coordinated plot orchestrated by a significant number of people inside of a government agency and coordinated over a month long time horizon with the media all timed to coincide with the needs of politically expedient time frames to benefit the establishment political parties. It sounds like the very definition of a conspiracy.”

Absolutely true. But as some have already pointed out, Trump had a pretty slick video all ready to release as soon as the crime was perpetrated. He must have known it was coming.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Intriguing and quite plausible, Z. This presupposes faith in the propaganda organs and The Regime, and they still think people believe and respect them, which indicates just how detached from reality they are. Producing the bizarre sex toys–and I don’t at all discount that will happen–will be one more nail in their coffin, though. Something went horribly awry, obviously. We should celebrate this self-own. I do look forward to watching McConnell and Co. explaining how, askshually, nothing can be done about it. And, in a sense, that’s true but for all the wrong reasons. The Soviet Empire, and the British… Read more »

Pete
Pete
Reply to  Barnard
2 years ago

Agree with Z-man, there is probably no mole.

When you’re investigating an organized crime cartel, it’s standard procedure to brag about how much intel you’re getting from your CIs. This leads to a ton of internal chaos and bloodshed as the mobsters turn paranoid and bump each other off. Thus doing your job for you.

Barnard
Barnard
2 years ago

Today’s claim leaked to the media, is that the only purpose of the raid was to retrieve classified documents illegally removed from the White House and that they wanted it to “apolitical” and “low key.” Could they possibly be this stupid? If this was the case, it would also be in their interest to release the warrant in an attempt to put to rest the claims it was politically motivated and they aren’t doing that. The FBI seems to be daring the Republicans to do something punitive towards them. They did nothing meaningful to the IRS after Lois Lerner, so… Read more »

Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Reply to  Barnard
2 years ago

Ol’ Lindsey Graham will take up that dare and have the FBI shaking in their boots soons he revs up some more of them Senate hearin’s that’ll be dang sure get to the bottom of all this – just like all the other ones he promised.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Stranger in a Strange Land
2 years ago

Stranger: Just wait for November’s red wave. All the civnats and patriotards are determined to vote moar harder than ever, because “We the People” will not be “divided.” Of course, ask them who their people really are, as commenter Citizen does among Sailer’s acolytes, and they’ll sputter in principled outrage.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Barnard
2 years ago

“Could they possibly be this stupid? If this was the case, it would also be in their interest to release the warrant in an attempt to put to rest the claims it was politically motivated and they aren’t doing that. The FBI seems to be daring the Republicans to do something punitive towards them.” The message they are sending is the same message the (((Bolsheviks))) sent by slaughtering the Russian Imperial Family (and their dog): “Alea iacta est–the die is cast. We are in charge. Our power is total; our victory complete. THERE IS NO GOING BACK NOW. There is… Read more »

Bilejones
Member
Reply to  Barnard
2 years ago

The Conservative Tree House has excellent, comprehensive coverage.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/

mikey
mikey
2 years ago

None of this is to suggest that there are no conspiracies. A central feature of human nature is cooperation, which is another way of saying that it is the nature of man to plot with other men. A point often made in these commentaries, correctly, is that there is no central feature of human nature. In fact, contrary to the ideas of Edward O. Wilson and others, there is no human nature. In western society, at least, what little cooperation that exists is buried under mountains of competition, which is essential to capitalism. If the drone in the next cubicle… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  mikey
2 years ago

” … there is no central feature of human nature. In fact, contrary to the ideas of Edward O. Wilson and others, there is no human nature.

“If the drone in the next cubicle can get credit for the lucrative contract you engineered, he will.”

Okay, Mikey, both of those things cannot be true. Else how can you know what the drone in the next cubicle will do if … ?

See?

imbroglio
imbroglio
2 years ago

Yre but now you have to say, “What’s the system” if not a large menagerie of players acting in now concert now in opposition. In any system, some have more authority than others. The unforeseen always makes its appearance sometimes in the form of black swans whom the opportunists hope, in line with their schemes, won’t go to waste. Like a drugged dragon slouching its portly carcass along the track, consensus, however temporary, does emerge for a time. If Trump & family are wise they’ll flee the country with whatever wealth they can stash away before they get the Trotsky… Read more »

Drew
Drew
Reply to  imbroglio
2 years ago

If TPTB wanted to railroad Trump, they would have done so by now. There’s no reason for him to leave.

