The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government

A really good book in the analysis of the present situation with the "Deep State" but weak on a possible solution. The system can't be reformed. I fear the best we can hope for is either a Soviet style collapse or another bloody Civil War. Pessimistic yes but at least it is 20 years away.

The way our country works is nothing like what was described in civics textbooks and political science lectures. Mike Lofgren worked in the heart of government for years as an analyst for the Congressional budget committees. He provides insight regarding the mentality that tends to pervade the Washington power structures. Power appears to have deserted the citizenry and been taken over not by politics but by individuals and offices that he calls the Deep State.

I bought this used and it is in excellent condition! It was delivered on time with 2-day Prime shipping. No issues whatsoever.

In regards to the book, it was fascinating to read the experiences and insider knowledge of a 28-year congressional employee. He illustrates a deeper understanding of governmental practices, ties, and corruption. Many of the questions us forward thinkers have are brought up and dissected.

Great read and great seller!

An important book.

This should be read by a majority of people. However, the general apathy and passivity of the American population will make this a "no go." I'm not sure how a problem like this can be resolved. Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex and obviously that warning was not paid attention too. What makes this any different?

Other supreme court decisions, such as Citizens United and other atrocities have gone largely unnoticed. Too me, we have three big problems that continue to not be addressed the first is Global Warming, the second is Nuclear Warfare, and the third is Technology. All of them have the potential to destroy the human race or your humanity. Possibly, they have the potential to destroy both at the same time. I don't know what it is about "us." I have wondered at time if humanity is flawed or has a predisposition to being corrupt or evil.

There is botswarming, astroturfing, and think tanks. Confusion seems to be the constant reminder. Where everything is hidden and secret. The beauty of the human race in full effect. Once resources run out and large portions of the population are displaced (billions) we can be assured that at least a few managed to make a lot of money. Oh wait...maybe by then it will be data, the new currency and by then many animals will be extinct. Largely, gifts from the planet that we could have managed. Oh well the window is closing...there goes the human race. At least, people will still be trying to control other people. We'll be warring over resources and by then no one will be held accountable. Think of the money that could be made from War!

At least we are good at making weapons to destroy ourselves and lying to one another. Also, you may have nano-technology running through your bloodstream. So possibly being controlled from the inside out, you won't be having thoughts like this one. A lot to look forward too.

Mr. Lofgren conducts a limited examination of the national security bureaucracy and misses the largest and most dangerous part of the Deep State: the regulatory bureaucracy exercising absolute power - enacting law by decree, enforcing that law and then adjudicating its own enforcement. The absolute bureaucracy is run by a new mandarin class - educated in the correct "elite schools" with an aristocratic sociology and a totalitarian ideology which recognizes no limits to their power.

Just about everyone knows something is dangerously wrong with our nation’s political system. There is a growing awareness that the United States is drifting blindly into a state of greater inequality, stagnation, oligarchy, and perpetual war, with a ruling establishment that neither responds to the will of the people nor to the problems our nation faces. If you want evidence of this pervasive sense of unease, look no further than the 2016 presidential election, where a bombastic celebrity billionaire and a cantankerous grandfatherly democratic socialist are claiming the political system is rigged and are driving the scions of the status quo into the rubber room -- at least for now. In his most recent book, The Deep State, Mike Lofgren has written a timely exegesis of that status quo and its staying power. He has made it easier for any concerned citizen to understand the realities of the political and constitutional crises now facing the United States -- and perhaps even improve the reader’s sense for the madness that now characterizes presidential politics.

Before reading further, be advised, I am biased: the author Mike Lofgren is a long time colleague and close friend. Lofgren worked on Capitol Hill while I worked in the Pentagon, and over the years, beginning in the late 1980s, we discussed and tried to understand the many hidden connections that had evolved insensibly over time to disconnect the money siphoning operations of the Military - Industrial - Congressional Complex from the system of checks and balances designed by the Framers of the Constitution.

