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Steve Bannon

Unlike you, I'm not going to become a 9/11 truther because of the videos suggested to me by youtube algorithims.

First of all I wasn't implying you would become a truther, just that it's one of those youtube channels I tend to think of as a "rabbit-hole".

But I'm pretty insulted actually by you caling me a 9/11 truther, I'm no such thing, I consider that whole truth thing a massive insult to the hundreds of thousands of people who've died in Iraq and at the hands of Western intervention elsewhere that was carried out blatantly, in the open in front of everyone and which required no messing about with holograms or whatever to then be strolled-off from. Don't call me a 9/11 truther again please.

eta: The whole 9/11 thing is in my opinion classic white supremacism anyway, the day to do banal media-embedded business as usual of killing hundreds, thousand, millions of people across the global south (or even the daily handful slayed by cops in the US alone) in trumped-up 'humanitarian' interventions and other arrangement, that's all by the by. But omg Ruby Ridge/Waco/9-11! stop the presses, let's really dig down deep into this thing, holograms, ancient orders, alien-conspiracies and the melting point of steel, let's devote half the fucking internet to really wringing the trooof out of this event because, y'know.... white people died this time, which makes this like some next level thing, this requires extra-special rules methods and motives, this is important now, no seriously everybody something really really extra creepy and fucked up must be going on.:rolleyes: fuck that shit, don't involve me.
 
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Speaking as someone who thinks the official 911 story stinks, that Diana was probably bumped and that conspiracies happen all the time:

Any "truther" who supports this bunch of cunts is probably so blind-sinded by their know-allism that they have walked straight into the same trap they always warn others about (they like to go on about controlled opposition and dialectics, not least because it sounds clever)

I'll not mention many clear reasons for this so I can be brief, but one think about Bannon in particular is darkly entertaining: You know that fairly common truther idea that the whole gig is run by satanists? Well Bannon says Satan is good. How "in plain sight" is that?
 


Talk from Bannon in 2011 in which he lays out a lot of his worldview. Lots of interesting themes here which overlap with current Trump positions like trade deficits and others which do not like support for 'centrist' Republicans.

He also mentions, without I think naming the book specifically, a belief in 'the great fourth turning' which is summarised in this article.


Agree or disagree, like them or hate them, Bannon's positions on the topics discussed in the youtube speech at least exhibit an occasional soupcon of coherence.

By contrast, the Business Insider UK article comes across as an ill-thought-out diatribe founded in assumption and non sequitur.

Reviewing google searches on various American political topics, it occurs that often the most inflammatory headlines and articles originate in the British media. It was an unfortunate day when the British media lords determined there was gold to be made in heavier coverage of American politics, social and current events.

If the media wants to become part of the solution, and not the problem, it must focus on providing logical, in-depth analysis of Trump Administration policies and positions.
 
Agree or disagree, like them or hate them, Bannon's positions on the topics discussed in the youtube speech at least exhibit an occasional soupcon of coherence.

By contrast, the Business Insider UK article comes across as an ill-thought-out diatribe founded in assumption and non sequitur.

Reviewing google searches on various American political topics, it occurs that often the most inflammatory headlines and articles originate in the British media. It was an unfortunate day when the British media lords determined there was gold to be made in heavier coverage of American politics, social and current events.

If the media wants to become part of the solution, and not the problem, it must focus on providing logical, in-depth analysis of Trump Administration policies and positions.

Business Insider is American, its editor is American Josh Barro, the author of that piece is an American.
 
Agree or disagree, like them or hate them, Bannon's positions on the topics discussed in the youtube speech at least exhibit an occasional soupcon of coherence.

By contrast, the Business Insider UK article comes across as an ill-thought-out diatribe founded in assumption and non sequitur.

Reviewing google searches on various American political topics, it occurs that often the most inflammatory headlines and articles originate in the British media. It was an unfortunate day when the British media lords determined there was gold to be made in heavier coverage of American politics, social and current events.

If the media wants to become part of the solution, and not the problem, it must focus on providing logical, in-depth analysis of Trump Administration policies and positions.

Apparently we've been messing with the American mind for a long time according to Lyndon LaRouche, so it's not the jooz or aliens or lizard-heads to be worried about, it's us Brits.

You are all puppets dancing on the ends of our imperialist string, we control America from the heart of our dark island base. Perfidious Albion etc.

Seriously though, I seem to remember something about how it all started with Britain trying to get the US involved during WW1, was it the documentary The Power of Nightmares? I don't recall, but Britain does have previous re propagandizing America for our own nefarious ends according to more serious historical accounts.
 