Hoagie
Hoagie
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

Excuse me, but if you don’t consider a pre election hoax, a post election “investigation” for 2 years to investigate said hoax, two impeachments, complete ban from all social media and positive MSM communication, selling the 1/6 demonstration as an unarmed insurrection attempt and now a raid on his home by SS agents fully armed with automatic weapons being railroaded what would it take to convince you? The Romanov family treatment?

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Hoagie
2 years ago

I interpreted Drew’s comment as one that believes Trump is a useful foil for TPTB, therefore the attempts to “remove” him are really attempts to discredit and distract and as such, useful and designed to continue, rather than succeed and end.

Pete
Pete
Reply to  Drew
2 years ago

Trump has been too popular to arrest. They were running the endless Jan 6th hearings as a way to discredit him, to make him seem tainted so they could then arrest him.

I don’t think public opinion was there yet…someone got impatient.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
2 years ago

I’ve always thought of the Deep State as the Swamp, in other words, the Establishment. Bushes, Clintons, Mitt, McCain, McConnell, Pelosi, Schumer, Miss Lindsay, many more….all tied in tightly with their donors, and not with everyday Americans.

As far as conspiracies go, it’s helpful to be numerate. When the coincidences pile up, that’s a good sign it’s a conspiracy.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

Speaking of donors, wouldn’t it be amazing if we could obtain and analyze the complete financial records of someone like Graham or Pelosi from the point they entered Congress to the present day?

DLS
DLS
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

It’s the same model for all of them: Inside stock information, phony book sales/bribes, drawing a big salary while all expenses are covered by taxpayers, corporate no-show jobs/bribes for family members, outlandish speaking fees for teleprompter pablum, “charitable” foundations that cover personal expenses and employ their entourages, and whatever campaign contributions they can funnel to their personal accounts. A few decades of that, and you end up with Pelosi money.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  DLS
2 years ago

DLS: Not to detract from an excellent comment, but in Pelosi’s case she had a head start. Her father was mayor of Baltimore, back before Baltimore was Lagos. There’s no way her daddy achieved that office without plenty of ‘connections,’ and she was his princess. My husband’s Italian great-grandfather was a shoemaker; I guarantee that Nancy’s ancestor had a very different career.

Hoagie
Hoagie
Reply to  Wolf Barney
2 years ago

When leftists and democrats do it it’s communication of ideas. When normies or any other of their despised deplorables do it it’s conspiracy. Just my rule of thumb.

joeyjünger
joeyjünger
2 years ago

My time in the Army was my first exposure to hardcore conspiracy culture. Black soldiers were sure the government created AIDs to kill them and them alone, even though their predilection for fat fatherless white women ensured the disease would eventually spread to the white devils, too. I had a buddy who was big into the David Icke, Annunaki theory, that we’re ruled by interdimensional lizards who subsist on human flesh. Sounds strange until you look at Adam Schiff’s bulging eyes or Chuck Schumer’s tongue darting out of his mouth every time he licks his lips. My personal feeling is… Read more »

btp
Member
2 years ago

It’s almost is if Aquinas’ idea that monarchy is the best form of government was right. I know we threw all that mambo jumbo overboard when we became Enlightened, of course, but maybe we should reconsider – if only in this one, tiny, area. Everything else the Enlightenment said was still good, of course.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  btp
2 years ago

I read articles from Amerika.org every now and again and he proposes the same thing, only he gets to be the monarch. Bring up the fact that we have an aristocracy now, only they go by other names and the author gets rather indignant. I am a direct descendant of William Marshall – a man who served five English kings. Yes, some of his decisions were made with his personal interests in mind, however, for the most part he acted for “The good of the realm”. He was so well respected, that even people who disagreed with him at times… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Steve
2 years ago

Hans Herman Hoppe theorizes of an monarch as vs a democracy. Not sure we even have an aristocracy as we would conceive of it from ancient times. A monarch in theory “owns” the country he rules and has a vested interest in its people’s growth and prosperity. Similarly, the aristocracy the monarch presides over has vested interest in keeping their principalities prosperous as well and remaining in good stead of the King. We obviously don’t have a king, despite what we like to rail about, but we do have a grouping of powerful individuals whom we refer to often as… Read more »

btp
Member
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

The taxonomy works like this:

Three kinds of deciders: one, few, many. Two kinds of decisions: for the common good and for the personal good.

Good rule by one: monarchy. Bad rule by one: tyranny

Good rule by few: aristocracy. Bad rule by many: oligarchy

Good rule by many: republic. Bad rule by many: democracy

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  btp
2 years ago

“Bad rule by many: oligarchy”

And plutocracy.

“Good rule by many: republic.”

