The American oligarchs out there – they are coming for us. They are trying to strip me of my constitutional power as your commander in chief. House of Cards US s6e7: Chapter 72, Claire addresses women’s conference, Netflix 2018
‘The real work is invisible. And it is invisibly spreading. The more you can make your organisation invisible, the more influence it will have.’ The Family I: Submersion, opening commentary, Netflix 2019
It took a long before I realised just who The Family was and the influence they have had on the leadership of our country. ibid. Jeff Sharlet, author
An invisible organisation who have been hiding in plain sight for eighty years. ibid.
A breathtaking enmeshment of church and state. ibid. woman
We would pray to be broken. We would pray to be nothing. We would pray to learn how to obey. ibid.
We are the new chosen. ibid.
The Cedars is this big white-pillared mansion … The seat of their power … ibid.
‘You guys are here to learn how to rule the world.’ ibid.
Jesus + Nothing: simultaneously banal and authoritarian. ibid.
Let’s be influential but let’s do it quietly. ibid.
What kind of influence did they want to have in the world. ibid.
So you had the hierarchy, the concentric rings. ibid.
A fundamentally anti-democratic movement … This organisation that denied it was an organisation was really one of the greatest networks of powerful figures in the world. ibid.
For The Family it’s all about relationships, the personal brother to brother relationship. The Family s1e2: Chosen
A secretive Christian organisation and one of the most influential religious groups in Washington. ibid.
People who believe they are chosen by God for leadership. ibid.
In the wake of the sex scandals and Clergy VOICE’s formal complaint, C-Street’s tax exempt status was partially revoked in 2009. The Fellowship denies any involvement with C-Street. Tax records suggest otherwise. ibid. caption
The National Prayer Breakfast is 100% the Family’s event. The Family s1e3: New World Order
It’s almost impossible to overstate The Family’s reach and access to governments all over the world. ibid.
And very quickly moved to the international level. The Family s1e4: Dictators, Murderers & Thieves
God cares most about the elites. ibid.
He’s one of the richest men in the world. He’s given away a staggering thirty-two billion dollars but is the billionaire philanthropist George Soros at the heart of a global conspiracy? This World: Conspiracy Files: The Billionaire Global Mastermind? BBC 2019
‘He is a true James Bond villain.’ ibid. Alex Jones
‘Soros [is] in many ways the biggest danger to the entire Western world.’ ibid. Nigel Farage
Some of the world’s most powerful politicians warn of his influence. Allegations are multiplying of secret Soros plots: flooding countries with migrants, orchestrating violence on the streets of America, and masterminding a hoax bomb plot to bring down the president. ibid.
Donald Trump’s message that the global elite are destroying America. ibid.
So how did George Soros become the arch-villain … In Britain he’s known as the man who broke the Bank of England in 1992 and made a billion dollars. ibid.
‘Who’s the Puppet Master? George Soros.’ ibid. Glenn Beck
There’s one issue above all that’s enraged the Right: they claim George Soros wants open borders and has a secret plan to flood the country with migrants. ibid.
Our democracy is not in peril – we do not live in a democracy. The image of our democracy is in peril. The deep state – the generals, bankers, corporatists, lobbyists, intelligence chiefs, government bureaucrats and technocrats – is intent on salvaging the brand. It is hard to trumpet yourself as the world’s guardian of freedom and liberty with Donald Trump blathering on incoherently about himself, inciting racist violence, insulting our traditional allies along with the courts, the press and Congress, tweeting misspelled inanities and impulsively denouncing or sabotaging bipartisan domestic and foreign policy. Chris Hedges, The Enemy Within, 2019
Trump’s most unforgivable sin in the eyes of the deep state is his criticism of the empire’s endless wars, even though he lacks the intellectual and organizational skills to oversee a disengagement. ibid.
The deep state committed the greatest strategic blunder in American history when it invaded and occupied Afghanistan and Iraq. Such fatal military fiascoes, a feature of all late empires, are called acts of ‘micro-militarism.’ Dying empires historically squander the last capital they have, economic, political and military, on futile, intractable and unwinnable conflicts until they collapse. They seek in these acts of micro-militarism to recapture a former dominance and lost stature. Disaster piles on disaster. ibid.
There are no internal or external checks on the deep state. The democratic institutions, including the press, that once gave citizens a voice and a say in the exercise of power have been neutered. The deep state will further the corporate consolidation of wealth and power, expand the social inequality that has thrust half of Americans into poverty or near poverty, strip us of our remaining civil liberties and feed the rapacious appetites of the military and the war industry. ibid.
Most Americans – regardless of whether they were once on the left or right – have become politically disempowered and economically insecure. Nowadays it’s the boardwalk versus private jets on their way to the Hamptons. ibid.
We don’t live in a democracy but we do live in a police state. What we’re gonna see is the unveiling of this grey state foisted upon America. A Gray State, Netflix 2017
They’re prepping for mega-death. Once the red carpet get rolled out for this New World Order programme, everything is free game. The bastard of it all is you’ve heard of everything. ibid.
‘David Crowley was a voice for a movement that believed that a government shutdown was imminent.’ ibid. Jason Allen, fan
‘Then I noticed there was a little body that looked like it was almost in the second body’s arms.’ ibid. neighbour discovers murder of Crowley’s wife and baby
‘How do you explain three deaths, you know, a husband and a wife and their little girl?’ ibid. Cory Zurowski, journalist
‘Did the government want to silence him and his film?’ ibid. WHDT television report
After David Crowley’s return from Afghanistan in 2009, he enrols in film-school. While Komel works a full-time job as a dietician, Crowley and his creative partner Danny Mason embark on the Grey State problem. ibid. caption
Police agencies are being trained to watch veterans. ibid.
Another secret system of power that controlled the country. But you could never discover it through normal means because it was so deeply hidden. the hidden system of power underneath … In a dark world of hidden power you couldn’t expect everything to make sense. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head I: Bloodshed on Wolf Mountain, BBCiplayer 2021
The politicians increasingly found there was little they could do to respond to this anger. Because over the past ten years all sorts of new organisations had grown up that were deliberately designed to limit the politician’s power. Because national politics was dangerous to the stability of the global system. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head IV: But What if the People are Stupid?
The people driven by the new individualism had retreated into their own private worlds. So the politicians switched sides and became instead the representatives of the new powerful technocratic class. It still looked like they were powerful and had control over events. But now the people had gone, beneath them was a void. ibid.
Liberal politicians in the West had willingly given up much of their power in the interests of the greater good – a global stability. Power had gone first to the global financial institutions and now it was being given to the American military as well. ibid.