Deep State Masters of the Universe

The People Versus the Bureaucrats

Way back in the good old days bureaucrats used to have a name which encapsulated their place and role in society.  In those days we used to call them "civil servants".  What that meant in a general sense was that bureaucrats had a duty and responsibility to carry out the rules, regulations, laws, and decisions of the elected representatives who were chosen to rule and govern by the people. 

The people's choice was made manifest in public elections.  The people chose their representatives; the chosen legislated, and the bureaucrats ensured that the laws were applied.  Or so the story ran.

No longer--at least not in nations like the United States.  What has become more and more obvious is that true power resides in the Deep State.  It is the (hidden and nameless) bureaucrats who determine who is fit to govern, what laws are to be passed, and who maintain mastery and control over how the law will be applied, if at all.

Inez Feltscher Stepman  describes how this is being played out in the struggle between the current President, Donald Trump and the Deep State bureaucrats who long ago decided that Trump was extremely dangerous--not to the Republic, but to them--and, therefore, had to be removed, one way or another.

The Murder of Citizens

Two Hundred and Sixty-Two Million

We recently came across the site of Professor R. J. Rummel, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Hawaii.  His most recent book is Death by Government.

The focus of his life's work has been the role of governments in the death of civilians.  According to the website, Professor Rummel's brief bio is as follows:

Wrote about two-dozen books and over 100 professional articles. Most recent books: Death By Government(Transaction Publications, 1994), The Miracle That Is Freedom (Martin Institute for Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, University of Idaho, 1996), Power Kills (Transaction Publications, 1997), and Statistics of Democide (Center for National Security Law, 1997).

Through his undergraduate term papers, MA Thesis, Ph.D. dissertation, and academic career, R.J. Rummel has focused his research on the causes and conditions of collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination. He published his major results in Understanding Conflict and War, Vols. 1-5 (Sage Publications, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, and 1981). His conclusion was that "To eliminate war, to restrain violence, to nurture universal peace and justice, is to foster freedom (liberal democracy)." Given the supreme importance of this conclusion published in 1981, Rummel then spent the next fifteen years refining the underlying theory and testing it empirically on new data, against the empirical results of others, and on case studies (as in his Death By Government). All this theoretical, empirical, and comparative research is documented in his final work, Power Kills, nominated for the 1998 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

Power Kills sums up Rummel's research on violence and reaffirms and extends his earlier work. In theory and fact, democracies do not (or virtually never) make war on each other; the more democratic two regimes, the less likely violence between them; the more democratic a regime, the less its overall foreign violence; and the more democratic a regime, the less its genocide and mass murder (which in this century has killed about four times the battle dead of all its foreign and domestic wars).

According to his research, he argues that the twentieth century was an exceedingly bloody affair with governments being responsible for the death of 262 million citizens.  (Note--this does not include death through war.) The deadly table below says it all

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Tribal Truth

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

INTRODUCTION

I want to offer a “get yourself oriented” explanation for the lunacy that has apparently descended upon virtually everybody. A fogbank of dunsical folly, stretching the length of the entire East Coast, has worked its way across the nation, and so it is that we hear distant, muffled cries, from out there in the fog somewhere, “Who’s to say what a little boy is?”

Change the metaphor. The degradation and collapse of our civilization proceeds apace, and while millions of Christians in that civilization think that “something is wrong,” few of them have any idea of just how wrong it all is. And we have erstwhile leaders who have assumed the role of reassuring us, trying to make us think that, provided a culture is unbelieving, there is no appreciable difference between its rise and its disintegration. Take a glance to the right in order to check out a recent promo vid on a glossy web site for one of those Big Name Christian Conferences.

And so let’s begin with the theopolitics of this, and then move on to cite a few illustrations of it snatched from today’s headlines. I won’t say what these examples are about exactly, but one of them rhymes with Sal Planken.

Democracy Cannibalising Itself

The Tyranny of the People

The will and consent of the people is a good and necessary component of godly government.  It is for this reason that historically the West has championed democracy and democratic government.  Both alike indicate rule of the people, by the people, and for the people.  But few are comfortable with pure democracy.

Why?  If there were no checks and balances, democracy can readily and easily become the tyranny of the majority.  This critical flaw in democratic government has long been identified and addressed by philosophers of government from Plato to Montesquieu.  Edmund Burke put it this way:

Of this I am certain, that in a democracy, the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority, whenever strong divisions prevail in that kind of polity as they often must; and that oppression of the minority will extend to far greater numbers, and will be carried on with much greater fury, than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single scepter.  In such a popular persecution, individual sufferers are in a much more deplorable condition than in any other.  [Cited by Yuval Levin, The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left  (New York: Basic Books, 2014), p.99f.]

"Pure" democracy can (and inevitably will) turn into a tyranny of the worst kind.

