October 26, 2016
Today the path to total
dictatorship in the U.S. can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by
Congress, the President, or the people. Outwardly we have a Constitutional
government. We have operating within our government and political system … a
well-organized political-action group in this country, determined to destroy
our Constitution and establish a one-party state…. The important point to remember
about this group is not its ideology but its organization… It operates
secretly, silently, continuously to transform our Government…. This group … is
answerable neither to the President, the Congress, nor the courts. It is
practically irremovable.”
— Senator William Jenner, 1954
speech
Unaffected by elections.
Unaltered by populist movements. Beyond the reach of the law.
Say hello to America’s shadow
government.
A corporatized, militarized,
entrenched bureaucracy that is fully operational and staffed by unelected
officials who are, in essence, running the country, this shadow government
represents the hidden face of a government that has no respect for the freedom
of its citizenry.
No matter which candidate wins
the presidential election, this shadow government is here to stay. Indeed, as
recent documents by the FBI reveal, this shadow government—also
referred to as “The 7th Floor Group”—may well have played a part in who
will win the White House this year.
To be precise, however, the
future president will actually inherit not one but two shadow governments.
The first
shadow government, referred to as COG or Continuity of Government, is made up
of unelected individuals who have been appointed to run the government in the
event of a “catastrophe.” COG is a phantom menace waiting for the right
circumstances—a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, an economic meltdown—to
bring it out of the shadows, where it operates even now. When and if COG takes
over, the police state will transition to martial law.
Yet it is the second
shadow government—also referred to as the Deep State—that poses the greater
threat to freedom right now. Comprised of unelected government bureaucrats,
corporations, contractors, paper-pushers, and button-pushers who are actually
calling the shots behind the scenes, this government
within a government is the real reason “we the people” have no real control
over our government.
The Deep State, which
“operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in
power,” makes a mockery of elections and the entire concept of a representative
government.
So who or what is the Deep
State?
It’s the militarized police,
which have joined forces with state and federal law enforcement agencies in
order to establish themselves as a standing army. It’s the fusion centers and
spy agencies that have created a surveillance state and turned all of us into
suspects. It’s the courthouses and prisons that have allowed corporate profits
to take precedence over due process and justice. It’s the military empire with
its private contractors and defense industry that is bankrupting the nation.
It’s the private sector with its 854,000
contract personnel with top-secret clearances, “a number greater than that
of top-secret-cleared civilian employees of the government.” It’s what former
congressional staffer Mike Lofgren refers to as “a hybrid of
national security and law enforcement agencies”: the Department of Defense,
the State Department, Homeland Security, the CIA, the Justice Department, the
Treasury, the Executive Office of the President via the National Security
Council, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a handful of vital
federal trial courts, and members of the defense and intelligence committees.
It’s every facet of a
government that is no longer friendly to freedom and is working overtime to
trample the Constitution underfoot and render the citizenry powerless in the
face of the government’s power grabs, corruption and abusive tactics.
These are the key players that
drive the shadow government.
This is the hidden face of the
American police state that will continue long past Election Day.
Just consider some of the key
programs and policies advanced by the shadow government that will continue no
matter who occupies the Oval Office.
Domestic surveillance.
No matter who wins the
presidential popularity contest, the National Security Agency (NSA), with its
$10.8 billion black ops annual budget, will continue to spy on every person in
the United States who uses a computer or phone. Thus, on any given day, whether
you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to
friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency,
whether the NSA or some other entity, is listening in and tracking your behavior.
Local police have been outfitted with a litany of surveillance gear, from
license plate readers and cell phone tracking devices to biometric data
recorders. Technology now makes it possible for the police to scan passersby in
order to detect the contents of their pockets, purses, briefcases, etc.
Full-body scanners, which perform virtual strip-searches of Americans traveling
by plane, have gone mobile, with roving police vans that peer into vehicles and
buildings alike—including homes. Coupled with the nation’s growing network of
real-time surveillance cameras and facial recognition software, soon there
really will be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.
Global spying.
The NSA’s massive surveillance
network, what the Washington Post refers to as a $500 billion “espionage
empire,” will continue to span the globe and target every single person on
the planet who uses a phone or a computer. The NSA’s Echelon
program intercepts and analyzes virtually every phone call, fax and email
message sent anywhere in the world. In addition to carrying out domestic surveillance on
peaceful political groups such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace and
several religious groups, Echelon has also been a keystone in the government’s
attempts at political and corporate
espionage.
Roving TSA searches.
The American taxpayer will
continue to get ripped off by government agencies in the dubious name of
national security. One of the greatest culprits when it comes to swindling
taxpayers has been the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), with its
questionable deployment of and complete mismanagement of millions of dollars’
worth of airport full-body X-ray scanners, punitive patdowns by TSA agents and
thefts of travelers’ valuables. Considered essential to national security, TSA
programs will continue in airports and at transportation hubs around the
country.
USA Patriot Act, NDAA.
