#the law upholding dad and the criminal uncle

[brionysea]

I'm watching into the spiderverse again before i watch across the spiderverse again and the way things are immediately recontextualised

[wandascrush]

The family

Summary: Your family is very different from the Romanoffs. Maybe that’s okay.

Warnings: secrecy, criminal activity, mafia inuendos, kissing, lmk if I forgot anything! A/N: This part kinda serves as family background context

Family, family, family. You love em’ or you hate em’. When you really thought about it, your family couldn’t be any more different from Natasha’s. You came from a middle class family, while the Romanoffs were so removed from that life. You two weren’t different just in terms of tax brackets- no, the culture was different too. You had an older brother, your mother, and your father. Nothing really out of the ordinary, and you had family spread all throughout New York- extremely tight knit. Something the Romanoffs didn’t seem like they had. 

    The business of your two families, that couldn’t be more different. Natasha’s father was the head of the NYPD, an upholding citizen of the law. Your father- well, he ran a corner store with your mother, and as much as all of that was true and honest, they also ran a background business with your Uncles. You had always assumed it was petty goods or something minuscule, unimportant. That was until your favorite Uncle randomly got taken away one Tuesday afternoon at the dry cleaners he ran, and your family quickly cut off all ties with him. As if he ceased to exist. Their business affairs became much more secretive, organized, and quiet after that. That was the first time you ever felt that maybe the underground business your family ran wasn’t so unimportant…or underground. All of that was nearly three years ago, and now you understood the scope of what your family had going on- or that is, at least you thought you understood the scope of what they had going on. Either way, you came from a line of hard workers, entrepreneurs, and a loving home. Not perfect, not always pretty, and not shiny, but there was love in it. And you knew that. The sharp, young mind that you had would have never considered anyone in your family criminals- like truly bad criminals. Real criminals. Unfortunately, that’s not what Natasha’s father, Jon, saw when you stepped foot in their home. He knew all about your little family and their businesses, both above and underground. He just didn’t know what exactly they were doing underground, but he heard whispers of it from colleagues, friends, customers. 

   Natasha’s father is a man of few words, but his presence commands respect and fear. He’s not the type to show affection openly, and when he does speak, his words carry the weight of unspoken threats. You know he’s not the dad that kisses his daughters goodnight, or watches as they descend the stairs before their first school dance. He’s the type of dad to give you a firm pat on the shoulder, and go back to his study. Meanwhile Natasha’s mother was soft spoken, nice- but not kind, and distant. She was in two places at once when she talked to you, never quite giving her full attention. 

    On the other hand, your family was so warm, like a fireplace. Your dad was funny and so protective, but sometimes he could be so angry. Sometimes, he scared you. You now know he’s involved in something more than just the legitimate businesses he fronts; the hushed conversations in the study, the late-night visitors who never stay long, the subtle nods of acknowledgment he receives from men who walk with a certain air of authority—they all point to a darker truth. That never stopped him from being a good dad though, your dad. Your mother is equally enigmatic, a woman of grace and elegance who runs the household like a queen. She’s fiercely protective of you, but there’s always a sense of something unspoken, something lurking just beneath the surface of her calm demeanor. And her love for you two is fierce beyond belief. Then there’s your older brother, who’s already being groomed to take over the family business. He’s charming and charismatic, the kind of man who can talk his way out of anything, but you’ve started to see the darker side of him too—the cold, calculating stare, the ruthless determination to protect the family’s interests at any cost. As deep as your love runs for them, sometimes you wonder if you’re safe. Really safe.

    Through you and Natasha’s “friendship,” or whatever it was, there were unspoken rules that lingered between you two: 1. Don’t get caught. 2. Never be affectionate in public. And perhaps the most impotent rule of all- 3. Our families can never know. She explained all these rules to you while sitting on your lap in the attic, kissing you between every rule.

[cardboardflamingos]

I am cringe.. But I am free.

UHMN... Okay so I made him up a family tree because I've been thinking about his niece a lot. And the fact he still seems on good terms with her even if it was a super brief mention. D2b family HCs?! 🤯

I ALSO COLOUR CODED IT BASED ON WHAT I THINK HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM WOULD BE (AS A RESULT OF NO LONGER BEING STEVEN) I DON'T EVEN KNOW DON'T QUESTION ME

I also wanted to.. Uhmn.. Explain each relationship he has with these family members but just to clarify let me explain the colours more-!