Democratic Realities

Voters, Like Customers, are Always Right

One of the more interesting revelations to come out after Trump's election victory is the number of prominent Democrats taking extreme positions in vain attempts to prevent Tump's inauguration.  These folk are doing so against the backdrop of Trump's electoral victory.  

But sometimes the issue is just so big that radical action is called for.  Now this nativist rebellion is not coming from a bunch of far left, redneck Democrats.  This is not the Hollywood elites fantasizing about making the script of some C-Grade movie into a real-life documentary.  It is a reaction coming from what would normally be regarded as mainstream, responsible, constitutional, moderate Democrats.

Here is a tasting from the Democrats buffet table:

We Know What's Best For You

The Trump Card

Our position with respect to the election of Donald Trump as  President of the United States is one of agnosticism.  It is possible that the US system of checks and balances will restrain the worst of Trump's instincts, while jostling and steering him into better paths.  We will see.  The jury is out.  

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst is sage counsel in such days as these.  For the moment we continue to be entertained by the breakers and roiling undertow that is shaking up the Left.  Its "born to rule" arrogance has been noisome, to say the least.  In New Zealand, the Left is in dire straits, and has been so now for a decade.  Few signs are there that this will change quickly.  We suspect that a similar "velvet revolution" is underway in the UK.

Meanwhile, this bon mot caused some breakfast chuckles:

Letter From the UK (About Sinister Currents)

Thoughts on Mr Trump's New Dawn 

Adrift on a Sinister Current

Peter Hitchens
Daily Mail Australia

Today , for the second time in five months, a left-wing elite paid the price of ignoring, for many years, the warnings of civilised and tolerant conservatives. I cannot tell you how frustrating it has been, when trying to debate politics with readers of the Guardian and the New York Times.

To suggest to them that mass immigration is risky and destabilising; to urge that the married family needs to be supported, not dissolved; to say that education needs more rigour, discipline and selection; to advocate the deterrent punishment of crime rather than its indulgence; to suggest that pornography and swearing may damage civility; to object to attempts to abolish national borders and sovereignty;  to say that violent liberal intervention in foreign countries is dangerous and wrong… any or all of these things has earned me a patronising sneer, a lofty glance, a dismissal as if I am some sort of troglodyte who has got into the room by mistake.

I said (as I recorded here a few weeks ago) to such people that they should listen to me while they could. I was content if they would only listen to me and moderate their policies. I did not even seek to wrest power from them, if they would only moderate their dogmatic revolutionary drive.  I believed (and still believe) that they had made a mistake even on their own terms, that they could not possibly want the consequences of what they were doing.  In the end, this was the Weimar Republic and they were courting a grave risk that they would eventually drive people too far. The response was sometimes personal abuse, sometimes total, frozen indifference, very, very occasionally a brief, fairly uncomprehending attempt to see my point which came to nothing.

Well, now we have what I warned of.

Tall Poppy Syndrome Has Its Uses

Some Benefits of Being a Small Nation

New Zealand is a fortunate country--relatively speaking.  It is fortunate through no merit of its own. Rather, it benefits from being a small isolated country (geographically) and by being underpopulated.  We are aware that these two features are often at the top of a list of our nation's alleged disadvantages.  However, we beg to differ.

In effect what these two features provide is a control by citizens over central government that is unlike most other countries in the world.  New Zealand resembles a village, when compared to other countries.  Our current, long-serving Prime Minister, John Key is accessible, as are all members of Parliament.  If regulations and laws upset the electorate, politicians tend to hear about it pretty quickly.

Contrast this with much larger countries.

Collective Responsibility of the Politburo

Keep Them In the Dark

Sometimes the most anti-democratic folk around the bazaars are politicians.  We see this cropping up in lots of different ways.  One example is the abuse of Freedom of Information regimes, which most Western democracies have these days.  Under FOI regimes, ordinary citizens (voters) have a right to request information from governments, which in many cases must be released to the requester.

In daily practice this means media and researchers and interest groups peppering government bodies and administration with FOI requests, which are supposed to be complied with in a certain time frame.  Almost inevitably the process gets clogged, delayed, and obfuscated.  This, of course, is not helped by opposing political parties making innumerable FOI requests just to be a nuisance.  But basically politicians love democracy only when they have to appeal for public support at the polling booth.  Suddenly democracy is wonderful.  But for every other day of the year . . . not so much.

Here is another egregious example of a political body which has completely lost touch with what it means to serve the people.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

When Saruman Said Nyuck

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

“As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron” (H.L. Mencken).

