Drain the Swamp

[DuckforcoveR]

Quite a bit has been made in certain circles about a certain somebody proclaiming to "Drain the Swamp". First off, what does he mean by that? 

The first person to apply the term to politics was a Democrat. "Socialists are not satisfied with killing a few of the mosquitoes which come from the capitalist swamp," Winfield E. Gaylord wrote in 1903. "They want to drain the swamp."

 
But I admit, rather bland. Here's a more recent example:

Trump likely drew his inspiration for the phrase from President Ronald Reagan. In 1980, Reagan called to "drain the swamp" of bureaucracy in Washington, and created the Grace Commission, which identified $424 billion of wasteful government spending that could be cut.

That's better, invoke the God in Chief Ronald Reagan. Except, it never happened. 

The commission's report overestimated potential savings and categorized necessary spending as "wasteful," so Congress didn't act on its recommendations.

Drain The Swamp Origins
Very noble though, I will never fault anybody for trying. Same goes for President Trump. While I can't stand the man, if he was true and honest in his intention I would give him his dues. Which brings me to the point of this post. Some of the people he brought in to help him "Drain the Swamp":
Gary Cohn - Goldman Sachs

Now inside the Trump administration, Cohn is joined by fellow Goldman alums including Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin. Other Wall Street heavyweights in the Trump cabinet include Commerce Secretary nominee Wilbur Ross, while billionaire investor Carl Icahn is playing an advisory role to the president.

Swamp Draining #1
So #2 and #3 appear in the above quote:
Wilbur Ross & Steve Mnuchin - Goldman Sachs

Trump on Wednesday morning formally announced he'd chosen Goldman Sachs alum Steven Mnuchin and billionaire investor Wilbur Ross to lead his Treasury and Commerce operations, respectively.

But in what is increasingly looking like a prescient statement to Bloomberg Businessweek, Mnuchin noted in an August piece that "nobody's going to be like, 'Well, why did he do this?' if I end up in the administration."

Nothing like a good pay for play to get everybody upset (especially when it happens on the left. Otherwise, it's totally fine...)
Gilded Cabinet
But I digress:

Billionaire Trump was right in one respect: Hillary Clinton was profoundly compromised by her relationship with Goldman Sachs, pocketing $675,000 for a mere three private speeches, in which she did voice sympathetic concerns about Dodd-Frank for allegedly making banks more cautious in their lending. She was, and is, indisputably a member of a global elite that cannot escape responsibility for the emergence of so many blighted lives.

But, beyond that, Trump is a phony. His economic programme is no more than Reaganomics on speed run by a group of opportunists and self-interested chancers. In the short run, there will be a Trump upswing triggered by the prospect of careless deregulation, unaffordable cuts in corporate tax and lots of infrastructure spending.

In The Future
If only I could find a George Soros connection to make this a bit juicier...

[i]President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner didn’t disclose his part ownership of a real-estate finance startup known as Cadre, according to a Wall Street Journal review of Kushner’s securities and other filings.

The Journal notes that Kushner’s Cadre stake “means the senior White House official is currently a business partner of Goldman Sachs Group and billionaires including George Soros and Peter Thiel.”[/i]

Irony...

Listen, I understand connections run deep. And I'm sure a barrage of "oh yeah? Hillary this and Obama that" can certainly follow. And it will be 100% deserved and correct. I'm not arguing against Trump, the right, or the left for that matter. I'm arguing against this silly notion that President Trump was going to come in and change a system that has been built on our backs for centuries. 
Give me that much at least, that it was all a ruse. He has changed nothing and judging by the folks he brought in, WILL NOT change anything during his term.
DFC