Green || A good relationship, hardly affected by him becoming Dr. Two-brains.

Orange || It's.. Ify. They don't really like him anymore, nobody down right hates him. It's more pity, and distancing themselves from him because of how much he's changed and or because of his crimes.

Yellow || Complicated! They're noticeably affected by the change, but don't dislike him like the oranges. Very concerned. Don't really view his crimes as his.

// FAMILY DYNAMICS / RELATIONSHIPS //

Dad – His dad and him were fairly close when he was Steven, not exactly best buddies but they would talk normally and do stuff together on occasion. No hard feelings about anything. Probably bonded over science a lot when he was a kid. After Steven became Dr. Two-brains and began crimes he feels his son is well. What he is. A criminal. Not taking into account the reasons why, and not having the willingness to reach out to who his son used to be. He wants him imprisoned, for an actual normal amount of time, and for him to stop his life of crime after completing the sentencing. And come back to them. As Steven. Of course they all want Steven back, but he's the least accepting of the new identity.

Mom – He also had a normal relationship with his mother, maybe a bit closer because I imagine her the type to coddle. She misses Steven deeply, and doesn't really understand who or what Dr. Two-brains is. Finding interaction with him awkward and uncomfortable but not wanting to abandon her son for an incident/experiment gone wrong. Tries to talk to him normally, but there's a difference. And they both know it.

Sister – his only sibling! I think they were very very close siblings, and still are, she obviously misses her brothers old ways but does her best to ignore the change and it doing a better job than their mother. They hang out, talk, and still interact like family. Where as others act more as though he's a stranger. Reminds him of a lot of old memories to try to keep that side of him going.

Brother in law – they didn't really know one another beforehand, they had met, but not bonded. His brother in law worries having a criminal around his children, despite Two-brains displaying absolutely zero threat to them it is understandable. Avoids him but will talk to him if interacted with. I feel like he calls d2b “buddy” in a really condescending way. His sister has told him about what he used to be like and he believes her but it doesn't help.

Niece and Nephew – Good! In canon he seems to be on a good relationship with his niece, given the mention of her graduation being a normal thing. I imagine the same for his nephew who is younger than his niece. They remember how he was before, they think Steven is more fun. But are both worried in their own ways.

Uncle – I think our resident weird uncle had a weird uncle of his own! Had to learn the trade from someone. Dynamic is about the same as his mother, but a but more open and joking with d2b. Also trying to keep his memories intact.

Cousin – they were friends beforehand, not best buds that talked a lot but they had an okay relationship. Now the cousin is a bit scared of him but tries to uphold the positive memories and realizes that he can still be normal sometimes.

As for Dr. Two-brains himself he feels bad for creating a noticeable shift in his family and loves them all, still acting like their family member. Just a very different one. Squeaky doesn't like them, I imagine, but Steven over powers in this regard.

[hcppilyneveraxter]

[CISMALE, HE/HIM]. Hey, is that MICHAEL B. JORDAN, no that is just ZACHARIAH AVERY around Turtle Bay. I heard they are 33 years old, and their birthday is JANUARY 15TH, 1990. They rest their heads in the OCEANSIDE but they can mainly be found working as POLICE DETECTIVE. Some say they are CHARMING, HARDWORKING, PERSUASIVE and can be SERIOUS, UNFORGIVING, STUBBORN. If they had a theme song it would be, A SONG FOR DAD BY KEITH URBAN. I hear they are NATIVE, either way Turtle Bay is home and welcomes you!

BASICS:

Full Name: Zachariah Avery

Nicknames: Zach

Age: 33

DOB: January 15th, 1990

Hometown: Turtle Bay, South Carolina

Current location: Turtle Bay, South Carolina

Neighborhood: Oceanside

Occupation: Detective for TBPD

Gender: Male

Pronouns: He/Him

Sexuality: Bisexual

Relationship status: Single

Positive Traits: Charming, Hardworking, Persuasive

Negative Traits: Serious, Unforgiving, Stubborn

Theme song: A Song for Dad by Keith Urban

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE:

Face Claim: Michael B. Jordan

Hair color: Black

Eye color: Dark Brown

Height: 6 ft

Weight: 175 lbs

Build: Athletic

Tattoos: One with his last name, one for the TBPD, and a small one for his daughter Olivia