And as our thoughts have now turned to Mencken, he once said that democracy was the art of running the zoo from the monkey house. He also said that he loved his country the way a small boy loved the circus. As this political season continues to unfold, one begins to understand those sentiments, although it must be confessed that there is a touch of melancholy in it. It is not the demise we really expected for a once great republic. It is as though Gandalf had been trapped by Saruman in the tower, and then two shadowy figures came out of a hidden room to stand on either side of Saruman — let us call them Larry and Moe — and then Saruman said nyuck nyuck nyuck.

For — let us be frank — Donald Trump is a flimflam artist of the highest order, and he really ought to be an inspiration that establishes a host of Menckenesque careers. But alas — when Mencken’s dire prophecy finally comes true, there will be no one there with the requisite gifts to get across the gaudiness of the actual accomplishment. We are talking about a bunko game run by what Nostradamus called the Hustler at the End of Days. And as in all truly successful sting operations, the patsy cannot know that he has been taken, and thus it will be that any aspiring Menckens will simply be throwing their pithy adjectives into the stiff headwinds coming out of the void. Shall we end with an adjectival whimper and not with an adjectival bang?

But in the meantime, while some people might still be listening, let me strew a few bits of punditry out my hat. First, the endorsement of Trump the other day by Chris Christie was truly revelatory — the “establishment lane” is the first one getting bought up.

When Democracy Becomes an Idol

Malcontent And Envy Inimical to Democratic Liberties

With the rise of Donald Trump and the prospect that a conman could become the Republican candidate for the President of the United States, a familiar quotation has once again begun circulating in the United States.  

The quotation has been unreliably attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee FRSE (15 October 1747 – 5 January 1813) who was a Scottish advocate, judge, writer and historian who served as Professor of Universal History, and Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Edinburgh.  The quotation runs:

 A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilisations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.

Tytler may have written the above, or not.  But in any event, the observation is worth considering.

Firstly, the contention that democracies cannot and do not survive.

Exemplary Western Civilisation

Modelling Democracy

There is an intriguing parallel to be drawn between the secession of the Southern states from the Union of the United States in 1861 and what is now taking place in Scotland.  It appears as though, if the voting intentions are being counted correctly, Scotland will secede from the United Kingdom.  This will be accomplished peacefully, by the will of the people.

Since Scotland has been part of the United Kingdom for three centuries, unwinding the two will be quite a task.  But, it is achievable.  Will Scotland be doing the "right thing"?  Yes.  If the majority want it, then they are welcome to it.  (One caveat might be that a simple majority of fifty percent for such a huge change is a bit light.  Amongst the time-honoured principles of sound governance is the need to have constitutional changes achieve a larger majority support than a mere fifty percent because they are changes of such a profound import.)

The Scots have been a redoubtable people.  Their world-wide influence has been far, far greater than their relatively small population.

More Steps in the Right Direction

Internal Decay and Mounting Indifference

The government in the UK is taking aim at restoring some of its sovereignty which had been traded away by the previous Labour government.  In 1998 Labour passed the Human Rights Act which contained a clause subjecting the UK to human rights decisions made by the European Court.  The Cameron government is planning to reverse that decision, thereby making British human rights legislation the sole preserve of Britain and even giving a possible veto to MP's over controversial EU human rights decisions.

Long overdue, is our response.  It is now becoming more evident that Cameron's recent Cabinet reshuffle has not weakened the drive towards re-establishing British sovereignty.  It appears to have turbo-charged it. This, from the Telegraph:

Decline and Fall . . .

Rome and the West

It has been argued that Western states have become vastly corrupt enterprises.  This allegation refers not in the first instance to the activities of criminal gangs, nor to the presence of crime to one degree or other. Rather, it addresses the nature of the state itself.  But even here the reference is not to isolated corrupt government ministers nor bureaucratic functionaries--though doubtless there are some.  As has been observed the fact that in some Western countries lifer politicians can enter office impecunious and depart multi-millionaires, wealthy way beyond the cumulative salary they have drawn from the public coffers over the years, suggests their office has been misused to their own pecuniary advantage.  But, once, again, most of these instances of corruption in the West are exceptions, not the rule. 

The endemic corruption in most Western states refers to the system itself.  The Western state has become a vast redistribution enterprise, wherein an increasing number of citizens not only benefit from, but owe their continued existence to, the doles and bribes of politicians. 

It is normal to regard a politician or his bureaucrats who sell favour or influence to this individual or that business enterprise (in exchange for favours) as corrupt. But Western democracies themselves have become corrupt, as politicians vie to gain the support of voters by promising doles, services, and favours--and voters sell their votes accordingly.

Leadership and Fake Imitations

Hortonian Politics

Political leadership in democracy is a tenuous business.  Obviously it rests upon votes--that is, having enough of them.  But before the votes comes something intangible.  Winning and maintaining popular support depends upon the perception that the political leader has integrity, is honest, and can be trusted.  Even opponents respect the political rival who has integrity.  When, however, integrity is lost there is little that can be done to restore it. Every legislative or policy direction becomes a hundred times more difficult to achieve. 