This book goes much further. It grew out of a stunning essay -- Anatomy of the Deep State (Feb 2014) — that Lofgren produced at the request of journalist Bill Moyers. Lofgren has written a tour de force that takes the reader on a wild ride through a bosky fen of confusion, disorder, and corruption that is at once witty and particular, but also general and prescriptive. That mix is no mean feat. To be sure, the story he weaves is complex, and at times overwhelming and disgusting, but anyone can understand it, if he or she takes the time to read and think about what he is saying.

Lofgren's analysis centers on how the looting operations of three mutually reinforcing “pillars" (my word) of the contemporary American Deep State evolved over time. These “pillars” are themselves self-organizing groupings of coincident interests. They form what some essayists have called an “iron triangle” of capitalists in the private sector and the professional bureaucrats as well as elected officials in legislative and executive branches of government. This triangle is powered by money flows and influence peddling, and its operations are lubricated by a revolving door where the players freely climb the greasy pole to power and riches by moving from one corner to another. Lofgren's analysis includes most obviously (1) the money pumping operations of the Military - Industrial - Congressional Complex, and the more subtle triangular looting and power grabbing operations of (2) Big Finance and (3) the self-styled libertarian Hyper Capitalism of Silicon Valley. To be sure, there are other iron triangles he does not discuss in great detail (e.g., Big Pharma, Big AG and the food supply, etc.), but his story is clear and sufficiently broad enough to make the point.

Lofgren shows how the more obvious idea of an iron triangle is only the inner core of a wider web of interests, which includes, inter alia, those of lobbyists, think tanks, political action committees (PACs), universities, pseudo intellectuals and ideologues, establishment promoting pundits in the fourth estate, tax deductible foundations, and behind them, the deep pockets of billionaire oligarchs, who have had their influence unleashed by recent decisions of the Supreme Court. The blood giving life to the inner and outer aspects of this pulsating web of non-democratic power and influence is MONEY, which the Supreme Court in the Citizens United Decision legitimated as a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment.

One of the most important aspects of Lofgren's analysis, at least to my thinking, lies in his frequent reminders that the structural aspects of the current state of affairs are not the results of a centrally guided conspiracy run out of a smoke filled room. The “structure” of the Deep State is more an emergent property of incremental give and take by thousands of players, whose successes and failures are conditioned by an interplay of chance and necessity, in what is really a cultural evolution. To be sure, there are lots of smoke filled rooms conspiring invisibly to play this game of chance and necessity inside the American Deep State, but they are competing with each other as well as cooperating -- and it is the evolutionary character of the Deep State that enables it to survive and grow on its own terms, and that emergent character is what makes the Deep State so dangerously resistant to change.

But don't take my word for it -- read the book!

This book like so many others still believe the "Official Fake Fairy Tale" of 911 was done by Saudi rag-tag Arab Extremists with just box-cutters and that NO EXPLOSIVES were used to take down 3 buildings, one not even mentioned in the "Official Conspiracy", Bldg 7. All 3, the two towers each with 110 floors fell and exploded outward and fell in free-fall acceleration within 14 seconds. It took over 16 months to construct each tower, yet they come down in less than 14 seconds? & WITHOUT explosives? That's some REAL make believe.

I got the Audible edition. It angers and depresses the reader. It takes a pretty far left doctrinaire approach.There appears to be a lot of truth here but it is difficult to know if things are really this bad. To him government and all those who control it are entirely self serving. The author was in government for years,so was he self serving ?Did his tenure result in no good?
Before you can believe such an unpalatable description,you need to check it against what you already know. Unfortunately for him he digresses into several areas where I have independent knowledge. Here he indulges in gross simplification. For example he blames the First World War on the bankers and the arms merchants. The Korean War or any part of the Cold War were unnecessary and due to the corrupt power structure on Wall Street. I was floored when I found out that he was an operative of the Republican Party. He sounds like someone freshly graduated from some Anti-American liberal arts history department.
He says America is based on money worship.Yankee Imperialism ruined South America, etc. Few people ever hear that American bondholders tried to finance South American prosperity again and again, but their government dictatorships defaulted over and over .
So what about his main points? I do not know how much to trust his opinions,so I can't say.

