New Orleans    The one thing that President Trump has proven thus far is that there is nothing about running a family business that qualifies anyone to believe that they have learned how to manage the government. Any thoughtful person would have to have now realized that the loud and long-winded call for government to be run like a business has now been permanently discredited.

The scariest part of this horror continues to be the corporate takeover of government in the wake of the dysfunctional White House. Lobbyists by the score are moving in kit and caboodle to take over the posts of people they previously were paid to lobby. The Trump waiver of the two year bar from employment at an agency where a lobbyist had been involved means that the turnstile is swinging wide for lobbyist infiltrations. Foxes by the score have come in to watch the chicken coups transferring their payroll from their corporate paymasters to the taxpayers.

Corporate takeovers work best in secret and the Trump White House has moved hard against transparency. The contract with the web company that furnished data on employment and financial disclosures as well as the log of White House visitors has been cancelled. In the future, the public will have no idea who goes in and out and what access or conflicts of interest they might have or that the Trump family might have with them.   All of this is foreboding and depressing as the United States takes on the trappings of developing country run by a kleptocracy.

Work at the department and agency level is stalled by the unfilled vacancies, allowing the operators to flourish in the vacuum. Outside of the glare in places like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), it is easy to see the devastation. Immediate rollbacks of Obama Administration signature consumer protections on privacy from the telecommunications went out the window quickly. Threats to net neutrality and the protection of the internet as virtually a public utility are an immediate target to favor legacy telecoms once again.

The pattern seems duplicated from agency to agency as the corporate takeover from companies large and small accelerates behind the fog machine of Trump flip flops and White House daily drama. Battles on so many fronts are impossible for the public to follow or progressives to effectively engage, so such efforts seem diffuse and coalitions uncertain.

No one should make the mistake of watching the Trump polling numbers or his confusion and feeling like we’re winning. All of that is nothing but a stagecraft distraction allowing the corporate takeover to continue behind the curtains.

We’re in huge trouble.