The election circus is finally over. Anyone familiar with the Bush and Clinton dynasties should be glad that the Trump campaign managed to block them from recapturing the White House. However, it is clear that the Donald is not going to be allowed to "drain the swamp" as promised. His selection of cabinet officers will ensure that elitist organizations such as the Rockefeller's Council on Foreign Relations, its various affiliates, and its corporate sponsors including Goldman Sachs will continue to dictate policy.

George H.W. Bush was a CFR director, and his successor Bill Clinton is a CFR member. Since WW2, almost every chairman of the Federal Reserve Board has been a CFR member, along with most Secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense and CIA. Also their key deputies, assistants and advisors.

After rejecting several candidates for Secretary of State, Trump settled on oilman Rex Tillerson, chairman of Exxon-Mobil -- the modern incarnation of Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust and a "founding sponsor" of the CFR. Tillerson is not listed as a CFR member. However, he is a trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a CFR affiliate dominated by CFR members. The choice was made on the recommendation of CFR members Robert Gates, Condoleeza Rice, Stephen Hadley, and James Baker. It was seconded by CFR members Dick Cheney and Henry Kissinger -- also a CSIS trustee.

The deputy Secretary of State is likely to be neocon CFR member John Bolton, former UN ambassador and advisor at the pro-Zionist "United Against Nuclear Iran" (UANI) organization along with Jeb Bush and CFR members Joe Lieberman, Dennis Ross, and James Woolsey. [Update Feb 2017: Tillerson picked neocon CFR member Elliot Abrams as deputy, but was blocked by Trump. Bolton was then considered for National Security Advisor, but Trump selected CFR member Gen. Herbert McMaster instead.]

Trump's pick for Secretary of Defense, Gen. James Mattis, is not a CFR member. However, he works closely with former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus, a CFR member and a trustee at the McCain Institute along with fellow CFR members John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Frances Townsend and Lynn Forester de Rothschild.

The deputy Secretary of Defense is likely to be CFR member David McCormick, president of Bridgewater Associates, another CFR corporate sponsor. McCormick is a trustee at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, along with several other CFR members, including Aspen chairman Madeline Albright and president Walter Isaacson. Isaacson, former chairman of CFR sponsor Time-Warner/CNN, is also a member of the Rhodes Scholars along with Bill Clinton, Brookings president Strobe Talbott and CFR president Richard Haass.

Trump has appointed an "economic advisory panel", led by billionaires Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone, Laurence Fink of BlackRock, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan, and Daniel Yergin of IHS Markit. All of them are CFR members. Blackstone, BlackRock, and JPMorgan are CFR corporate sponsors. Fink and Yergin are CFR directors along with hedge fund manager John Paulson, another Trump "advisor". Schwarzman is also a Rhodes Scholar.

This incestuous club of billionaires, foundations, corporations, politicians, and propagandists constitute the "invisible government". Membership is by invitation, and those who do not conform are excluded. See our CFR database entry and follow the links for member lists and related background articles. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

"The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one perhaps of the Right, and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can 'throw the rascals out' at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy."

-- Carroll Quigley (CFR historian), "Tragedy and Hope", 1966, p. 1247