Steve Bannon

[bimble]

Well, it's based on the two notions of inter-generational division of the working class and the cyclical inevitability of catastrophe. Both very convenient screens/distractions for an oligarchic agenda.

You've watched the thing then?
I'm just getting to the nub of the economic bit. It rails against wall street and the club of davos .

 

[brogdale]

You've watched the thing then?
I'm just getting to the nub of the economic bit.

Yes.
All that fourth turning bollux...like it amounts to an idea or something.

 

[bimble]

I don't understand how you could watch this film and come away from it thinking he's just in it to make a few quid and advance the existing system / 'oligarchic agenda'.

 

[brogdale]

I don't understand how you could watch this film and come away from it thinking he's just in it to make a few quid and advance the existing system / 'oligarchic agenda'.

I didn't; I saw the film as the agit-prop that it was...Bannon's motives and aspiration can only really be discerned from the political outcomes that he is instrumental in effecting.
Gen Zero feels like a mash-up of fears, suspicion and blame distilled from capital-sponsored focus groups. "How can we manipulate existing prejudice and bigotry to absolve financialised capital from the cluster-fuck that they made of the economy?"
Maybe the film helped make Trump president, but I wouldn't go so far as saying that it tells us much about Goldman's man Bannon.

 

[xenon]

Yee shall know a man by what he does, not what he says.

 

[Orang Utan]

You've watched the thing then?

i thought it was about a shapeshifting alien. makes sense as bannon looks like the thing halfway between mutating between john goodman and kenneth macmillan as baron harkonnen

 

[yield]

Liberals On the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown
Dissecting the latest viral Trump conspiracy theories.
Politico. February 01, 2017

Once, there was a strange and subtle art practiced among the elect of London and Washington, called Kremlinology. The idea was that through various interpretative techniques, Cold War intelligence agencies could find out what was really going on in a Soviet Union that—it was assumed—was always hiding some great secret about itself.

In practice, it was a farce. Analysts would pore carefully over all the minute details of everything the Soviet state produced, and try to pry open meaningless flecks of data to get at the grand narrative within. Is Kulakov standing to the left of Chernenko in the official Politburo photograph, and what does that mean about the internal power struggle?

Why is this transcription of a speech slightly different from this other one? How are the chairs arranged at the state dinner? Who didn’t finish their herring? When a Russian child kicks a ball down the street, is he telling us what they’re doing with the submarines?

 

[J Ed]

Liberals On the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown
Dissecting the latest viral Trump conspiracy theories.
Politico. February 01, 2017

I have thought about this article a lot since it was published, there is a lot of truth to it I think.

 

[bimble]

Yes, it's a good one.

 

[brogdale]

Not strictly about Bannon, but an (or 2) interesting take(s) on the potential for a Goldmanite nature of Trump's macro-economic policy...'crude nationalism' it ain't.

What if the Trump administration’s economic team are different? What if they are “Goldmanites” backed by a disinhibited populist surge and a get rich quick drive to deregulation. Then, you might get the following scenario which for sake of comprehension NOT so as to set off alarm bells I would label as “inflationist” (right now a dose of moderate inflation would be a tonic to the world’s financial balances).

 

[CrabbedOne]

On Lawfare Bannon in Washington: A Report on the Incompetence of Evil

...
In short, Bannon’s role as the ideological father of the EO strikes me as an instance of an internet troll coming up against legal and bureaucratic structures of process and accountability, and losing—because he didn’t understand the importance and power of those institutions in the first place.

As an astute acquaintance put it, we can best understand Bannon not as Darth Vader or Rasputin but as an angry blogger sitting in front of his computer tapping out a post on how he would run things if he were in charge. The difference is that, in this case, Steve Bannon actually is in charge.

Incompetence has a lot of dangers. My libertarian panic may have calmed somewhat, but I’m still deeply concerned, for example, about the profound disorganization that apparently plagues the National Security Council, and about the Trump administration’s willingness to conduct a hurried strategy session over the recent North Korean missile launch in full view of paying guests at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, with classified documents lit by camera lights from cell phones that could have been compromised by foreign intelligence. I’m concerned about the dismantling of NATO, the alienation of America’s international allies, and the looming possibility of a botched White House response to an international crisis. I’m concerned about Trump’s bizarre connections to the Kremlin, a worry unmitigated by the recent resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

But that being said, it’s very hard to dismantle major democratic institutions without a certain degree of capability. The establishment of authoritarianism takes both effort and cunning. And I’m much less worried than I was that these folks have the kind of cunning and focus it would take to take down the American experiment.

And for that I say, thanks, Steve Bannon.

Bannon as simply a puffed up internet troll spitting venom a few feet from the nuclear football.

I'd point this is in itself is cruelly trolling Steve Bannon. It's worth remembering as a caution that very incompetent people can and do change the world.

 

[bluescreen]

Dunning-Kruger syndrome incarnate.

 

[CNT36]

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.

Possibly Century of the Self as that had a lot about Bernays who was involved in the Creel Committee that used a lot of British Propaganda. It has been a long time since I watched either.