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Agree or disagree, like them or hate them, Bannon's positions on the topics discussed in the youtube speech at least exhibit an occasional soupcon of coherence.

By contrast, the Business Insider UK article comes across as an ill-thought-out diatribe founded in assumption and non sequitur.

Reviewing google searches on various American political topics, it occurs that often the most inflammatory headlines and articles originate in the British media. It was an unfortunate day when the British media lords determined there was gold to be made in heavier coverage of American politics, social and current events.

If the media wants to become part of the solution, and not the problem, it must focus on providing logical, in-depth analysis of Trump Administration policies and positions.
'Coherent' in that he has mastery of a very simplistic notion that is repeatable.
His 'analysis' appears to derive from little more than an on-going resentment at the 'social contract' that capital was compelled to accept in the post-war decades of system competition. Bannon clearly uses the financial crisis as 'threat as opportunity' call for an accelerated retreat from any notion of the welfare state into the advanced neoliberalism of the consolidator state. The nationalism, militarism, supremacy, traditionalism, traditionalism and social conservatism are all secondary to the Randian core. Nothing new here, just dressed differently.
 
An argument that once it dawns on Trump that Bannon has failed to bring along the adoring masses he was supposed to, and brings nothing else to the table, Trump'll dump him. Bedtime for Bannon | Jacobin

Or turn this on its head: what is Bannon for, what's his use to Trump? In addition to his possible roles as mentor, and rabble rouser in chief it's been suggested he's there to stop the others bullying Tinyhands. Surely not.
 
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This is a good article Liberals On the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown
incl. "If Steve Bannon’s pants fell down tomorrow and he tottered crying into a muddy pond, there would be someone ready to announce that actually, this made him even more omnipotent than he was before."

personal thing: last night I had an almost fight with the boyfriend about this: He's basically an optimist and knows a lot about the history and political structure of America (we're very different people). So I was going on about Bannon and he kept asking me whether I have any reason to believe that the man has any competence to function within the machinery of the actual political system, given that he has no experience within it at all etc. I had to end up saying no, I don't think he's competent, I'm just scared.
 
This is a good article Liberals On the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown
incl. "If Steve Bannon’s pants fell down tomorrow and he tottered crying into a muddy pond, there would be someone ready to announce that actually, this made him even more omnipotent than he was before."

personal thing: last night I had an almost fight with the boyfriend about this: He's basically an optimist and knows a lot about the history and political structure of America (we're very different people). So I was going on about Bannon and he kept asking me whether I have any reason to believe that the man has any competence to function within the machinery of the actual political system, given that he has no experience within it at all etc. I had to end up saying no, I don't think he's competent, I'm just scared.

As with Trump I don't really think competence comes into it so much as the nature of the machinery and the personalities of some within it. Even if they have no idea how to do what they want they just have to rely on the fact that aspects of the state share their views and are willing to enact them seriously.
 
As with Trump I don't really think competence comes into it so much as the nature of the machinery and the personalities of some within it. Even if they have no idea how to do what they want they just have to rely on the fact that aspects of the state share their views and are willing to enact them seriously.
In the case of Bannon, he's clearly said that he wants to destroy the entire political system, including the republican party. And now he finds himself in the middle of it. There probably are a number of people inside the machine who 'share his views' in very basic ways, as in that there's a war on with 'islamic fascism' (his words) but probably not very many.

I'd like to get Bannon into proportion, in my head at least, not allow him evil genius status unless he really deserves it.
He does have a coherent and properly scary worldview which he seems to be pursuing via a clueless president, but he doesn't know how to use all the levers that now surround him in his unexpected position and lots of them will be intent on working against him.
 
In the case of Bannon, he's clearly said that he wants to destroy the entire political system, including the republican party. And now he finds himself in the middle of it. There probably are a number of people inside the machine who 'share his views' in very basic ways, as in that there's a war on with 'islamic fascism' (his words) but probably not very many.
I'd like to get Bannon into proportion, not allow his evil genius status unless he really deserves it. He does have a coherent and properly scary worldview which he seems to be pursuing via the clueless president, but he doesn't know how to use all the levers that now surround him in his unexpected position and lots of them will be intent on working against him.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think he's a genius and I don't think his destruction of the state would be accepted by the apparatus of the state. His anti-Muslim, white supremacist, deregulation, economic stuff though? There are plenty in the structure who can support and enable those things fairly safe in the knowledge that they can ring fence their own power. It's not as if the US has a lack of form when it comes to government support for those sort of things and I'm not convinced the people involved have radically changed their ways.
 