America’s so-called war on
terror, which it has relentlessly pursued since 9/11, will continue to chip
away at our freedoms, unravel our Constitution and transform our nation into a
battlefield, thanks in large part to such subversive legislation as the USA
Patriot Act and National Defense Authorization Act. These laws completely
circumvent the rule of law and the rights of American citizens. In so doing,
they re-orient our legal landscape in such a way as to ensure that martial law,
rather than the U.S. Constitution, is the map by which we navigate life in the
United States. These laws will continue to be enforced no matter who gets
elected.
Militarized police
state.
Thanks to federal grant
programs allowing the Pentagon to transfer surplus military supplies and
weapons to local law enforcement agencies without charge, police forces will
continue to be transformed from peace officers into heavily armed extensions of
the military, complete with jackboots, helmets, shields, batons, pepper-spray,
stun guns, assault rifles, body armor, miniature tanks and weaponized drones.
Having been given the green light to probe, poke, pinch, taser, search, seize,
strip and generally manhandle anyone they see fit in almost any circumstance,
all with the general blessing of the courts, America’s law enforcement
officials, no longer mere servants of the people entrusted with keeping the
peace, will continue to keep the masses corralled, controlled, and treated like
suspects and enemies rather than citizens.
SWAT team raids.
With more than 80,000 SWAT
team raids carried out every year on unsuspecting Americans by local police for
relatively routine police matters and federal agencies laying claim to their
own law enforcement divisions, the incidence of botched raids and related
casualties will continue to rise. Nationwide, SWAT teams will continue to be
employed to address an astonishingly trivial array of criminal activity or mere
community nuisances including angry dogs, domestic disputes, improper paperwork
filed by an orchid farmer, and misdemeanor marijuana possession.
Domestic drones. The domestic
use of drones will continue unabated. As mandated by Congress, there will be
30,000 drones crisscrossing the skies of America by 2020, all part of an
industry that could be worth as much as $30 billion per year. These machines,
which will be equipped with weapons, will be able to record all activities,
using video feeds, heat sensors and radar. An Inspector General report revealed
that the Dept. of Justice has already spent nearly $4 million on drones
domestically, largely
for use by the FBI, with grants for another
$1.26 million so police departments and nonprofits can acquire their own
drones.
School-to-prison
pipeline.
The paradigm of abject
compliance to the state will continue to be taught by example in the schools,
through school lockdowns where police and drug-sniffing dogs enter the
classroom, and zero tolerance policies that punish all offenses equally and
result in young people being expelled for childish behavior. School districts
will continue to team up with law enforcement to create a “schoolhouse to
jailhouse track” by imposing a “double dose” of punishment: suspension or
expulsion from school, accompanied by an arrest by the police and a trip to
juvenile court.
Overcriminalization.
The government bureaucracy
will continue to churn out laws, statutes, codes and regulations that reinforce
its powers and value systems and those of the police state and its corporate
allies, rendering the rest of us petty criminals. The average American now
unknowingly commits three felonies a day, thanks to this overabundance of vague
laws that render otherwise innocent activity illegal. Consequently, small
farmers who dare to make unpasteurized goat cheese and share it with members of
their community will continue to have their farms raided.
Privatized Prisons.
States will continue to outsource
prisons to private corporations, resulting in a cash cow whereby
mega-corporations imprison Americans in private prisons in order to make a
profit. In exchange for corporations buying and managing public prisons across
the country at a supposed savings to the states, the states have to agree to
maintain a 90% occupancy rate in the privately run prisons for at least 20
years.
Endless wars.
America’s expanding military
empire will continue to bleed the country dry at a rate of more than $15
billion a month (or $20 million an hour). The Pentagon spends more on war than
all 50 states combined spend on health, education, welfare, and safety. Yet
what most Americans fail to recognize is that these ongoing wars have little to
do with keeping the country safe and everything to do with enriching the
military industrial complex at taxpayer expense.
Are you getting the message
yet?
The next president, much like
the current president and his predecessors, will be little more than a
figurehead, a puppet to entertain and distract the populace from what’s really
going on.
As Lofgren reveals, this state
within a state, “concealed
behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue,” is a
“hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according
to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently
controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose.”
The Deep State not only holds
the nation’s capital in thrall, but it also
controls Wall Street (“which supplies the cash that keeps the political
machine quiescent and operating as a diversionary marionette theater”) and
Silicon Valley.
This is fascism in its most
covert form, hiding behind public
agencies and private companies to carry out its dirty deeds.
It is a marriage
between government bureaucrats and corporate fat cats.
As Lofgren concludes:
[T]he Deep
State is so heavily entrenched, so well protected by surveillance, firepower,
money and its ability to co-opt resistance that it is almost impervious to
change… If there is anything the Deep State requires it is silent,
uninterrupted cash flow and the confidence that things will go on as they have
in the past. It is even willing to tolerate a degree of gridlock: Partisan mud
wrestling over cultural issues may be a useful distraction from its agenda.
In other words, as I point out
in my book Battlefield
America: The War on the American People, as long as government
officials—elected and unelected alike—are allowed to operate beyond the reach
of the Constitution, the courts and the citizenry, the threat to our freedoms
remains undiminished.
So the next time you find
yourselves despondent over the 2016 presidential candidates, remember that it’s
just a puppet show intended to distract you from the silent coup being carried
out by America’s shadow government.
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