 

[bimble]

Here's a piece by someone who had an intense meeting with Bannon last year. Nothing reassuring in it but nothing really new either. Apart from that he likes to go barefoot.
"Bannon is of the belief that, if Europe is to be saved, there is no way to avoid armed conflict." etc.
I Told Steve Bannon: 'We Are Not At War With Islam.' He Disagreed. | The Huffington Post

 

[hot air baboon]

Steve Bannon's Gay Agenda

“The thing about Breitbart and LGBT — and this was discussed — we don’t want to be mean to gays; we want to expose them when they’re being bullies,” said one Breitbart writer.

 

[CrabbedOne]

On ClickHole White House In Chaos: The Chilean Foreign Minister Had To Wait In The Hallway For 3 Hours While Reince Priebus And Steve Bannon Argued About Who Gets To Wear Their One Belt

...
Instead of engaging the Chilean representative in high-level talks on terrorism prevention in the Americas, the two staffers held a brief test to see if either’s pants were tight enough to stay up without a belt, which involved both of them letting go of their pants and raising their arms in the air. After both Mr. Bannon’s and Mr. Priebus’ slacks fell down immediately, they, with red faces, poked their heads into the hallway to see if Minister Muñoz—who was busy checking email on his phone to pass the time—had seen either of their pants fall down.

Bannon and Priebus even sent an aid to ask the waiting foreign minister if “an unnamed individual could borrow his belt until the meeting was over,” demonstrating a level of chaos never before observed in White House procedure.


One would hope that two people working in such high government posts could devise a solution together, but Mr. Bannon and Mr. Priebus’ struggle over the belt proved that infighting is standard operation in the Trump administration. After failed attempts to fit the belt around both of their waists, improvising a second belt out of paper clips, and trying to rapidly gain weight by eating an entire tray of peppermint candies so their pants would fit without belts, Bannon insisted that Priebus “lay down on the couch for the whole meeting while [Mr. Bannon wears] the belt.” Mr. Priebus refused, alternatively demanding that he get the belt and covertly hold up Mr. Bannon’s pants from behind when they shake hands with the Chilean foreign minister.
...

Oddly plausible.

 

[Idris2002]

On ClickHole White House In Chaos: The Chilean Foreign Minister Had To Wait In The Hallway For 3 Hours While Reince Priebus And Steve Bannon Argued About Who Gets To Wear Their One Belt
Oddly plausible.

 

[weltweit]

WATCH LIVE: Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon speak at CPAC

Video discussion Bannon & Priebus

 

[krtek a houby]

Analysis | Steve Bannon’s not-so-subtle threat to the media

 

[Shechemite]

Analysis | Steve Bannon’s not-so-subtle threat to the media

He's a rotter that Steven.

What do you make of the piece you've linked to?

 

[nuffsaid]

WATCH LIVE: Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon speak at CPAC

Video discussion Bannon & Priebus

I enjoyed watching that yesterday, on CNN. The first thing Amanpour said afterwards was she thought his comments on the media were "disgusting!" Read it and weep CNN there's a lot more coming your way and rightly so. Bannon is right, they are just propaganda.

 

[krtek a houby]

He's a rotter that Steven.

What do you make of the piece you've linked to?

What do you mean?

 

[CrabbedOne]

On War On The Rocks “BRING EVERYTHING CRASHING DOWN”: BANNON’S REACTIONARY GUARD AND U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY

...
The Trumpian Tragedy

The 45th U.S. president is a pathological liar who indulges in petty cruelty, revels in his ignorance, and struggles to string together coherent sentences. He is impulsive, thin-skinned, and wholly self-centered. Like the more depraved Roman emperors, he likes to surround himself with crowds of cheering sycophants when he “performs,” even in the most hallowed of grounds. The past few weeks have provided ample demonstration that this 21st century Nero cannot be channeled, counseled, or controlled — whether by Republican apparatchiks, or by his stoic, Marcus Aurelius-reading secretary of defense. During the campaign, there were many dark moments, but none — for me at least — were quite as disturbing as his repeated recitation of the lyrics of the song “The Snake.” There is something unconscionably vile about the way the man shudders in pleasure while reading the tale of an innocent woman bitten by a serpent — an animal which, in Trump’s mind, serves as a metaphor for Syrian refugees. How anyone could then have doubted his inhumanity and autocratic aspirations beggars belief. Each day provides new evidence of his fundamental disregard for the ideational pillars of the American republic.

And yet, despite all of this, congressional Republicans continue to demonstrate an astonishing degree of servility. There are some exceptions — and these are all the more admirable, considering the circumstances — but they are few and far between. The reasoning behind such submissiveness is transparent — mainstream Republicans still believe that they can “instrumentalize” Trump, all while stifling their moral retches at his egregious misconduct and deeply troubling relationship with a hostile foreign power. In exchange, there is hope of advances on certain core items of the Republican agenda, from lower taxes and repealing the Affordable Care Act to financial and environmental regulatory relief. This is a short-sighted and faustian pact, however. Bannonism — as defined by Stephen Bannon and his motley crew of ethno-nationalists — has nothing to do with traditional American conservatism.