Piercings: None

FAMILY:

Mother: Destiny Avery

Father: Jerimiah Avery

Siblings: Isaiah Avery, Ashanti Avery

Children: Olivia, 10 (unbeknownst to everyone except Aunt Carrie)

Pet(s): Czechoslovakian Wolfdog named Ghost

BIO:

Growing up Zachariah Avery had everything he could ever wish for. He was surrounded by a warm and loving family, was well liked by his peers, and never wanted for anything. Sure his dad could be strict but Zach knew that they were Avery's and that meant there was a certain image they were expected to uphold. A reputation to protect Not only were they one of the founding families of Turtle Bay they were a black family in a predominately white town which Zachariah learned from a young age came with added scrutiny. As the oldest Zach took it upon himself to take care of his siblings and make sure they knew what was expected of them, often causing some friction particularly between he and Isaiah but Zachariah assured his siblings it was for their own interest. As a result, as they grew older Zach and his sister Ashanti remained close while Zach and his brother Isaiah grew further and further apart. Zay was far too lazy and selfish in Zachariah’s, opinion always putting himself and his desires before the family.

School was easy for Zach. He worked hard and got good grades, had a great group of friends, and played both basketball and soccer. From the time he was little Zachariah always knew he wanted to follow in his family’s footsteps. He respected the men that his father and his uncle Marcus had grown into and hoped that law enforcement would do the same for him. He had planned to join the police force right out of High School but his parents asked him to get a college degree first.

Zach settled on the University of North Carolina. It had a great criminal justice program and was close enough that he could still keep tabs on his family or make it home for family gatherings. It was during his senior year that Zachariah met Nicole Sunitha. She was in his criminal law class and he was immediately taken with her the moment he saw her walk through the door on the first day of class. As luck would have it they were paired together on a group project and Zach quickly fell for her intelligence in addition to her beauty. She was the full package. She challenged Zach for what felt like the first time in his life and it wasn't long before he fell in love.

The pair began dating and spent every moment they could get with each other, often wrapped in each other's arms. They had a beautiful love affair but as Zach's graduation rapidly approached he came to terms with the fact that they would never last. He had to return home to Turtle Bay and she had a couple years of classes left to take. He hadn't been home long when Nicole informed him that she was pregnant.

Zach knew how poorly this would reflect on his family if the word ever got out so he kept the whole thing a secret, only turning to his Aunt Carrie for advice. Zach had seen his daughter a few times over the years but mostly stuck to monetary support sending Nicole money every month and doing his best to support little Olivia from afar. He's managed to keep this quiet so far but in the back of Zach's mind he's always worried that one day his biggest secret could come to light and ruin his families reputation, one he's worked tirelessly to uphold, once and for all.

[falsemerits]

“I kept track of the violence done to Black people in my city, Toronto, and my country, Canada, as if it was being done to me, because it was, because it is, because that’s what Black people are facing in Canada and around the world, and I’d never been more aware of it.”

When Desmond tells of the violence that is happening to him metaphorically, through others who are experiencing it physically- All across Canada, I recognize this as truth. He is not being selfish in feeling that this violence is also done unto him, as it is for the person physically involved. It would be selfish to think that he could not relate, because that is not his problem in the moment. It would be selfish if because he lives in Toronto, and violence in British Columbia against Black people happens, that it has nothing to do with him. I will liken this to an experience of my own, and challenge others to think abstractly and connect the dots. September 11, 2001- A day of destruction, alleged terrorism, and global fear. I remember being in class when this happened, and my sixth grade teacher asked us to take a moment of silence for it and to discuss the event. This had nothing to do with Canada. I was not involved with these families that suffered, or the government that protected them. I was a little 10 year old girl, who only knew that if my dad, mom, uncle, aunt, or whoever I loved was in that tower that I would feel tragedy. To me, that is why I sympathized with this event. Because if something similar happened in my country, I would hope that others would share my same feelings.

Being metis, I share the same feelings that Desmond does for the violence Black people experience daily. Indigenous people are being profiled, and abused every day as well. Our causes are similar. I cannot attest that our origin stories are the exact same. I cannot say that one is more pressing than the other. All I know is that, if I can feel suffering for my ancestors, then I can share the same feelings with immigrants who were taken from their countries, forced into slavery, made to start their lives in North America, and to continue to be robbed of honour and respect every single day.

