The Deep State (40 page)

and unequal justice,
147
,
149
–52

Sverin, Eduardo,
124

Syrian civil war:

and Benghazi consulate attack,
224

and blowback,
43
,
106

and double-down strategy,
217
,
254
,
256
–58

and military-domestic trade-offs,
32
,
208

Obama's ambivalence about,
85

public opinion on,
237
–38

and Qatar,
113
–14

See also
ISIS

Target hacking (2013),
91
,
170
–71,
174

tax policy:

corporate inversion,
165
,
274
,
276

and corporate personhood doctrine,
276
–77

and offshore tax avoidance,
162
,
165

reform proposals for,
273
–74,
277

and Silicon Valley,
162

and wars,
115

and wealthy elites,
124
,
126
–27,
132

Tea Party,
218
–28,
230
–36

and anti-intellectualism,
264

backlash populist movements,
235
–36

coalition possibility with Left,
232
–35

and earmarking,
229
,
232

emergence of,
3
,
221
–22

on health care policy,
234

and lobbyists,
231
–32

obstructionist function of,
222
–28,
233

and “real Americans” image,
219
,
220
,
221
,
223
,
235

and Republican Party establishment,
225
–26

and voting restrictions,
219
–21

and Wall Street,
227
,
233

Telecommunications Act (1996),
37

Tenet, George,
164
,
186

Thatcher, Margaret,
23
,
62

think tanks.
See
foundations

Thomas, Clarence,
150

torture:

and Brennan,
185
,
195

and classification policies,
240
–42

and Deep State development,
61
–62

and executive power,
80

Feinstein speech,
238
–40

and ideology,
184

Obama on,
242
–43

public opinion on,
202

as war crime,
239
n

trade deficits,
110
–11

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP),
65
–66

transportation infrastructure,
32
,
193
,
206
–8

Treasury Department,
34
,
118
,
130

Truman, Harry S.,
50
,
73
,
82

Trump, Donald,
223
,
236

Ukraine crisis:

and ambassadors,
194
–95

and blowback,
43

and defense contractors,
104

and double-down strategy,
253
–55

generals' role in,
100

and intelligence ineffectiveness,
92

and nuclear policy,
84

Obama's ambivalence about,
85

and personnel continuity,
185
n

unequal justice,
140
–54

and environmental issues,
144
–45

and neoliberal corporate consensus,
152
–54

for “outlaws,”
146
–47

and state secrets privilege,
147
–49

Supreme Court as enabler of,
147
,
149
–52

and unequal prosecution,
143
–46

and wealthy elites,
151
–52

and whistle-blowing,
197
–98

See also
“no fault” concept

United Kingdom,
23
–24,
32

United States v. Reynolds,
147

USA PATRIOT Act,
61

See also
domestic surveillance

U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
164
,
227

Vietnam War:

and Deep State development,
51
–52

and double-down strategy,
99
,
253

and economic inequality,
114

and ethnic enclaves,
27

and executive power,
73

and “no fault” concept,
180
n

precision bombing in,
121

Rumsfeld on,
179

and trade deficits,
110

voting manipulation,
65
,
219
–21,
231

Walgreens,
274

Walker, Scott,
211
–12

Wall Street:

