Who, or what, is the deep state, anyway?

I saw this question in a response to a post by @X22report, and answered. Then I noticed that the post was weeks ago, and decided to paste my answer here, for anyone interested. Here it is:

While there is competition between rich people, there is also coordination. They do really compete - but only as long as such competition doesn't stop the rising tide that floats all their boats. None of them will countenance any intraplutocratic spat threatening all of them, and they will all gang up on anyone that threatens their hegemony.

Like they are doing to Trump. There are levels of the deep state. It isn't a shallow plate, but rather a deep vase, with actors intent on simply retaining their power against noobs, and noobs intent on rising to the top, and all points in between. The wealthiest 85 Americans own more than the poorest 85%. It is a far wider gap between the poorest of the rich and the richest of the rich, than between the poorest of the poor, and the poorest of the rich.

Companies like Bechtel, Rand, Raytheon, Boeing, IBM, Dyncorps, KKR, Coca-Cola, GM, GE, and many, many more are owned by investors. Most of the largest of these companies are publicly held, and, if you can spare the money, you can purchase an ownership interest (buy stock) in them, but some, such as The Carlisle Group, are privately owned. You can't buy stock in them.

Corporations are run by Boards of Directors, and many of the largest have interlocking directorates, meaning that certain persons are directors on many different boards, many different companies. This is usually dependent on the equity stake the director controls, either personally, or by proxy.

From XKCD

As you can imagine, it's a very complex and obscure entity. Governments are corporations, but are managed somewhat differently, and most governments today have some form of parliamentary democracy, like the United States, Great Britain, and Israel, for example. They also have a Chief Executive, like Prime Minister, President, or, less commonly, some kind of Monarchy/King.

None of that clears the air in the least, of course, particularly as many governmental posts are filled by business people that come from various industries. The Director of the CIA is generally considered to be a post most often filled by someone from Goldman Sachs, an international investment bank (to be kind).

So, the deep state is an entrenched plutocracy that colludes (in groups like the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, or the Bilderberg group) in secret to retain, and increase, their power and wealth, using propaganda via their ownership of media outlets in order to secure the acquiescence, and even blind devotion, of the common people. These citizens are fed rhetoric that they believe to greater or lesser degree, that usually promises to increase their economic and political power, while, for the last 50 years, in America anyway, they are being manipulated so that they have less and less of both.

In the last 50 years, the deep state has undertaken new kinds of profitable enterprises, fueled by black market drug profits, and a greater focus on sexploitation. The organ harvest/transplant industry is one of those new endeavors, and practically unlimited profit can be mined from the poor peoples of the world, as medical revolutions in genetics, pharmaceuticals, and geriatrics continue to extend the lives of those that can pay to have the blood and organs stripped from their victims, to ever longer spans.

I think of Elizabeth Bathory as a good metaphor for the deep state.

Hope that helps!