This readable, witty, informed and incisive book briefly summarizes how and why Washington and U.S. politics work against the interests of its citizens, and what they can do about it. I can't imagine a more convincing, believable, persuasive argument or author. He even makes me hopeful that citizen action from both left and right can change things. I do believe Lofgren's two books have contributed enormously to the national and global dialogue, and that his perspectives will go far in giving concerned citizens the needed tools to disabuse ourselves of ignorant monied interests' unconscionably-promoted ideologies sufficiently to "take back our country." When enough influential and moral citizens finally understand what's going on and why--and I see no reason why this is unlikely, considering the pace of the national dialogue and books like Lofgren's and others he references--I think energetic youth joined and supported by hopeful elders will figure out and create (probably through new technological capabilities) approaches to governing that will be more representative and reflective of the people's interests, instead of special / monied interests. I'm very grateful for this wise and thoughtful gift from a longtime public servant who is highly respected on both sides of the Congressional aisles.

Obviously a learned and gifted author, but perhaps the worst book I have ever read. It started off so strong but could not finish it, due to random thoughts loosely strung together on unrelated subjects strung together. I am sure the followers of Bill Moyers loved but not I

Valid insight and years of experience merge into a somewhat misbranded work tracking the career of one staffer who, although experienced, is more willing to brush aside the complicated matters as conspiracy than truly seek explanation or understanding beyond the confines of his vast, but preconceived notions. I picked up this book to understand better, what certain journalists mean when referring to the "deep state." After months of watching Sean Hannity...who tosses the term around with no real consistency I ended up on "The Deep State." With everything happening in DC and around the Country, I understand something is happening beyond the sight of everyday American citizens. Conjuring up notions of any government in history with a pronounced "State" component--a Deep State, well defined could hold answers to what is going on, and solutions for the future. Unfortunately, I bought this book hoping for a researched alternative to Hannity (who at best says "Fox News Reporter X is reporting exclusively tonight about the Deep State. Her reporting states ..." only the only source these stories ever seem to have is Fox's own reporting. I've been with Fox for a long time, long before it was the right thing to do...but I simply cannot sit back as their number one prime time anchor refuses to actually practice journalism. We need someone who understands and is willing to figure out what is actually goin on. Unfortunately, "The Deep State" much like every other book and report that's come before it--issues no real evidence.

This book fails to answer certain critical questions, like: If the alleged Deep State is (1) powerful, (2) pulling all the strings, (3) against Donald Trump, and (4) controlling the key strongholds of American power...than why is Trump Still president? Why hasn't he been replaced by one of their puppets?

Because, unfortunately the only basis for the "deep state" are those few and far between outlier events or facts that don't make sense amidst a sea of millions that do. I used to work in the coin room at an armored car company. We received millions of dollars in quarters every week, and had to run them through a hopper for cleaning, scanning, damage removal, and packaging. With all of the safeguards on that modern equipment, it was almost impossible for the wrong coin or currency to slip into a certain batch. When it did happen, if the machine caught it with one of its filters, we had to shut down the entire room, hand check the hoppers, and make certain the bad coin had a reason for being out of place. We worked 10 hour days and this would always take an additional 45 minutes to do. One week we had 12 error coins, a record, and it cost over $1500 in overtime. The owners hired engineers to evaluate the systems, offered to recall certain wrapped coin if it had discrepant coinage, and went to great lengths to find an explanation. It reached a fever pitch when we had to start wearing white bunny suits for like CDC scientists and walk through a magnified metal detector at the entrance to the room. It was wearing us all out...then all of a sudden the anomalies quit happening. We went three months without a single error coin. A record for the machine. And that's when the owners again tried to solve this crazy mystery. One thought is was the manufacturer of the coin room separators who wanted us to buy service contracts. Another thought it was some sort of corporate espionage--they pointed out that a certain employee left just two days before we had our 'clean streak.' It was our own little mystery...but not to the three of us who worked the coin room. We just knew we couldn't keep getting shut down to deal with one penny in a sea of quarters. There was no conspiracy, no corporate espionage, no system flaw...just the three of us who figured out that if a penny somehow made it into the hopper, it saved us about an hour each time we were able to pluck the thing out of circulation.

