Many people would like political solutions to their problems. In other words, they want the government to force others to do what they prefer.However, people with any moral sense recognize that can only create more problems. Clever players, especially those with Machiavellian ethics, use the government as a tool. But they prefer to do so from behind a curtain.They know that it’s more effective, and a lot safer, to pull the puppet’s strings from offstage. They sometimes step into the limelight, depending on the circumstances and the depth of their personal narcissism. But they’re all about two things: Power and money. Call them the Deep State.Once a country develops an entrenched Deep State, only a revolution or a dictatorship can eliminate it. And probably only in a small country.The American Deep State is a powerful informal network which controls most institutions. You won’t read about it in the news because it controls the news. Politicians won’t talk about it, or even admit that it exists. That would be like a mobster discussing murder and robbery on the 6 o’clock news. You could say the Deep State is hidden, but it’s hidden in plain sight.The Deep State is involved in almost every negative thing that’s happening right now. It’s essential to know what it’s all about.The StateThe Deep State uses and hides behind the State itself.Even though the essence of the State is coercion, people have been taught to love and respect it. Most people think of the State in the quaint light of a grade school civics book. They think it has something to do with “We the People” electing a Jimmy Stewart character to represent them. That ideal has always been a pernicious fiction because it idealizes, sanitizes, and legitimizes an intrinsically evil and destructive institution, which is based on force. As Mao once said, political power comes out of the barrel of a gun.The Deep StateThe Deep State controls the State, i.e., the government. It’s as old as history itself. But the term “Deep State” originated in Turkey, which is appropriate since it’s the heir to the totally corrupt Byzantine and Ottoman empires. And in the best Byzantine manner, our Deep State has insinuated itself throughout the fabric of what once was America. Its tendrils reach from Washington down to every part of civil society. Like a metastasized cancer, it can no longer be easily eradicated.In many ways, Washington models itself after another city with a Deep State, ancient Rome. Here’s how a Victorian-era freethinker, Winwood Reade, accurately described it:“Rome lived upon its principal till ruin stared it in the face. Industry is the only true source of wealth, and there was no industry in Rome. By day the Ostia road was crowded with carts and muleteers, carrying to the great city the silks and spices of the East, the marble of Asia Minor, the timber of the Atlas, the grain of Africa and Egypt; and the carts brought out nothing but loads of dung. That was their return cargo.”The Deep State controls the political and economic essence of the US. This is much more than observing that there’s no real difference between the left and right wings of the Demopublican Party. Anyone with any sense (that is, everybody except the average voter) knows that although the Republicans say they believe in economic freedom (but don’t), they definitely don’t believe in social freedom. And the Democrats say they believe in social freedom (but don’t), but they definitely don’t believe in economic freedom.Of course, that describes the traditional Republicans and Democrats. However, both parties have metastasized. MAGA has broken up the old-style Republicans, and various stripes of radical socialists have disassembled the traditional Democrats. The U.S. itself has degenerated from a fairly homogeneous country to a multicultural domestic empire, on the way to something like a civil war. But that’s another subject.Who Is the Deep State?The American Deep State is a real, but informal, structure that has arisen to not just profit from but to control the State.The Deep State has a life of its own, like the government itself. Within the government, it’s composed of top-echelon employees of a dozen Praetorian agencies, like the FBI, CIA, and NSA. Top generals, admirals, and other military operatives. Plus long-term congressmen and senators, and directors of important regulatory agencies.But the Deep State is much broader than just the government. It includes the heads of major corporations, all of whom are heavily involved in selling to the State and enabling it. That absolutely includes Silicon Valley, although those guys at least used to have a sense of humor, evidenced by their defunct “Don’t Be Evil” motto.It also includes the top people in the Fed, and the heads of the major banks, brokers, and insurers. Add the presidents and many professors at top universities, which act as Deep State recruiting centers. Top media figures, of course, and many regulars at things like the WEF, Bohemian Grove, and the Council on Foreign Relations. They epitomize the status quo, held together by power, money, and propaganda.Altogether, I’ll guess these people number a couple thousand. You might analogize the structure of the Deep State to a huge pack of dogs. The people I’ve just described are the Top Dogs.But there are hundreds of thousands more who aren’t at the nexus but who directly depend on them, have considerable clout, and support the Deep State because it supports them. This includes many of the wealthy, especially those who got that way thanks to their State