“A CBC News investigation that analyzed 461 fatal civilian encounters with police between 2000 - 2017 found that “70 percent of people who died struggled with mental health issues or substance abuse or both.” The combination of this violence with the police targeting of Black people makes Black people with mental health issues more likely to experience police violence. The CBC also found that, of the 461 deaths, “criminal charges were laid against 18 officers… With only two ending in convictions.”

To me, this is proof that our system of police and authority is grossly under trained and ill-prepared. Police are able to perform “wellness checks,” on civilians, but only when prompted by a person who has called and claimed that said person’s wellness is in question. Police feel that they do not have to assess, de-escalate, or consider external factors in an investigation, false or with merit. These are horrifyingly sad statistics, that I believe many people would just glaze over. The typical citizen doesn’t understand enough about mental health, to care about mental health. There is a culture of common socially acceptable misunderstanding, when mental health is in question. It is okay to not know. There are cues that one can detect about mental health, if given the chance. Crying, hyperventilating, excessive language, obvious frustration, resistance to identify, these are actually all signs that someone might be experiencing mental distress, or exacerbation of their pre-existing mental health condition. Police are here to enforce the protection of personal property and assets. Opting for violence against someone who is mentally unstable, Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, White, Asian any race is not the answer. Protect and serve. Protect lives of police, against usually unarmed unsuspecting vulnerable people, and serve to uphold the laws that help protect officers of wrongdoing. That is what that statement means nowadays. When officers use violence against people who have mental health problems, and do not question this as a possibility first, we see why this system fails 100 percent of the time.

“In my experience, the average white Canadian doesn’t know that British and French settlers enslaved Black and Indigenous people on these lands for two centuries, and simply shifted legislative tactics once they had abolished “legal” slavery. Those who do acknowledge slavery in Canada often add that it was “not as bad as in the States,” a nod to the white Canadian proverb used as a checkmate end to a conversation. No need to consider anti-blackness here. This idea that Canada’s racial injustices are not as bad as they could be- This notion of slavery lite, of racism lite, of what my friends calls “toy version of racism”- Is a very Canadian way of saying “remember what we could do to you if we wanted to.” Passive- aggressive racism is central to Canada’s national mythology and identity. White supremacy warns Black people against setting our own standards and pursuing dreams that stray too far from the global atmosphere of anti-blackness.”

My parents were never taught this, so they never had the opportunity to educate me. Years of public school didn’t ever teach me about slavery in Canada. Not even of slavery of Indigenous people. I remember being taught about the “trading,” and “successful negotiations” that would happen among settlers and my ancestors, sometimes after battles. Settlers considered themselves to be a type of saviour, to this land. Not once, were slaves given a voice in the education system that was taught when I was growing up. The reason for this, in my opinion, is that knowingly, this information directly contradicts the “hard work,” that British and French settlers did for Canada today. These settlers are the reason we even have an education system, the same system that blindfolds it’s students. That information would be detrimental to the foundation of Canada. This misleading information, this terrible kind of education is the reason why we have violence and racism in this country. This is why racialized groups are marginalized and oppressed. White Canadian citizens feel that they are the ones that are owed thank yous, and apologies. They are owed sympathy and rewards for “letting” immigrants take shelter in this great country.

“BLM-TO co-founders and their supporters marched into the 2017 parade close to the intersection of Yonge and College street where, a year earlier, they’d interrupted the festivities to call out Pride Toronto, the not-for-profit organization that runs the annual celebrations. This time the group’s signs read, “May we never again need to remind you that we, too, are queer,” and “May we never again need to remind you that WE built this” and that “we shut it down for ALL OF US.” I remember this as righteous, bold, inspirational and powerful- But not surprising.”

I wish I could have been there to agree with them. To rally beside them, and take honour in their pride. To me, this is a reminder that the society we live in today, no longer cares about history or where we came from. It no longer cares about the pain and suffering that was experienced, to get us to where we are today. When the executive of Pride misleading signed their list of demands when BLM-TO interrupted the parade and said the next day “What I did was move the parade forward,” I get that, however I felt distrust. I felt that having pride in your own dignity meant nothing, and that people are constantly misconstruing what this means. People mistake integrity, with entitlement. They confuse honour, with gratification. This was a great reminder that, where we come from, in all walks of life, our paths should never be forgotten. It should never be disrespected or looked down on. Everything that we go through, unjust or just, shapes, molds, and builds who we are today as a civilization and individuals.