Screen Shot 2017-02-04 at 08.21.48.png
Time magazine portrait "Bannon is the one who keeps the doctrine pure, the true believer, who is in it not for money or position, but to change history. ."
 
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....this might be an act of Brinks Matt scale thread larceny but I am sure some of us will have seen the rather Strangelovian figure of a certain Dr Sebastian Gorka appearing on various news shows as a somewhat combative Trump wing man - his profile reveals quite a piece of work & I think worth a full cut & paste :

Sebastian Lukacs Gorka (Hungarian: Gorka Sebestyén; born 1970)[2] is a national security professional specializing in irregular warfare, including counterinsurgency and counterterrorism who is currently serving as Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States, Donald Trump. He is a full-time Professor of Strategy and Irregular Warfare and Vice President for National Security Support of the Institute of World Politics[3] in Washington, DC and the Chairman of Threat Knowledge Group. Previously he served as the Major General Matthew C. Horner Distinguished Chair of Military Theory at the Marine Corps University.[4] He is a founding member of the Council for Emerging National Security Affairs[5] and has served as the Associate Dean for Congressional Affairs and Relations to the Special Operations Community at the National Defense University. Gorka is also currently affiliated with USSOCOM’s Joint Special Operations University, and [6] is a regular instructor for the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School in Fort Bragg, as well as the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. He has testified before Congress[7] on the threat of ISIS and Global Jihadism and briefed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Intelligence Council, the National Counterterrorism Center and the Commandant of the Marine Corps.[8] Born in the United Kingdom to Hungarian parents, Gorka became an American citizen in 2012.[9]

Gorka is the author of 2016 New York Times bestseller [10] book, Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War published by Regnery.[9] He is a two-time recipient of the US Department of Defense Joint Civilian Service Commendation, first awarded to him the by US Special Operation Command.[11][non-primary source needed]


Personal life and education

Sebastian Gorka is the son of Paul and Susan Gorka who escaped from Communist Hungary during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. He was born and raised in the U.K. where he attended St Benedict's School, Ealing and received his first degree from the University of London.[8]

Gorka is a graduate of the University of London where he received his Bachelor of Arts honors degree in Philosophy and Theology. At university, he joined the British Territorial Army reserves, serving in the Intelligence Corps. [13]

He holds a Masters in International Relations and Diplomacy from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration. After that institution was renamed the Corvinus University of Budapest, he went on to study for, and receive a Ph.D. in Political Science, writing a dissertation on the strategic differences between the politically motivated terrorism of the Cold War and religiously motivated terrorists such as Al Qaeda.[14]

Gorka was also a Kokkalis Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[citation needed]

Career

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, Gorka left the UK to work in the first freely-elected government of the newly democratic Republic of Hungary. In Budapest he served in the Ministry of Defense for 5 years working on international security issues and Hungary’s future accession into NATO.

In 1997 Gorka was awarded the second Partnership for Peace International Research Fellowship at the NATO Defense College in Rome.[17]

In 1998 Gorka was awarded the Kokkalis Fellowship at Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. At Harvard he became one of the founding members of the Council on Emerging National Security Affairs, CENSA.[5] Before starting the second year of his public policy fellowship, he was hired by the RAND Corporation in the fields of transatlantic security and counterterrorism. In 2000 Gorka moved back to Budapest to establish and head the Center for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy, where he continued his work on security.[citation needed]

After the September 11 attacks of 2001, Gorka became a public figure in Hungary when he was asked by Magyar Televízió, the Hungarian National Television Corporation, to provide live commentary on the events occurring in the United States, and then later in Afghanistan and around the world as part of the Global War on Terror. One year later he was asked to serve as an official expert on the parliamentary investigatory committee created to uncover the Communist background of the new Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy. It had been revealed, soon after the 2002 general election, that Medgyessy, who had served in the Communist government prior to 1989, had been an undercover officer in the Secret Police, the organization which had maintained the previous dictatorship and helped crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.[18] Gorka rejected Medgyessy's claims of having not spied on people when he was a secret policemen.[19]

After the committee's mandate elapsed, Gorka and his wife Katharine Gorka established The Institute for Transitional Democracy and International Security, an independent think-tank. The group focuses on issues of international security and democratic transition in post-dictatorial regions. Katharine Gorka had been the director of the USAID-funded Democracy Network program for Central and Eastern Europe. All through the 1990s and early 2000s, Gorka was a contributor to the Jane's Defence Weekly group of publications out of the UK, writing for Jane's Intelligence Review and others.[citation needed]