The most easily corrupted form of them all.

imnobody00
imnobody00
Reply to  btp
2 years ago

This is Aristotle’s classification but, with permission of the Great Philosopher, it is wrong. Nobody can always be right. Democracy is rule by a hidden oligarchy. The oligarchy that can manipulate the masses to vote what the oligarchy wants. Golden age of democracy. Athens. Most important person: Pericles. Who was Pericles? A poor, a man from the middle class? He was a man from an aristocrat family. How many families ruled ancient Rome during the Republic? Only a handful of aristocratic families. Back to the future, that is, to the present. Do you think this woman with a blue hair… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Steve
2 years ago

“Bring up the fact that we have an aristocracy now, only they go by other names .. .” Wrong. Aristocracy means “rule by the best,” and that’s not what we have. I’ll agree that we have a ruling class, but they are NOT an aristocracy. Aristocracy has a definite meaning as do vaccine and recession and inflation and woman and man and gender and so on. ” … for the most part he acted for “The good of the realm”. He was so well respected, that even people who disagreed with him at times sought out his counsel. I don’t… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  btp
2 years ago

“It’s almost is if Aquinas’ idea that monarchy is the best form of government was right. I know we threw all that mambo jumbo overboard when we became Enlightened, of course, but maybe we should reconsider – if only in this one, tiny, area. Everything else the Enlightenment said was still good, of course.”

Well said! And quite right!

Terry Baker
2 years ago

So, Zman, what system do you recommend?

Junior Wolf
Junior Wolf
Reply to  Terry Baker
2 years ago

I’ve come to realize that any form of government is doomed for any longevity. The Pareto principal will always be in effect. Man is inately competitive, someone will always want to accrue more resources than they need. The survival instinct evolutionarily always there. Right now a certain (((group))) has it in spades!

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Junior Wolf
2 years ago

I disagree somewhat. While the nature of man will always lead to corruption in power, I do believe that a system supported by a homogenous society could work. The older I get and the more books I read, the more and more I am convinced that we were never meant to intermingle. Relationships with other races will NEVER work as the minority race will always be able to use the minority status as a tool to create guilt over inequities. Think about how many of our problems are simply caused by having minority populations. So many of the invented problems… Read more »

Junior wolf
Junior wolf
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

Agreed homogeneity is the greatest variable for stability. But unfortunately there will always be forces that will counter that argument. Isn’t diversity our greatest strength!

p
p
Reply to  Junior wolf
2 years ago

First the Dutch, then the English, then the Germans, then the Irish and Italians, then the Puerto Ricans, then the Russians, and always at the bottom, the Negroes. I look at it as a large city police department, where there are people of every stripe working somewhat in tandem for the greater good, but at night they go back to homes in neighborhoods of their own kind. We can tolerate only so much diversity without being able to relax among our own..

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Junior wolf
2 years ago

P, I’m all for a respite among my own kind after working hours, but I disagree with all races mixing and working together during work. I don’t see that happening now, nor do I see a general tendency for each race to be mutually/equally productive. What we have now is a forced splitting of the “spoils” (employment opportunities) via AA and quotas. This is a burden and limitation on productivity.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Junior wolf
2 years ago

“But unfortunately there will always be forces that will counter that argument.”

You are pretty young. I and several here can recall easily and clearly when there were no such dimwits uttering such witless platitudes. We used to have an intact and functioning culture, and stupidity and degeneracy were not tolerated.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

,

As someone who currently works in tech, I see this reality every day. You are exactly right.

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 years ago

“Get rid of blacks and you nearly eradicate violent crime.”

Yeah, you had me with “get rid of blacks”.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  Junior Wolf
2 years ago

” … someone will always want to accrue more resources than they need. ” That, of course, is the *only* way a population larger than that of a tribe can psosper. IT is *right* and *just* and altogether *fitting* and *proper* that people should strive to “accrue more resources than they need.” Without that, how could there be investment? WIthout investment (and lending), there is no material progress for a group larger than a tribe. IF you want to live in such primitive and backward circs, knock yourself out, but I’ll stick with human achievement, thrift, saving & investing and… Read more »

Diversity Heretic
Member
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Pity that New England didn’t secede from the Union over it’s opposition to the War of 1812.

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

Yes the system needs some anti-body support to suppress clannish fanatics. Yes, yes, I know who immediately springs to mind, but the country has been cursed with clans of bloodthirsty fanatics since it’s birth.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  thezman
2 years ago

“In the end, the place to start is with the eradication of Roundheadism.”

Bravo! This is a fine example of why YOU are the Z Man (may your tribe increase!)