“Canadians who do recognize historical injustice seem to understand it in this way:

Bad things happened.

Bad things stopped happening and equality was achieved.

The low social and political status held by Indigenous peoples is now wholly based on the choice to be corrupt, lazy, inefficient and unsuited to the modern world.”

Desmond quotes this excerpt from Chelsea Vowel’s novel “Indigenous Writes.” This three point bulletin explains exactly how most Canadians understand their country now. It highlights that things happened, and now there is a notion that those same things no longer happen. These days when government officials in Ottawa hold press conferences, or public meetings, they say “ We [I] would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People.” I am not disagreeing that they should not acknowledge it. However, I acknowledge that it is not enough, and never will be enough. Bad things happened to these people, and they get less than 2% of Canadian soil for reserves. Acknowledging that these lands once belonged, and still rightfully belong to these nations and tribes, only serves to coddle Canadians, and dismisses the conversations that many people are still fighting to have.

[jonjost]

Drawing: Stephen Lack

Following the conspiracy lead of Steve Bannon and Breitbart, Donald Trump has grumbled and tweeted often about the Deep State, the purported nefarious grouping of hidden government persons lurking in the depths of the massive Federal apparatus of myriad acronymic masks.  ICE NSA FBI CIA and on through to lesser known but equally evil entities.  These are alleged to be conclaves, variously, of members of the Harvard elite, Yale’s Skull and Bones, Jewish cabalists, covens of Christian Fundamentalists, or whichever cluster-fuck you wish to designate, surely there will be a website or more devoted to reading the tea-leaves of the signals emitted from these organizational black holes and their swirling galaxies.  Right and Left wing chatterboxes selectively cherry-pick whatever political tid-bits they wish and construct fabulist narratives around them, from the assassination of JFK to that of MLK to 9/11 and on to the Boston Marathon bombing.  The existence of the internet gives wide berth for these to spawn, however false or true they might be.

Extracted from these events come tomes from scholars, Hollywood movies, novels and the rantings of Limbaugh, Hannity, Alex Jones and a host of lesser names.  There’s millions to be made from these, and those mentioned have made theirs and more.  Like America’s religious hucksters, there’s a lot of money to be made preying on the gullible and fearful, with which it seems our country is plentifully supplied.  Welcome to the world of QAnon.   It’s American as Apple Pie.

The Lakewood Mega-church, Dallas TX

For decades – well actually far longer than that, for centuries  – America has been awash with conspiracy theories, reaching back to its founding.  There were always traitors loose in the land, lluminati, the anti-christ, double-agents for foreign powers, the entire gamut of customary political war-horses, broad-brushes with which to paint your enemy. Today’s landscape is nothing new, just that for brief periods we like to pretend it ain’t so.

But, myths aside, it’s all the same old same old.  As is governance itself.

Two deep-state members, John Brennan and General Michael Hayden, former chiefs of the CIA

Conspiracy theories, to take root, need soil, and the United States government has been rich tilling land for as long as its been around.  Within long-term living memory those range from major matters, such as the concept that FDR and the government knew Pearl Harbor was coming, and let it happen.  Jump ahead half a century, and the same it true of 9/11.  In both cases there is ample evidence to suggest they are true, though the makers of American mythology adamantly insist that only a tin-foil hatter would believe such malarkey.  After all, who could believe that our own government would allow such events to occur when their job is to protect us?  Only a true nutter could believe such a thing, regardless of the massive evidence and logical reasons for such a thing to fit properly into a narrative.

And the same goes for lesser items from the assassination of JFK requiring magic bullets, and on down to such trivial things as using members of the military as guinea pigs for “scientific” experiments, or, well, hell, using whole cities like San Francisco to experiment with some new biological dispersal weapon.  Or letting St. George, Utah, knowingly be a nice down-wind recipient of nuclear bomb test radiation and then spending decades denying the cancerous downside.  In fact, the more one knows about Uncle Sam the more fertile the soil one finds for tin-foil hat thoughts.