bailout of,
134
–37,
182
,
208
–9,
221
–22,
251

and cash nexus,
36
,
72
,
78

and change possibilities,
268

concentration of,
136

congressional attitudes toward,
36
n

critiques of,
38
,
39

as Deep State component,
34
,
35
,
36

deregulation of,
57
–58,
71
,
77
–78,
118
–19,
181
,
182
,
269

and double-down strategy,
251
–52

and economic inequality,
215

New Deal's taming of,
131
–32

and Obama,
87
,
139
,
221
,
222
,
256

and Tea Party,
227
,
233

See also
cash nexus; financial crisis (2008); neoliberal corporate consensus

Wall Street–driven foreign policy,
56
–57,
107
–22

dollar recycling,
109
–13,
213
,
269

economic warfare,
116
–22

and financial crisis (2008),
136

and human rights,
112
–14

ineffectiveness of,
119
–20

in Latin America,
129

and military spending,
107
–8,
115
–16

and wars,
114
–16,
130

Wall Street Journal,
54
,
116
n

“Walmart effect,”
111

Wal-Mart v. Dukes,
152

war on terrorism,
61
–62,
80
,
83
–84,
96
,
105
–6

See also
domestic surveillance; national security policy; torture

War Powers Resolution,
155

Warren, Elizabeth,
5
,
176
,
268

Warsaw Pact collapse.
See
cold war, end of

Washington, D.C., area.
See
D.C. area

Washington consensus.
See
neoliberal corporate consensus

Washington Post,
13
n,
35
,
86
,
121
,
212
–14

Washington Times,
11

Watergate scandal,
10
,
52
,
72
,
75

Way the World Works, The
(Wanniski),
54

wealthy elites,
123
–33

contempt for working people among,
126
–27

and D.C. area neighborhoods,
12
–15,
16
–17

fear of revolution among,
87
,
139

and irrational cultural forces,
260

and New Deal,
131
–32

sanctification of,
127
–28,
130
,
219

secession of,
123
,
124
–26,
255
–56

and Silicon Valley,
37
,
163

support for Tea Party,
234
–35

and unequal justice,
151
–52

See also
cash nexus

whistle-blowing,
42
,
195
–98

White, Mary Jo,
142
–43

Will, George,
223

Wilson, Woodrow,
130

Wolfowitz, Paul,
180
,
195

World War I,
56
,
59
,
117
,
130

World War II,
48
–50,
53
,
109
,
114
,
121
,
132

Yahoo,
166
,
247

*
The more flamboyantly antielitist among them will pronounce it “Warshington.”

*
On one occasion during the late 1980s, I happened to be in the headquarters of the CIA and noticed a poster on the wall announcing that Katherine Graham would be the speaker at an event for employees in the CIA's auditorium. A pillar of the so-called adversarial press being invited to a secure facility to address members of the intelligence community is something that ideologues of both political parties may have a hard time assimilating into their worldview, but it explains why Beltway insiders regard the
Post
as “the CIA paper.” In fact, many members of the “Georgetown Set” were CIA officials like Frank Wisner or James Angleton.

*
Satirist Tom Lehrer immortalized von Braun, the developer of the Nazis' V-2 rocket, thus:

Some have harsh words for this man of renown,

But some think our attitude

Should be one of gratitude;

Like the widows and cripples of old London town

Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.

*
Lobbyists naturally base their low calling on high principles: lobbying, they claim, is the constitutionally guaranteed right of a citizen to petition for redress of grievances.

*
The Capitol Hill Club has always managed to maintain an ambiance about thirty years behind whatever the present date is, perhaps in keeping with Republican social policy. In the early 1980s, it looked like a social club from the Eisenhower era, complete with funeral-home furniture and matriarchal women with corsages and big hats.

*
The attitude of some members of Congress toward Wall Street was memorably expressed by Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL), the incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, in 2010: “In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.”

*
The Panopticon was English philosopher Jeremy Bentham's design for a circular prison that would permit a single watchman to observe all of the inmates without their being able to know whether they were being watched or not. Ironically, Bentham, a philosopher of the utilitarian school, was a forerunner of the modern libertarian ideology that is so much in vogue among Silicon Valley tech moguls. Libertarian or not, Bentham said the Panopticon's purpose was to be “a mill for grinding rogues honest.”

*
What is old is often new again. In early 2014, French economist Thomas Piketty ignited a firestorm and a bestselling sensation with a book containing the revolutionary observation, backed by reams of data, that the rich tend to get richer and everyone else, not so much.

*
Twenty-five years ago the sociologist Robert Nisbet described this phenomenon as “the attribute of No Fault. . . . Presidents, secretaries, and generals and admirals in America seemingly subscribe to the doctrine that no fault ever attaches to policy and operations. This No Fault conviction prevents them from taking too seriously such notorious foul-ups as Desert One, Grenada, Lebanon, and now the Persian Gulf.” To Nisbet's somewhat dated list we might add 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria.

*
When the public-interest journalism site
ProPublica
asked the Department of Defense for a list of terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, a Pentagon official responded that disclosing such a list could cause “serious damage to national security.” Apparently, the great strategists at the DOD think letting terrorist groups know that we know they exist would shake the security of our country to its foundations.

*
Actually, more money was spent to develop and produce the B-29 bomber than on the atomic bomb. But since the B-29 was necessary to deliver the bomb over long distances, the two projects should be considered related efforts. Together, the bomb and its delivery vehicle dwarfed all other projects in cost.

*
The “bomber gap” arose because during the 1955 May Day parade, the Kremlin leadership ordered its entire inventory of ten jet bombers to fly over Red Square several times in a large aerial circle. Western military attachés in attendance were deceived by this elementary trick into believing they saw a large fleet of bombers—possibly because they wanted to believe it. On the strength of this ruse, U.S. intelligence projected an eventual eight hundred Soviet jet bombers.

*
The seeming contradiction of conservative politicians embracing something called neoliberal economics is explained by the fact that “liberal” and “conservative” have vastly different definitions in Europe and America.