In 2004, Gorka joined the faculty of the new US initiative, the Program for Terrorism and Security Studies (PTSS), a Defense Department-funded program based out of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmsich-Partenkirchen, Germany.[20] At the same time Gorka began to teach for USSOCOM's Joint Special Operations University, MacDill Air Force Base. He served on the faculty of the PTSS until he and his family moved to the United States in 2008. In America Gorka joined the US Defense Department as a professor for the National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington D.C. There he taught on the ASD(SOLIC)-funded Masters Program in Irregular Warfare and Counterterrorism as part of the Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program,[21] where he was named Associate Dean of Congressional Affairs and Relations to the Special Operations Community. Gorka then left government service in order to assume the privately-endowed Major General Horner Distinguished Chair of Military Theory at the Marine Corps University.[4] In August 2016, he joined The Institute of World Politics on a full-time basis as Professor of Strategy and Irregular Warfare, and also serves as Vice President for National Security Support.[3]

With his wife, Katharine Gorka, he also runs the private Virginia-based company Threat Knowledge Group. TKG provides training and strategic support to the armed services, the FBI, elements of the US Intelligence Community, and state and local law enforcement.[22] He is co-author and editor of several reports through TKG.

Between 2011-2013 Gorka taught US National Security and Foreign Policy for Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy.[6]

Since 2014 Gorka has acted as editor for National Security Affairs for the Breitbart News Network.[23]

Policy Positions

In his articles, Congressional testimony,[25] and his 2016 book, Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War,[9] Gorka claims that since 9/11 America has become superb at applying force against high-value terrorist targets, whether through the use of drone strikes or Special Operations raids, but is still losing the war against what he terms the "Global Jihadi Movement" (GJM). This lack of success is the result, according to Gorka, of America's failure to counter the ideology of Global Jihadism and the Obama Administration's belief that terrorism is the result of unemployment and lack of education instead of ideology.

Gorka has argued[26] that America acts astrategically due in part to the influence of the Cold War. According to Gorka, this lack of strategic behavior has made decision-makers and strategists reactive instead of proactive and fundamentally incapable of prioritizing American national interests.

Gorka has claimed that Carl von Clausewitz's writings have had a negative impact on the Western understanding of unconventional warfare.[27]

In the post-2001 debate between the pro- and anti-Counter-insurgency (COIN) circles, Gorka has argued that COIN and FM 3-24, or the so-called "Petraeus Manual", were un-American approaches and fatally flawed choices for both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gorka has frequently criticized[28] the intrusion of politics and what he describes as political correctness into counterterrorism practices and policies. Gorka has claimed that both the Bush and Obama administrations have excised mention of religion when analyzing and discussing the terrorist threat, which he says has made America less capable of defeating groups like Al Qaeda or the Islamic State. Gorka has advocated the teaching of works of key Jihadist theorists within the military and law enforcement communities and the inclusion of their Enemy Threat Doctrine within the intelligence cycle.
 
Steve Bannon has a grand vision for remaking America

The three tenets of Bannonism

Bannon’s political philosophy boils down to three things that a Western country, and America in particular, needs to be successful: Capitalism, nationalism, and “Judeo-Christian values.” These are all deeply related, and essential.

America, says Bannon, is suffering a “crisis of capitalism.” (He uses the word “crisis” a lot—more on that later.) Capitalism used to be all about moderation, an entrepreneurial American spirit, and respect for one’s fellow Christian man. In fact, in remarks delivered to the Vatican in 2014, Bannon says that this “enlightened capitalism” was the “underlying principle” that allowed the US to escape the “barbarism” of the 20th century.

Since this enlightened era, things have gradually gotten worse. (Hence the “crisis.”) The downward trend began with the 1960s and ’70s counterculture. “The baby boomers are the most spoiled, most self-centered, most narcissistic generation the country’s ever produced,” says Bannon in a 2011 interview.
 