It's been a decade now..so it's time for that story to be told. The Deep State...is based on far less. It's the telling of a story that doesn't even exist.

The author of "The Deep State" is a retired Congressional staff member, Mike Lofgren, who spent 28 years working with Congress and as a senior analyst on the House and Senate budget committees. In this book he puts forth the idea that our elected officials are not the ones running the government and making decisions, but are pawns to a shadow government that is submerged in the murky waters of the military-industrial complex, Wall Street and Silicon Valley. The bottom line is always money and corruption runs through these waters in a deep current. The business of the government is being done from behind the scenes. Lofgren says that not all of the government is run by the Deep State, but certain departments and areas are. Lofgren is sometimes irreverent and sometimes humorous, but with his experience of years with Congress, what he says makes sense. A lot of time is spent on the topics of the government using private enterprise at much higher cost vs government agencies, foreign policy, defense and government spying on its citizens. It is frightening but fascinating at the same time because the book really is a page-turner. With so much of things going on in the wings, it almost sounds as if it doesn't matter who is president. In discussing the lack of attention to our infrastructure, the author likens what is happening here to what happened when Rome fell starting with the crumbling of its own infrastructure. Methods of torture beyond what we know about and the 2008 economic meltdown resulted in no convictions of war crimes, and no one on Wall Street went to jail, no matter how much money was hidden in off-shore accounts.

Everyone would benefit from reading this book. I first read a copy from my local library, but bought a copy for my Kindle, because it is worth a second reading and to use as a reference. We are that much smarter and aware when reading books such as this one. I highly recommend it.

Want to understand how healthcare, education and infrastructure budgets are slashed while military aid to Israel is increased? Want to really understand why we waste TRILLIONS of dollars slaughtering millions of innocents (and thousands of Americans) in unjust wars, lying about WMDs, etc.? How did our military become the mercenary army of Israel? Want to know how a Mossad (son of founding Mossad Agent) agent could run Homeland Security and write our Patriot Act? Still trying to figure out how Israeli terrorist Netanyahu can spit in our president's face and receive record standing ovations from a ZioPuppet congress as he demands that his US mercenary army attacks Iran, pushing us into yet another disastrous war based on Mossad lies? Ever wonder why the MSM lies about almost everything that's "important'? Curious about NYT columnists assigned to cover the Mideast who have children serving in Israel's IDF? Have you noticed that sporting events like the Super Bowl have become recruiting commercials for the military? Wonder why our police forces are being sent to Israel for crowd control training, etc.? Why do small rural police departments need armored assault vehicles? How can we justify sending armored assault vehicles against Native Americans who are trying to save what little land we allow them to keep? Well, if you can follow the money and understand just how corrupt our government is, how broken our system is, and why we are the most hated country in the world - through this book you'll get answers or at least signposts that will lead you to the truth!

From the first few words of the introduction, I sensed that many of the assumptions I'd been making for years about how our country is run would be affirmed. I wasn't wrong. But I wasn't prepared for the all-out no-holds-barred expose of so much that is wrong with our government, nor was I ready to say the words out loud: "My God. The entire thing is corrupt!" At one point, I kept hoping to find some ray of hope, some pinpoint of light at the end of the tunnel. But it wasn't to be. As others have stated here in their reviews, more people need to read this. But sadly, those who should won't, as there are still far too many ostriches in our fair land who don't want their perception of the good old US of A tarnished in any way.