Enter Donald, the wanna-be Queen’s tough guy sporting a giant borough-wide chip on his shoulder.  A self-made man, so he insists (that million buck starter kit from Dad don’t count), he broke into the hard-as-nails world of Manhattan real-estate and built a solid gold (well, at least gold-plated) reputation as a party-animal, womanizer, builder of garish towers, possessor of serial-wives and of serial bankruptcies.  And despite all that he wasn’t welcomed into the fold of the Manhattan elite, and here, decades later, bearing a grudge that deforms his face and body, and weighs on him like a WWF wrestler, he’s out to let them have it. Descending his golden escalator but 3 years ago, met by his adoring rent-a-crowd, he tossed his hat in the Presidential circus ring, and to wide amazement and laughter promptly vanquished the supposedly serious Republican candidates with school-yard taunts, and thereafter sent the world into shock when Hillary Clinton lost to him as well, if not in the general vote, then in the dubious Electoral College. The world has been aghast since, as The Donald charges like a raging bull, upsetting one institutionally rooted apple-cart after another, shredding the polite decorum and language of our traditional politics, and causing serious harm to the status quo.  Just like he said he would.

Well, almost.

  Having promised to “drain the swamp” The Don instead stocked the beltway with more alligator sleaze than anyone thought conceivable, stacking his Cabinet with grifters ready to dismantle their respective departments, and to feed at the Federal trough as quickly and mercilessly as possible.  Having reduced his GOP Congressional majorities to the quivering sycophants they always were, our gangster godfather trashed protocols, ripped up treaties and obsessively uprooted anything having to do with Barack Hussein Obama while loudly bellowing his utterly unmasked racism.  Supposedly serious Republicans held their silence while the Tea Party wing cheered lustily and the Don’s racist base went bananas.  Doubtless never having actually read it, the man sworn to uphold the US Constitution, did, as G W Bush had suggested, and treated it as “a goddam piece of paper.”   Toilet paper in this instance.

All of this behavior has transpired with little more than murmurs from the official opposition, the Democrats, who hide behind their minority status in the House and Senate whimpering there’s nothing they can do, their hands are tied until November, the mystical season of voting when the Great American Public is allowed to choose between corporately approved specimen A or B. And besides, they are as beholden to their corporate masters as the GOP, and should they speak too loudly the full depths of both-sides-of-the-aisle corruption would be fully exposed.   Until then the pages of YouTube and Facebook are awash with videos of virulent racists yelling and screaming on camera, police killing blacks for being black, ICE round-ups of alleged illegal aliens, children stored in ex-Walmart boxes converted to instant prisons, and other pleasantries of the present American mental landscape, the ugly id of the nation having been exposed by Trump’s tearing off of the band-aid of PC politeness imposed by the prior administration.

Faced with this rupture of politics-as-normal, the nation has contorted itself into the unimaginable:  the liberal-left now looks upon the FBI, the CIA and NSA as potential saviors, while the right, formerly the supposed champions of fiscal and moral rectitude, law & order, balanced budgets, goody-two-shoes ethics and virulent anti-Commie/Russiaphobes morphed instantaneously into Russiaphiles, haters of the deep-state combine of the FBICIANSA, and rabid pigs at the trough of corruption and racism.  And not only trickle down economics, but also trickle down ethics, in this case in the form of terminal corruption.  Hence the plague of YouTube racism and cop-killer videos.

You’re Fired!  Former FBI Chief Comey

Enter the deep rumblings of the Deep State.  Famed for having intervened in an attempted Richard Cheney machination during a breathless hospital visit to then Attorney General Ashcroft who lay seriously ill, while Cheney-Bush henchmen sought to secure his signature for a program of dubious legality, wearing his cloak as Ashcroft’s chief assistant, James Comey, life-long Republican, became a belated liberal hero, as did fellow Republican, Robert Mueller, then head of the FBI.  See this for the full story.    And now, a decade and some later, these two emerge from the deep bowels of the government yet again in tandem.  As FBI chief, appointed by Obama and retained by Donald Trump, Comey was pressed by his new boss to swear a certain kind of loyalty, mob-style. Declining, he was summarily fired, though in a manner in which in the arcane convolutions of government he was able to secure the naming of a special counsel to investigate Russian skullduggery during the 2016 election. The Special Counsel named was none other than Robert Mueller.  And not only that, but Comey also also did so in a manner which required Trump lackey Richard Sessions, Director of the Justice Department, to recuse himself from the investigation.    All this served well for Trump to loudly complain that he was being undercut and back-stabbed by the Deep State, of which Trump cohort Steven Bannon and his program Breitbart had long complained.