connections. The 1.5 million people who have top secret clearances (that’s a shocking but accurate number), plus top players in organized crime, especially the illegal drug business, little of which would exist without the State. Plus mid-level types in the police and military, corporations, and non-governmental organizations.These are what you might call the Running Dogs.Beyond that are the scores and scores of millions who depend on things remaining the way they are, like the 50%-plus of Americans who are net recipients of benefits from the State—the 70 million on Social Security, the 90 million on Medicaid, the 50 million on food stamps, the many millions on hundreds of other programs, the 23 million government employees and most of their families. In fact, let’s include the many millions of average Joes and Janes who are just getting by.You might call this level of people, the vast majority of the population, Whipped Dogs. They both love and fear their master; they’ll do as they’re told and roll over on their backs and wet themselves if confronted by a Top Dog or Running Dog who feels they’re out of line. These three types of dogs make up the vast majority of the US population. I trust you aren’t among them. I consider myself a Lone Wolf in this context and hope you are, too. Unfortunately, however, dogs are enemies of wolves and tend to hunt them down.The Deep State is destructive, but it’s great for the people in it. And, like any living organism, its prime directive is: Survive! It survives by indoctrinating the fiction that it’s both good and necessary, which is a lie. It’s a parasite that promotes the ridiculous notion that everyone can live at the expense of society.Is it a conspiracy headed by a man stroking a white cat? I think not. It’s hard enough to get a bunch of friends to agree on what movie to see, much less a bunch of power-hungry miscreants bent on running everyone’s lives. But, on the other hand, the Top Dogs all know each other, went to the same schools, belong to the same clubs, socialize, and, most importantly, have common interests, values, and philosophies.The American Deep State rotates around the Washington Beltway. It imports America’s wealth as tax revenue. A lot of that wealth is consumed there by useless mouths. And then, it exports things that reinforce the Deep State, including wars, fiat currency, and destructive policies. This is unsustainable simply because nothing of value can come out of a city full of parasites.A SOLUTION?Many Americans still believe Donald Trump is a solution to what ails the US.They still think he’s a maverick who will smash the Deep State. That’s understandable since, even though he’s devoid of moral or philosophical principles, he’s at least a cultural conservative who wants the country to resemble the happy days of yesteryear, when Mom, apple pie, and Chevrolets were more important than Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.Many of us believed him when he said that he would abolish the income tax, never involve the U.S. in foreign wars, and generally cut back the size of government. Those hopes are as dead as Elon Musk’s noble DOGE.Trump is a nationalist, a traditionalist, and business-oriented. But so was Mussolini, who also liked the idea of massive State involvement in business. Most Americans are unaware that the U.S. government under Trump has taken equity positions in over a dozen corporations, with many more on the runway.Unfortunately, that works to cement the Deep State further into position.Trump has, almost necessarily, surrounded himself with Deep State players—like Commerce Secretary Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Bessent, and Fed Chairman Warsh. They’re all denizens of the swamps and cesspools in and around the Washington Beltway, Wall Street, Academia, and the media.Trump is not about to abolish government agencies (although it’s nice to see what happened to USAID), or fire many government employees. He sees these things as resources, minions, to do what he fancies.His lack of a moral core guarantees that instead of trying to abolish the State (in the manner of Argentina’s Milei or Ron Paul), he’ll just use it in ways he thinks are righteous. The proof of that is the trillions of new government spending and deficits he’s approved so far.He’ll spend trillions more over the next two years. And all of it will feed the Deep State.On the bright side, though Trump’s rhetoric and actions are generally horrible, they’re less objectionable than Kamala’s. Kamala, and the people behind her, would have worked overtime to collectivize the US.On the not-so-bright side, I suspect the Democrats will win the mid-terms come November. They’ll impeach Trump, and tie him in knots for his numerous illegalities and massive grift. They’ll regain control of the apparatus of the State, and won’t give it up again.The Deep State, however, doesn’t really care who’s in office. Although they prefer the Dems at this point because Trump has turned into a loose cannon. He’s become totally unpredictable, except when it comes to his own pocketbook, and a certain foreign country. The Deep State, the Establishment, will get even fatter and happier when the Dems take control, while the average American slides further into the Slough of Despond.That’s what they’ll work for. And that’s the way to bet.What does this mean for us? Stay long commodities, and particularly gold and oil stocks.This article was originally published on International Man.The post Your Enemy, The Deep State appeared first on LewRockwell.