Coming away from it, my most basic question would have to be, why hasn't this author been summarily disposed of by those powers whose myriad of crimes he exposes here? I think he answers that question in the text when he says that a mass revolt would be useless at this point, because the powers-that-be, aka the elite moneyed bankers are all now pretty much above the law and untouchable. For it's reached a point where they are now so smug in their untouchability that even his revealing all their secrets no longer ruffles a single one of their colorful feathers.

If it would be possible to turn the tide of corruption, to try to make this a "government of, for and by the people" again, I'd say, sure, everyone should read this. But what purpose does knowing all this serve? For which among us who has read it is prepared to do something about it? Just as I thought. No one. So as well-written and pointedly blunt as it is, it's just another bunch of words on paper that will go right where the rest all go: nowhere.

Still, I'm glad I read it, if only to be able to now say, "I knew it! I was right!"

This is an interesting and informative book, but a bit of a puzzler. Lofgren does a nice exposing the Deep State, the book is interesting and well written. But, here is why I call it a "puzzler". Lofgren, a former Republican aide, fires roundhouse right after right at Republicans, but only wiggles a "naughty, naughty" finger at Democrats. On a number of issues where both sides are obviously to blame, he focuses on Republicans. Additionally, Lofgren really has it in for people of faith and Tea Party members, while at the same time acknowledging the Tea Party was one of the few groups that made a dent in the Deep State's hold on the country. Maybe it is because he knows his side best and has seen the abuse up close. But, as a Libertarian, I can tell you he pretty much gives the Democrats an undeserved pass. So, I recommend this book but read it with the knowledge that Lofgren only identifies a portion of the cause and rise of the Deep State.

Mike Lofgren, a Washington insider if there ever was one (congressional staff member working on top committees), has written a book that has lifted a few veils from my own eyes. Why is it that no politician can change anything in Washington, even when they run on a promise of "hope and change"? Lofgren's answer, developed through chapter after chapter of interesting anecdote, pins the lack of change on two things: the self-interested federal bureaucracy, and the dependence of elected officials on the largesse of lobbyists. In pursuing their own interests, both bureaucrats and politicians have become the tools of the military-industrial complex, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in public choice economics--after reading this book, one is likely, in the words of James Buchanan, "to have no romance about government."

If only everyone in America would read this book. Previous reviewers have written about the content to great effect so I am not going to repeat them. We need people to realize what is actually going on with out government. We still have the vote and can still change things. Lofgren takes shots at the GOP, the Dems, the corporations and think-tanks and the military. We need to get out and push change through as he describes in his last chapter. If not, we will continue to become more of a oligarchy of the rich and a corporatocracy. We need to really take over the government.

I liked this book better than his prior book: The party is over. So read this one instead. But for solutions to our current and foreseeable future dire problems, his proposed remedies will only get us half way there. Instead , I favor most of David Stockman's reforms in the last chapter of his book The Great Deformation. I thinks we need some kind of campaign finance reform so members of congress don't spend all their time dialing for dollars from lobbyists and special interest corporate and union donors. Secondly we should reform, redeploy and downsize the military and intelligence complex. I think we need to tread carefully in the middle east and reconsider who are real friends really are. I agree we should be doing infrastructure repairs. He neglects to mention downsizing wall street and the Federal Reserve Bank. We do need radical federal tax reform. We need a responsible immigration reformed policy. We should not adopt a single payer health care system as the author said. But we do need radical health care reform which is NOT Obamacare. WE also need to reform social security, medicare, and medicaid, and solve the burgeoning federal debt crisis, which again Lofgren fails to address. Corporate reform laws need to passed as well to give shareholders greater power over the operation of the big companies. Lastly, we must reconsider the idea of some kind of term limits, pension reform, labor rights, and the idea of representation in Congress and the state legislatures. Congress no longer represents the average american citizen. Lofgren compeletely ignored the idea of representation. He alluded to it with campaign reform, but that does not go far enough. Our federal government is so corrupt and out of control in spending money that we need radical constitutional reform. Only Stockman's book comes close to the ideal blueprint for radical reform of the Federal Government. I urge every citizen to read Stockman's book too along with Logfren's. See if you don't agree with me. The rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is simply the anger and frustration of people of all political faiths who consider the incompetence, and gross negligence of the elected political leaders from both parties who talk about reform but never enact it into law. Our elected leaders have failed to solve the major problems facing the nation for two decades now. The problems of debt, government failures and neglect of roads, health, safety, you name it simply grows each year as nothing is done to solve problems.
Terry Jennrich

