The article <a href="https://scheerpost.com/2025/02/17/patrick-lawrence-trump-vs-the-deep-state/" source="Scheer Post" author="Patrick Lawrence">Trump vs. the Deep State</a> included the following passage as part of a longer discussion . <bq><b>I do not think, I mean to say, the deep state’s presence in America’s political life will ever be off the table now</b> that Trump has put its insidious presence on it. This is a good thing.</bq> <img attachment="sleepwalking.jpg" align="right">I wouldn't be too sure of that. People are remarkably capable of going back to sleep, especially when their salaries depend on it, especially when their lifestyles depend on it, and especially with an incredible amount of simultaneous media services, all cooing nursery rhymes day and night to lull the population into thinking its lords and rulers need it to think. Think about what happened "after" COVID: there are several epidemics raging right now, debilitating industry and economies with the ill, hospitals filling up again. There's H5N1---currently mostly among animals---there's RSV, there's the flu---bigger than in the last quarter-century---and there's still COVID, which has stayed at epidemic levels throughout. Polio, whooping cough, and measles are making a comeback. The numbers of infected are higher than a sane civilization would be willing to accommodate but it's just accepted that this is how it is. We learned nothing but how to be sullen, sulking children, only somewhat mollified by having been giving back all of our toys.