Drawing by Stephen Lack

The news of the day of late swirls with the constant word of criminality in high places – the current Manafort trial pealing the skin off the fancy-suited world of business and politics, with fantastical numbers, a litany of off-shore banking havens, and enough moral sleaze to last forever.  Or until the next, around-the-corner, trial to reveal still deeper depravity.   Or Avenatti’s latest lurid spill of The Don’s hushed-up sex-capades.

James Clapper, former head of the NSA

Legally, lying to a Congressional committee is a crime, whether under oath or not, punishable by up to five years in prison, or in some instances more.  James Clapper was head of the NSA,  (whom it turns out went to Annandale HS, Fairfax VA, 1956-60, same time I did, though I do not recall knowing him then, but my sister does), in testimony to Congress lied.  Caught at it, he recanted in a Clintonesque manner, parsing the exact meaning of “spying” etc.

John Brennan, Ex-Director of CIA

Mr Brennan, former director of the CIA, outspoken of late regarding Donald Trump -saying his comportment in Helsinki was “treasonous” – is himself in a problematic position, having also lied to Congress, just as did Clapper.  In his case regarding torture and such nice things.

And of course Mr Comey, fired director of the FBI, is also accused by some of lying, or at least fudging regarding leaks from his office.  All in all, a charming cluster of characters, all deeply enmeshed in governmental agencies which traffic in secrecy as a part of their function.  Naturally a good setting for conspiratorial actions.  So small wonder that thoughts of a Deep State tend to focus on this area, along with the military.

That this nexus of fellows engaged in the sordid arts of secrecy and executors of the dirty deeds of the US government should all re-emerge in unison, though this time wearing super-hero cloaks for some liberals, indeed raises a peculiar stench, the smell of something rotten deep in the bowels of America’s government: Yes, Virginia, there is a secret Deep State.

  And yes, it seeks to defend its institutional status and powers, just as do almost all bureaucratic institutional organizations.  In this case, these institutions (and 14 other “security” organizations under the umbrella of the Unites States Government), all seek to carry out their jobs as protectors of the corporate/business powers for which and on behalf of which that government exists.  And when by some quirk of circumstance, something or someone inimical to those interests occurs, it is their function to work together to challenge and defeat that intruding force.  And such, in the instance of Donald John Trump, is the case.

Were the Republican Party a healthy political party in American terms, it would have never allowed Trump to emerge as its nominee for President.  In a “healthy” state it would have vetted him, researched his background, and done whatever was necessary to assure he did not become their candidate.  But the Republican Party, like the rest of the society it is rooted in, is, exactly as is the Democrat Party, utterly corrupt, and has been so for some decades, steadily rotting away until it became a steaming fetid swamp of oligarchism marinated in All-American racism. The Democrats were equally corrupt, utterly owned by corporate powers, and utterly out-of-touch with what neo-liberal policies – their policies – had done to broad areas of the American public.

And as were and are the political parties of the USA, so too all its institutions are corrupt:  the Congress, the Courts, the Executive Branch, the 5th Estate, the corporate world, Wall Street.  Every. Damn. One. Of. Them.

So it is little wonder that along with all these pillars of American society that the Deep State is likewise corrupt.  Any decent working Deep State would have some time ago arranged a plausibly deniable accident, be it on the ground, Air Force One, or a berserk White House Guard, and Trump would already be fodder for further conspiracy theorists to figure out who done it.   But thus far, confronted with the Keystone Kops of the inept, obvious, utterly corrupted government of the most comical Don imaginable, the hard-men of the Deep State have thus far fumbled the ball, and the Trump gang, though snookered by their own glaring stupidity, is still standing.

So yes, Don, yes there is a Deep State, and it is certainly out to get you.  But it is just like you, and is inept and as flaccid as your butt is, unable to shift from the SOP of the Cold War to a world in which Tweets shift the market up and down and idiocy rules the White House, and few care if the President consorts with prostitutes and stuffs his government full with nepotism and cronyism.  After all, most of them are doing exactly the same things.

Meantime America burns.

Trump supporters, Florida

Painting by Stephen Lack

California forest fires seen from above the clouds

The Deep State and the Don(ald) Drawing: Stephen Lack Following the conspiracy lead of Steve Bannon and Breitbart, Donald Trump has grumbled and tweeted often about the…