Indeed, in many ways, Bannon’s fevered vision has been defined in opposition to this tradition. Trump’s Rasputin, along with his fellow “alt-righters” in the West Wing (Julia Hahn and Michael Anton) has repeatedly stated that his end goal is the destruction of the Republican establishment, which he has dismissed as a “collection of crony capitalists,” that, “needs to be bitch-slapped.” To put it more simply, the Bannonites in the White House are like the facehugger in Alien. They have latched themselves onto the Republican party, and—when the time is ripe—hope to burst out of the husk of their dead host. And yet many establishment Republicans still seem to cling onto the hope that both organisms can somehow learn to live in symbiosis.
...

A “collection of crony capitalists,” seems to be a fairly good description of what Trump has assembled with Bannon's help. A swamp not drained but densely packed with a new set of establishment critters. You might just see Bannon as a bundle of the usual Irish-American grievances dressed up a little and glooming onto to billionaires for whom he's a useful idiot providing camouflage.

Perhaps it's unwise to judge Bannon and the very wealthy people he has long served so superficially. It's something of a rule in these things to deride enemies in terms very easily applied to yourself. Consider deceitful and bent Trump's abuse of Lying Ted and Crooked Hillary. Bannon may dream of an apocalyptic tearing down but it may not be a fantasy he actually wants to live in. The Whitehouse he's part of seems more a zone of feuding chaos and incompetence than any grand scheme. Adults like McMasters are slowly arriving on the scene to tidy it up into something workable.

 

[J Ed]

On War On The Rocks “BRING EVERYTHING CRASHING DOWN”: BANNON’S REACTIONARY GUARD AND U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY
A “collection of crony capitalists,” seems to be a fairly good description of what Trump has assembled with Bannon's help. A swamp not drained but densely packed with a new set of establishment critters. You might just see Bannon as a bundle of the usual Irish-American grievances dressed up a little and glooming onto to billionaires for whom he's a useful idiot providing camouflage.

Perhaps it's unwise to judge Bannon and the very wealthy people he has long served so superficially. It's something of a rule in these things to deride enemies in terms very easily applied to yourself. Consider deceitful and bent Trump's abuse of Lying Ted and Crooked Hillary. Bannon may dream of an apocalyptic tearing down but it may not be a fantasy he actually wants to live in. The Whitehouse he's part of seems more a zone of feuding chaos and incompetence than any grand scheme. Adults like McMasters are slowly arriving on the scene to tidy it up into something workable.

What do you think about the race stuff and his links to the FAN, jobbik etc? It's clearly not for show, this is esoteric stuff electorally.

 

[Ming]

Navy, Goldman, easy money from a lucky deal on Seinfeld, founded a racist news organization. I think you should have your right to vote removed if you do it against your own self interest. That's the standard and the imperative. If you're so stupid you cut your own throat because of the lies of a shyster you shouldn't be allowed to give the shyster a legal mandate (which gives them control of state violence). Isn't that a standard we apply in mental health? If someone is a danger to themselves? If you then get educated you can get it back. How about that?

 

[J Ed]

Navy, Goldman, easy money from a lucky deal on Seinfeld, founded a racist news organization. I think you should have your right to vote removed if you do it against your own self interest. That's the standard and the imperative. If you're so stupid you cut your own throat because of the lies of a shyster you shouldn't be allowed to give the shyster a legal mandate (which gives them control of state violence). Isn't that a standard we apply in mental health? If someone is a danger to themselves? If you then get educated you can get it back. How about that?

This view is as dangerous as Bannons', perhaps even worse

 

[Ming]

This view is as dangerous as Bannons', perhaps even worse

Define terms.
Steve Bannon is Steve Bannon.
Would you give control to an idiot? People in the West have been voting against their own interests since the late 70's. We've had the free market place for a while. Looks like things haven't worked out which ironically led to the political space for an extremist like Bannon to come to a position of influence.
Examine the arc of politics in the UK in the last 30 to 40 years and then tell me if making sure people are informed is important or not.
ETA: One other thing: Do you thing ignorant voters are a good thing? If so why?

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[Ming]

And what we give a mandate too (which is ultimately what we're talking about).

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[NoXion]

Navy, Goldman, easy money from a lucky deal on Seinfeld, founded a racist news organization. I think you should have your right to vote removed if you do it against your own self interest. That's the standard and the imperative. If you're so stupid you cut your own throat because of the lies of a shyster you shouldn't be allowed to give the shyster a legal mandate (which gives them control of state violence). Isn't that a standard we apply in mental health? If someone is a danger to themselves? If you then get educated you can get it back. How about that?

Who gets to decide what is in one's self-interest?

 

[Ming]

Who gets to decide what is in one's self-interest?

Fair point. I just have a problem with thick knobhead's electing Conservatives. It effects the lovely world I'd like to see with everyone fed, educated and having the opportunity to live up to their potential. There is a fair bit of data in on this now you know. The right have had the floor since 1980. Average wages have not gone up. Borrowing has gone through the roof. Productivity too. Where's all that value gone?

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