This is an astonishing find - an extraordinary book - a well informed, thoughtful synthesis, witty, extremely well supported by facts, balanced between Ds and Rs players (although author was aide to a Republican Kasich) - written after 28 years in Congress

I bought both printed and audio version -- audio is well narrated - a joy to listen the methodical and panoramic step-by-step analysis, full of little known background facts and details that only an astute and observant insider knows. A highly enjoyable to read/listen book about hidden world that is in plain sight...

I simply can't recommend this jewel of a book high enough

Prepare to hear more than Edward Snowden revealed about the goings on in the government. I would have like to say "our" government, but if the details of what has gone on are even only partially true, than we can hardly call the government ours. As a child of the 60's, I grew up with enough social unrest to have a healthy dose of distrust of the government. Even so, I still had hope. After reading this, even if I don't take it at face value, I question how much hope there really is, when you realize how much of what goes on is only about the money.

Have you ever wondered who actually runs our country. You are not alone. The thought has occurred to many others. Six decades ago, C. Wright Mills' The Power Elite was published and caused no little stir, being assigned to college sociology classes. My sister was one of the assignees and she discussed it at length at the dinner table. Depending on your outlook, it was either a revelation, or evidence of paranoia. Back then, leftists were not afraid of conspiracy theories.

Mills' book was not really that though as it was chock full of research and one might say was kind of vindicated by Eisenhower's military-industrial complex speech. Still, the thesis was disputed in many reviews. The really paranoid stuff, however, was the who killed JFK theme. Not that there are not reasonable questions about that.

Wondering who pulls the strings in the USA has never gone away and probably never will. So someone else has recently taken a stab at it. Mike Lofgren has written a book, Deep State, that covers a lot of territory. Whether or not it is the final word cannot be said, but there is one certainty. None of us here in Sturbridge and surrounding towns are part of the power structure.

Mike Lofgren was a long term congressional staffer for a man you may have heard of, presidential aspirant and mailman's son John Kasich. Lofgren may not know where all the bodies are buried, but he has seen enough of them float by in the Potomac, at least figuratively, to fill a book.

The term Deep State is of Turkish provenance. A state within a state has always been part of that nation. Since the Republic came in under Kemal Ataturk, a secular government was the official structure. If it got too far out of line, the military would step in and make sure it stayed on the rails as the founder set out. Who the players were behind the scenes was never all that clear.

That order has been overthrown by the current Islamist President Erdogan. Still, there is no lack of murkiness in Anatolia.

Lofgren's book does not make our nation look as devious a structure as Turkey, but we are trying to get there. He names as many players as he can and there are a lot of them.

On Page 40 in a couple of paragraphs the author sets out the basic structure of the Deep State. He notes that “All complex societies have an establishment, a social network committed to its own enrichment and perpetuation.” This should not be news to any but the most naive.

Lofgren then notes that the vastness of the “American hybrid state” is in a “class by itself.” He even observes that, “sheer quantity can achieve a quality all its own.” Thus he is unconsciously channeling Josef Stalin which considering the subject may not be out of place.

He goes on to note that our leviathan is in no way invincible. It has been subject to and the source of defeats and setbacks over the last several decades from Vietnam to Iraq to the 2008 financial meltdown to name a few.

