a- Americans have been growing in awareness of the utility of the Turkish term “deep state.” Over the years, I’ve proposed a number of other useful terms such as “peak state:” that the single most likely leader of the deep state is the public ruler himself. Another useful phrase might be the “soft state” to denote the myriad cultural and social programs the U.S. government funds or directs to be funded by allied NGOs to influence the world through things like promoting microlending to Third World women. President Obama’s mother spent her career largely working for organs of the American soft state, such as the Ford Foundation and a company I had never been aware of before this week: DAI or Development Alternatives, Inc.