SES: Senior Executive Service
The un-elected deep state management layer.
For my few early readers: this substack provides links and references to the real world conspiracies and elements mentioned in the Apophenia Gold series - the “realism” in the magical realism historical fiction sandwich.
I’ve often wondered why most everyone is willing to believe there is a “deep state” in other countries but not here. Thus, here’s to identifying specifics of how the deep state operates and how it perpetuates itself.
In addition to the rotating carousel between corporations and government (the source of agency capture/ regulatory capture), we have an administrative layer that is virtually un-fireable. Read on about the Senior Executive Service.
From Robert Malone’s substack:
Members of the SES serve in the key positions just below the top Presidential appointees. SES employees are the major link between these appointees and the rest of the Federal workforce. They operate and oversee nearly every government activity in approximately 75 Federal agencies.
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The other important point about the SES is that the president has no role in choosing them; he can’t re-assign them or fire them. The SES comprises the non-transparent group of managers and elites who run the country from within. They are the employees who quietly block, slow-walk, and defer presidential orders.
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The easiest way out of this quandary in the long term is for Congress to amend the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 to clarify the role of the SES employee and other employees within the federal government. This would be a permanent solution instead of a temporary bandaid.
The Schedule F executive order, the first major attempt at undoing this system, includes this note:
Only a quarter of Federal supervisors are confident that they could remove a poor performer. Career employees in confidential, policy-determining, policy‑making, and policy-advocating positions wield significant influence over Government operations and effectiveness. Agencies need the flexibility to expeditiously remove poorly performing employees from these positions without facing extensive delays or litigation.
Schedule F Executive Order