So the question is, what is the depth of our entity. Much of it seems to be hiding in plain sight. For the military-industrial complex, one can look up who the big players in the defense industry, congress and the joint chiefs. In finance, we all know who are the Federal Reserve governors and the Fed Chairman. Anyone can look up the heads of the big banks.

If there is a deep state, naming names of controllers who are in the shadows would be important. As it is, the American system appears to be, as the Marxists would call it, a “correlation of forces.” That is all the diverse groups and how they work or don't work together. There is no one guy pulling all the strings, or so it seems, and that was disappointing to your reviewer who loves a good conspiracy theory and would enjoy seeing one proven.

This is not to say the book is without value as it is a compendium of all the power centers in our nation and how they act to get their own projects served. He is right, however, that the constitution is getting lost in the shuffle.

Some of the book could be better. The author notes how we have spent money on needless foreign wars while highways and bridges deteriorate. Good point and he sensibly suggest saying au revoir to the Middle East and overseas military involvement. Mike wants any peace dividend redirected to fixing Infrastructure. Still, Lofgren suggests we should raise the gas tax as it has not been increased since 1993. To paraphrase the old joke, it seems that you can take the boy out of the church of congressional staffers, but you can't take that church out of the boy. We are a high cost of living country where the average citizen, whose wages are not keeping pace, is taxed enough. There should be enough money if America came home and downsized defense to fix up the roads.

The book provides some unique insights, and I was constantly interested in the implicit transformation of the GOP staffer (the author) into a rational independent. But it is somewhat superficial in that it doesn't deal in detail with the history of the actual players and forces the book is, in fact, about. The accurate characterization of the various economic schools of thought also requires more nuance than was used. It is a great introduction for anyone not already familiar with the topic. I was surprised to agree nearly entirely with the author throughout, including his prescriptive policy proposals at the end, though he never once addresses the critical role of the Fed, which should probably be abolished and be replaced with a debt-free credit-money public banking system. Maybe he will write his next book about that.

Please read this book! Whether you are a member of either party or an independent, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It is an eye opener and is very current with the upcoming election. This is NOT a conspiracy theory book but, instead, exposes what has been going on in the shadows since the end of WWII, the overwhelming of a federal government by and for the people by a "shadow government" by and for the military-industrial complex, as well as the death of privacy in the name of national security.

The author is really a Democrat in disguise, or else he just hates everything. One fifteen minute perusal of the book told me everything I needed to know - that the book would be a complete waste of my time and money (and most likely yours, too). Do NOT buy this book unless you like throwing your money away. It's not going to tell any informed reader anything they can't get from simply browsing the internet and reading between the lines.

It should come as no surprise Washington insiders take care of themselves without any conscience to future consequences. I do believe there is a system within a system.

Mr Lofgren does a good job defining the Deep State operation until later in the book his liberalism starts showing through, essentially blaming conservatives for most of the woes of the country.

The book is worthwhile to read, but if you're a conservative, you'll have to fight the urge to burn the book when you read the final three chapters.

This book informs well of the DC under culture we all kind of suspected. Lofgren defines well how military black budgets, unchecked agency spending and un-elected agency heads are in the drivers seat. Congress is too busy getting reelected to care. Every president since Nixon has been assimilated into the Federal Borg. The Deep State toppled Rome once. Now it's our turn.

Mike Lofgren offers a view of Washington that is so one-sided that it is at once an insult to his readers' intelligence and a tribute to his lack of balance. This so-called Republican career Congressional staffer seems driven principally by resentment. When the Republicans came to power in 2001 and failed to "promote" him into the executive branch position sufficient to satisfy his self-image, he turned on his party if it was ever his party. He may have always been on the very left of the American political spectrum and spent his time employed by the Republicans fooling them and perhaps misleading those he was supposed to be advising. His policy recommendations for the future are ludicrous as well as simple minded.