This is an old one (August 2016), from a conversation he claims he doesn't recall: Steve Bannon, Trump's Top Guy, Told Me He Was 'A Leninist' Who Wants To ‘Destroy the State’

:D Hehe, this idea of "overcoming" the state, in a Hegelian sense, comes from Marx, as in "abolishing" the mediation and taking back powers from the political state. Does he understand the difference between Marx and Lenin on this one? Moreover, one needs to understand Marx's intellectual journey, i.e. the difference between "young" and "old" (Hegel-wise well educated) Marx in order to be able to put any depth, any real meaning to it - and SB certainly is not the mind to do just such a feat... :rolleyes: :p


Plus, a few more important things to remember, in times of war, coups, neo-liberal propaganda, uncertainty, deepening crisis and so forth

Ernst Röhm - Wikiquote
"Since I am an immature and wicked man, war and unrest appeal to me more than good bourgeois order. Brutality is respected, the people need wholesome fear."

And as for wars and "how to make them":

"Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.
Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.
Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

The same culprit says:
"What do I care about danger? I've sent soldiers and airmen to death against the enemy - why should I be afraid?"

Indeed, why should such a-holes be afraid? Unless we give them a bloody hiding!!!

Re. the question of Trump's alleged neo-lib "nature":

How Neoliberalism Prepared The Way For Donald Trump - this is the context for such a-holes to "build" their little careers...
 
Without context, it's no worse than your standard Machiavelli-grade political strategising. The sort of talk that goes on in the political sausage-factories of the world all the time. If he finished off with "Hail Satan" or "If only you could imagine the power of the Dark Side!" before cackling and electro-fingering his mates son then... well, that would be badder.

The guy has some serious plans . Frankly if he's successful the identity obsessed US left are completely fucked . They simply won't have the political firepower to even think about criticising him or reassume power for a very long time to come . If it turns out he has the competence to pull this stroke off US politics are in for some major changes in the future .

The actual context . Pretty fucking worrying , because it just might work . If Trump/ Bannon are seen to start delivering their liberal critics are in big trouble politically . I think it was Bill Clinton who rode to power on the slogan " it's the economy, stupid " . The identity politics crowd have obviously totally forgotten that .

Steve Bannon: 'Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That's power.'

To me it looks like while Trump used the GOP simply as a vehicle to power , Trump himself is Bannons vehicle . whether he can pull this move off is another thing entirely . But with the destruction of the GOP top brass in the primaries and the very unexpected Clinton defeat there's a real force to be reckoned with here . They definitely aren't fools , even if they look and sound like clowns .

Mr Bannon has big plans that go beyond Trump or any personality . It's about creating a new force in US politics and consolidating its grip on power for a very long time to come . That essentially means transcending the white voting base in the US as well . So quite a few of their current fans will inevitably be shafted . He's a fucking cardinal Richelieu this cat . The one to watch . And so far he's beaten his opponents hands down .

Now it's the media he's up against, and his strategy is one of open contempt . He really doesn't give a fuck about them , what they say or think . So in the immediate future the game will boil down to whether or not the media reinforces the rules of that relationship or whether Trump / Bannon write a new set of them . It's a hard one to call but thus far their opponents haven't fared well at all .
 
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/world/europe/vatican-steve-bannon-pope-francis.html?_r=1

ROME — When Stephen K. Bannon was still heading Breitbart News, he went to the Vatican to cover the canonization of John Paul II and make some friends. High on his list of people to meet was an archconservative American cardinal, Raymond Burke, who had openly clashed with Pope Francis.

In one of the cardinal’s antechambers, amid religious statues and book-lined walls, Cardinal Burke and Mr. Bannon — who is now President Trump’s anti-establishment eminence — bonded over their shared worldview. They saw Islam as threatening to overrun a prostrate West weakened by the erosion of traditional Christian values, and viewed themselves as unjustly ostracized by out-of-touch political elites.

“When you recognize someone who has sacrificed in order to remain true to his principles and who is fighting the same kind of battles in the cultural arena, in a different section of the battlefield, I’m not surprised there is a meeting of hearts,” said Benjamin Harnwell, a confidant of Cardinal Burke who arranged the 2014 meeting.

While Mr. Trump, a twice-divorced president who has boasted of groping women, may seem an unlikely ally of traditionalists in the Vatican, many of them regard his election and the ascendance of Mr. Bannon as potentially game-changing breakthroughs.

Just as Mr. Bannon has connected with far-right parties threatening to topple governments throughout Western Europe, he has also made common cause with elements in the Roman Catholic Church who oppose the direction Francis is taking them. Many share Mr. Bannon’s suspicion of Pope Francis as a dangerously misguided, and probably socialist, pontiff.
 

The Art Of War is a rather short book that you could read at one sitting. It's not nearly esoteric enough to an impressive recommendation. It's a 5th century BC Strategy For Dummies. What's notable here is there are actually folk around Trump's spinmeister who haven't read it.
 
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