One of the reasons George Bush failed to unite the country was due to the widespread belief that he had stolen the election by a recount in Florida.  He was deemed duplicitous from the get-go.  President Obama is floundering now because a majority of people have decided that he is untrustworthy, deceitful, and a liar.

History Repeating Itself

An Altar to the Lord in the Land of Egypt

Judah was going into captivity.  He would be threshed like wheat by Babylon.  He would experience divine punishment for gross contumacy and rebellion against his covenanted Lord.  But the prophet Isaiah, inspired by God Himself, looks forward beyond the captivity to predict with equal certainty the fall and destruction of Babylon in its turn. Then eventually, Babylon would turn to the Lord and worship Him. 

The prophet holds up Babylon's gods to mockery and ridicule. 

Bel bows down; Nebo stoops;
Their idols are on beasts and livestock;
These things you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts.
They stoop; they bow down together;
They cannot save the burden,
But themselves go into captivity.
Isaiah 46: 1-2

Thus a perpetuating pattern is displayed.

Yeah, Right

Lies Are Unacceptable in a Democracy

The story below is becoming the new normal.  A public figure conducts a crusade against this or that perceived public evil, all the while being guilty of the very same thing.  Here are the details, according to The Guardian:

France's former budget minister admits lying about secret offshore account

Jérôme Cahuzac plunges Hollande's government into crisis after shock confession to hiding €600,000 for more than 20 years

The French government is in crisis after François Hollande's former budget minister and tax tsar was charged with tax fraud following a shock confession that he had held a secret foreign bank account for 20 years and had repeatedly lied about it.

Jérôme Cahuzac's sudden admission that he hid €600,000 (£510,000) offshore for more than two decades is the biggest scandal to hit Hollande's presidency.

The public admission by the man who led France's fight against tax evasion that he secretly defrauded the taxman and was "caught in a spiral of lies" is a huge embarrassment for Hollande, who promised that his government would be beyond reproach after the corruption allegations that dogged previous French administrations.

One reaction to this kind of thing is jaded cynicism.

Honesty and Political Integrity

Sustainable Democracies

Politics and integrity are two words not often found in the same sentence.  In fact, "political integrity" is usually considered an oxymoron.  The current New Zealand prime minister, John Key has his own particular version of political integrity which he has practised more or less consistently since he was first became prime minister in 2008.  His version is that resepective policies on the big, controversial issues should be put before the electorate by all parties.  When a party achieves a majority vote and can coalesce with minor parties to achieve a governing majority, it has an electoral mandate to carry out the policies which were deemed controversial, and over which the election was fought.  It is a case of what the electorate decided by majority vote, so we will do. 

The opposite has also been practised in New Zealand.

Treaty of Waitangi Fables, Part III

Tribalism Makes Some Animals More Equal Than Most

This is the third piece recently seeing the light of day in the NZ Herald confronting the historical revisionism being foisted upon the Treaty of Waitangi and its signing.   Dr Elizabeth Rata takes up the issue of Maori tribalism and argues that it is incompatible with a democratic form of government.

Elizabeth Rata: Tribalism, democracy incompatible

5:30 AM Tuesday Jan 29, 2013

Tribalism is based on principles of inequality. Democracy is based on equality. So unity is only way forward.

The post-1987 idea of a Treaty 'partnership' is not true to the original Treaty. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library

The recent Herald commentary by Ewen McQueen takes us further into a thoughtful consideration of the Treaty of Waitangi and the constitution. Using Sir Joseph Ward's metaphor that "there can only be one sun in the sky", McQueen showed why the post-1987 idea of a Treaty "partnership" is not true to the original Treaty. He concluded by noting that most chiefs agreed to give absolutely to the Queen the complete government over their land in return for guaranteed protection of chieftainship.

Protesting Too Much

Weakness of Idols on Display

Auckland has seen another violent protest by the same old faces.  This time it is protesting against free trade agreements.  The NZ Police took the brunt of the assault.  This from the NZ Herald: 

Police have condemned "violent" protesters who attacked two police officers and set fire to cardboard boxes as they tried to force their way into free trade negotiations.  A handful of police and SkyCity security staff were overwhelmed by more than 150 protesters, forcing the on-the-ground commander to call in reinforcements from around Auckland.

"Police staff moved in to prevent escalation and two officers were separated, attacked and kicked numerous times. Fire appliances were called to the scene to help," police said in a statement. "Two arrests were made. One of these arrests was a female that stomped on a constables head."

The usual suspects attended: John Minto (perpetual, serial, promiscuous protestor), Jane Kelsey (lecturer, Auckland University), Cathy Casey (Auckland City Councillor), Catherine Delahunty (Green MP) along with the mob.