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
2 years ago

i think a common occurrence in a situation like ours – where the dominant system clearly is failing – is that individual events are ascribed too much significance. think of a building on fire where some piece of the structure falls away; what does that mean? just that the building is on fire; if that piece hadn’t fallen, another would. so things like the mar-a-lago raid happen, but in and of themselves are only a sign of the overall collapse. there is no deeper meaning to such individual events. instacuck is always going on about how the biden people are… Read more »

Terry Baker
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Karl – What is the root cause?

btp
Member
Reply to  Terry Baker
2 years ago

Isn’t the root cause our system of government? The Constitution is what got us here or, if you insist, the thing that was unable to prevent us from getting here. In either case, here we are.

We can pull the logic string a little more and ask what it was that landed us on the Constitution, but I think we need to start with the idea that the Founders just got it wrong, is all.

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  btp
2 years ago

“Isn’t the root cause our system of government?” . No. The root cause is human nature. History repeats itself b/c human nature does not change. The value of studying history seriously and over the long term is precisely that such study reveals to the student those things that are constant in human nature. “We can pull the logic string a little more and ask what it was that landed us on the Constitution, but I think we need to start with the idea that the Founders just got it wrong, is all.” Well, you are not wrong, for all that… Read more »

imnobody00
imnobody00
Reply to  btp
2 years ago

I am writing a text for my family called “When did the West get fucked up?”, copying Nobel Prize Mario Vargas Llosa’s sentence: “When did Peru get fucked up?” I hate to say it because I hate controversies between Catholics and Protestants, which start a flame war and don’t go anywhere. And this is not a religious blog. But the root cause of the decadence of the West is Sola Scriptura. Not in a theological sense, because you could argue for and against Sola Scriptura inside Christianity. These are theological matters and are better done in a religious blog. I… Read more »

roo_ster
Member
Reply to  imnobody00
2 years ago

“Sola Scriptura stated that every person was entitled to interpret the Bible as he saw fit because the Holy Spirit would guide him.” Nope. I’d hate anyone to read what you wrote and believe it. What you wrote is contrary to most all protestant doctrine. (I am sure one of the thousands of denominations makes such a statement, but the majority of denominations do not and the vast majority of protestants who care about doctrine do not.) Luther wrote plenty on three Solas, to include Sola Scriptura. He’s a good place to start. If someone wants something a bit more… Read more »

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Terry Baker
2 years ago

not sure, probably letting the population become so fragmented ethnically. it seems that every type of governance is prone to collapse; some faster than others.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Trump continues to inadvertently do the job that he does best, namely lure our rulers and their minions out into the open.

Their inability to leave Trump alone reflects their inability to leave Joe Normie alone. Trump Derangement Syndrome is really Joe Normie Derangement Syndrome.

And Joe Normie feels it.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

But what will he do about it? Vote harderer?

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  c matt
2 years ago

For now, yes. But each time it fails, he loses a bit more faith in the system.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Citizen: I agree Joe Citizen will continue to vote harder. I’ve even seen advice to do so from surprising sources, claiming it will be a giant FU to the powers that be. That, to me, is poor advice. You are indistinguishable to them from any other ant, and your vaunted ‘protest vote’ is meaningless. All that counts in the end is that you participated in their fraud, you played your role as a patsy. Protest votes are for people who think someone up there actually notices them. Make enough noise and some antifa drone may dox you, but protest votes… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

“… your vaunted ‘protest vote’ is meaningless.” True. Meaningless as a threat to their power. But it does have meaning! It means *you still* believe in the myth of your power to change the system from within the system. Such a “protest” vote, oddly enough, is reassuring to TPTB. All that is required to perpetuate your delusion is to once in a while allow a minor concession or two at the polls. Nothing changes in the long run, but you fall asleep until the next election cycle. Not voting on the other hand…well that means you’ve quit the system, and… Read more »

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Compsci and others others may be right — Don’t bother voting as it’s a waste of time. Or is it?

I see no reason why one couldn’t play the expected role of Good Citizen and vote, even if for a losing cause. No law says one can’t pay lip service to the corrupt regime and quietly “seek other ways in which to change it.” Recall TomA’s advice about being unobtrusive antibody, waiting for the fog, targets of opportunity and suchlike entities 😎

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  c matt
2 years ago

“But what will he do about it? Vote harderer?”

MOST of them don’t know AT ALL what is going on.

