“I love all people, rich or poor. But in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person,” said Trump. For free thinkers that was the Swamp monster inviting his daughter and son-in-law into the fold, but his followers cheered. “Does that make sense? Does that make sense? (He likes to repeat himself) If you insist, I’ll do it. But I like it better this way, right?” Of course, who better to run the economy than a man in real-estate who before the crash, was saying “The real estate market is going to be fairly robust. The real estate market is going to be very strong for a long time to come.. I’ve been hearing about this bubble for so many years.. But I haven’t seen it… This boom is going to continue.” And boy did it not continue…
Not only was this man incorrect about the economy, but like a Stalinist-Mao, he wants to run the economy.
Donald Trump has followed through on his notion of putting rich people in his cabinet. Take for example, Wilbur Ross, an insanely rich man who is Trump’s Secretary of Commerce. A man who has allegedly taken money from a private equity fund, put it in his pocket, and then created “bogus” paperwork to hide it from business partners. Having him as Commerce Secretary doesn’t sound like draining the swamp, but rather having the monster from the deep lagoon to be head boss of America’s commerce.
Well, Trump did, and Wilbur Ross looks like he’s big fucking swamp monster. According to Forbes, Wilbur Riss has settled out of court with a former private equity manager David Storper. The two worked together at WL Ross & Co. and Storper alleges Ross “stole his interests in a private equity fund, transferred them to himself, then tried to cover it up with bogus paperwork.” Although we can’t know the full extent of Ross and Storper’s settlement, Forbes has discovered more about Wilbur Ross:
Over several months, in speaking with 21 people who know Ross, Forbes uncovered a pattern:
Many of those who worked directly with him claim that Ross wrongly siphoned or outright stole a few million here and a few million there, huge amounts for most but not necessarily for the commerce secretary. At least if you consider them individually. But all told, these allegations—which sparked lawsuits, reimbursements and an SEC fine—come to more than $120 million. If even half of the accusations are legitimate, the current United States secretary of commerce could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.
Wilbur Ross isn’t the only example of the swamp monster running the swamp. Ben Carson had his moment in the scandal spotlight, Steve Mnuchin and his wife go shopping and fly with tax payer money, but their was news that came out last week about how the VA is being ran, that is amazing-stunning, and terrifying. I say terrifying, because it makes you wonder how else the government is being run like this. I’m speaking about the article ProPublica wrote about how the Department of Veterans Affairs is ran. On VA’s website, it says that Robert Wilkie is the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in reality.
Bruce Moskowitz, a Palm Beach doctor, Ike Perlmutter, the chairman of Marvel Entertainment, and lawyer Marc Sherman, apparently are the one’s pulling the strings of the VA. Not only have none of them served in the U.S. military or government, but the three are what those within the VA call “the Mar-a-Lago Crowd.”
For me this sounds like a hellish idea, but for the right this is a wet dream, because that’s what privatization would look like. Wealthy aristocrats running the department that’s suppose to provide the health and services to our Veterans. Of the three, it sounds like Ike Perlmutter is the main guy. “On any veterans issue, the first person the president calls is Ike,” said a former official. “If the bureaucracy resists the trio’s wishes, Perlmutter has a powerful ally: The President of the United States. Trump and Perlmutter regularly talk on the phone and dine together when the president visits Mar-a-Lago.”
That’s just great, I’ve got a question on how provide services to veterans with PTSD, who do I go to? The CEO of comic books. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Brian Schatz, formally requested investigations by the VA Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office. Tim Walz, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has sent a letter to Robert Wilkie demanding that the records of communication between the agency and the “Mar-a-Lago Crowd.” In a statement Walz said the situation the VA finds itself “reeks of corruption and cronyism.”
Trump’s entire tenure as president has reeked of corruption and cronyism, because that’s how he’s been his whole life, but his supporters are in a cult mindset, and so they’ll come up with a way to rationalize this. Trump may be able to fool the right, but they don’t fool a lot of Americans, and he doesn’t fool the U.N.
U.N. special rapporteur, Philip Alston, has called for the US to have policies that aid the poor, and to stop “punishing and imprisoning the poor.” In Alston’s report, he states what we knew would come from Trump’s tax reform: Welfare and healthcare would be cut, and that the tax cuts would reward the wealthy, and large companies. By draining the swamp, Trump meant that he’d bend over backwards for the rich and the powerful, and punish the poor.
Trump’s cult followers think he’s draining the swamp, meanwhile, Philip Alston writes of what America really is:
Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent and it has the world’s highest incarceration rate... and the highest obesity levels in the developed world.
Donald Trump does not like the poor. When he said at a rally “I just don’t want a poor person,” he wasn’t talking about being in government. He was talking about a poor person having any form of dignity and respect in the eyes of the government.
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