Melissa
Melissa
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

Isn’t that so interesting? He was the giant bull, knocking into everything and destroying all of it before our eyes. Somehow he successfully and inadvertently exposed the corruption of the system he was so desperate to join. He managed to bring to light the hatred they have for even the slightest flicker of white people advocating for their own interests.
It’s just incredible that he still remains useful. And that they are stupid enough to continue to try to remove him when all it does is demonstrate their eternal hatred.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Melissa
2 years ago

The stupidity angle cannot be understated. Trump easily could have been coopted by appeals to his ego but the morons decided he had to be destroyed, and in the process likely destroyed themselves.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Jack Dobson
2 years ago

That is the direct result of the hubris and arrogance of the ruling class. When you are a sociopath of epic proportions and you believe you are above all dirt people, you do not see the logical side of things. They are angry that he inadvertently exposed their supreme hatred of us dirt people, and by doing so, they’ve only exposed more of their corruption. That being said, the undoing of Joe Normie’s belief in the system is an incredibly difficult knot to untie. I still have many conservative friends who think that November will bring positive change. It is… Read more »

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
2 years ago

President Trump has said something to this effect: “In reality, they’re not after me, they’re after you. I’m just in the way”. Despite any failings on his part, this remains, and indeed has become yet more the case. And this is what Joe Normie is increasingly beginning to feel. How did it get to this point? I recommend to you all to invest the time to read a multi-part posting from Sundance at The Conservative Tree House, links to follow. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/08/11/part-1-why-did-the-doj-and-fbi-execute-the-raid-on-trump-the-story-behind-the-documents/#more-236386 https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/08/11/part-2-why-did-the-doj-and-fbi-execute-the-raid-on-trump-the-evidence-within-the-documents/#more-236395 https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/08/11/part-3-why-did-the-doj-and-fbi-execute-the-raid-on-trump-a-culmination-of-four-years-of-threats-and-betrayals/#more-236402 Sundance has invested some considerable effort in understanding where we now find ourselves, as well as the… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

Jersey: I was banned at Sundance years ago, for noticing that diversity is not our strength. I’ll pass.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

sundance is a first class goober, and so is his audience.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  3g4me
2 years ago

3g4me, Well, that is probably an artifact of their “Jesus loves the little children of the world” brand of Christianity, and that is unfortunate. Race realism is certainly not incompatible with Christianity, and dismissing it out of hand seems ill-considered. Oh, well. But I myself still learn from those whom I am out of sympathy with on certain matters. For instance, I am not a Catholic, but I still profit from reading Ann Barnhardt’s blog, fearsome Papist that she is. Besides her rapier wit, and cogent observations, I can truly respect her diamond one-pointedness; bless her if it gives her… Read more »

The Infant Phenomenon
The Infant Phenomenon
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
2 years ago

@Jersey Jeffersonian

Great post. Thanks for the links. That’s not a regular site for me, but now and then there is something worthwhile there.

Are you in the SCV? I think you are a cyber-friend of my sister’s.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

SCV doesn’t ring a bell I am afraid. Unpack that acronym for me if you will, please.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  The Infant Phenomenon
2 years ago

Okay, got it. Sons of Confederate Veterans. No, I am not. I don’t know my more distant genealogy well enough to know whether I may have had a Confederate veteran among my ancestors. My mother was Pennsylvania Dutch (a tually Deitsch in their dialect of German) for generations (her grandparents spoke Pennsylvania Deitsch in their household), while my father grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, an only son of a mother from Missouri, and a father originally from Nebraska. My wife has geneological resources on tap as a university librarian that could probably unwrap the mysteries concerning my more distant… Read more »

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  karl von hungus
2 years ago

Karl-

I agree the system would be creaking down under the weight of its own complexity even if the current regime had not been installed.

That said, Trump, or any halfway competent President and leadership class would not have taken half the acceleratory actions we’ve seen from the regime.

I won’t postulate whether collapse could be skillfully managed. I feel that requires a level of rationality mankind does not possess. The best modern example is probably the USSR, and they still endured years of penury.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 years ago

As I’ve noted before, when the USSR collapsed, they were still a people. Yes, there were outer republics of a less than White disposition. Some were let go, some were forcibly retained. But the center—Russia—held!

Where is the center or tight grouping, as in Whites and Industry, in the USA? Some will say fly over country. Fine, but such retains little of the makings for a prosperous ethnostate wrt resources as we’ve come to expect.

Not thought this out completely as others will note, but the gist of the matter seems obvious.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Compsci
2 years ago

Compsci-

I agree demographics are perhaps the key difference between the USSR and the US.

In 2010, Russia was 81% ethnic Russian.

The US hasn’t had that sort of demographic makeup since the mid, possibly even late 80s.