Thought for the Day

[trish]

I'm fucking glad to see him gone, but Bannon's ouster simply allows the rest of the GOP to breathe a little easier and pretend the inherent racism of the current White House has been taken care of.

[Stavros]

I'm fucking glad to see him gone, but Bannon's ouster simply allows the rest of the GOP to breathe a little easier and pretend the inherent racism of the current White House has been taken care of.

A lot may depend on what Bannon does next, and whether or not he returns to Breitbart to carry on fighting for his cause there. I read somewhere that even though Paul Manafort resigned as director the Presidential campaign not long after it began, he maintained communications with the boss, and I think it is possible Bannon will still have the President's ear, if not his balls when the big man is in need of a pep talk or advice, and the other guy in the ideology double act, Stephen Miller is still there. Nor do I see the GOP breathing easier as the one problem that won't go away is the simple fact that the President will not change, and will continue to be provocative and insensitive in his public utterances and tweets, because that is what the Brand looks and sounds like, and he believes, is what his supporters want to hear, and they are the only people he is talking to.

[fred41]

A lot may depend on what Bannon does next, and whether or not he returns to Breitbart to carry on fighting for his cause there...

Didn't take long to get an answer to that:
http://nypost.com/2017/08/18/bannon-...dency-is-over/

I'm not a fan of Linda Stasi at all, but I like the way she wrote this:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.3423888

[broncofan]

Anyway, I know this is off-topic but I wanted to include this to provide a bit of closure on that documentary I posted. This is Cantwell on Friday night pepper-spraying what appears to be an unarmed man in the face at close range. I believe the assault charges he is sought for are related to this.

Now you will recall that he claimed he was maced by "Communists" on two occasions. I think it's highly likely he either accidentally got his own mace on himself, that he intentionally sprayed himself in the face with mace, or that neither happened but he pretended he was maced by "Communists". Now I don't rule out the possibility that he was maced, but I think this is too much of a coincidence. He claimed he was being "aggressed" against, but in this picture he is pepper-spraying some dude who does not appear to be "aggressing" against him. Nazis are the worst.

[nitron]

Last few days from alt=centrist.....

https://archive.org/details/youtube-gwSYhTWk6E8

[filghy2]

I think the real significance of Bannon's departure is that he had little success in advancing most of his policy agenda. He did have influence in relation to white christian identity politics, where Trump's instincts coincided with Bannon's agenda. In relation to economic and foreign policy, however, where Bannon was pushing populist economic nationalism and reduced foreign intervention, he largely lost out to more conventional Republican approaches. It appears that Trump has largely been uninterested in pursuing these things, despite signals to the contrary during the campaign.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...15506?lo=ap_c1
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...-fired-resigns

[Stavros]

Didn't take long to get an answer to that:
http://nypost.com/2017/08/18/bannon-...dency-is-over/
I'm not a fan of Linda Stasi at all, but I like the way she wrote this:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/poli...icle-1.3423888

It is reported that Bannon has said to the Weekly Standard:
“The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over.”
“I feel jacked up. Now I’m free. I’ve got my hands back on my weapons,” Bannon said. “Someone said, ‘it’s Bannon the Barbarian.’ I am definitely going to crush the opposition. There’s no doubt.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ite-house-exit

What I find extraordinary about this, is that Bannon was in charge of strategy yet now declares, after 7 months that the Presidency he did so much to get elected 'is over'. He implies that he has been sidelined, yet the truth is that this is a damning indictment of his own incompetence, for this President entered office as a Republican, with the Republican Party in control of both the House and the Senate.

It is so basic a rule of American politics that high school students know the success and failure of a Presidency depends on the relationship he (or she) builds with Congress, because power in the USA is separated between the three branches of government. Surely, if the Presidency is to succeed, it is the job of the man in charge of strategy to develop the relations with Congress that gives them an idea of what the President wants to achieve, while listening to their major concerns and finding a means to work together. One asks: did Bannon ever go to Congress to sit down in a Senator's office and talk about policy issues with him/her and the staff, also with a Representative of the House? Bannon had something like a year to get down on paper a road-map of policy proposals identifying the people needed to make it happen. Even with the President heading off into his own fantasy world, the 'real business of politics' could have continued behind closed doors, and the road-map could plot a course over four years.

It seems that, just as the Republicans had 7 years to produce a new health care policy but did not, in 7 months Bannon failed to build even the semblance of an alliance between a Republican President and a Republican Congress. That must be judged a failure, either of will, or ability.

In an age of instant news, instant opinion, and instant covfeve, there seems to be a demand for instant change in politics, but it doesn't happen like that. A Presidency can last for 8 years and yes, it can be blown off course without warning, as happened to GW Bush in 2001, but to declare after 7 months 'its over' while promising to fight from the outside is frankly pathetic. Little has been lost to government by Bannon's exit, and for the news media, nothing has been gained.

[sukumvit boy]

Spot on , nailed that one.

[filghy2]

Bannon sees himself as a revolutionary in the mould of Lenin, who is going to overturn the existing system. Anyone not on board with the revolutionary program, including mainstream Republicans, is an enemy. The man clearly has delusions of grandeur. The idea of negotiating a compromise solution is anathema to such people. I think he saw his role as being essentially an ideological commissar.

What emerges from various reports since his departure is that Bannon was widely disliked because of his aggressive style, and that nobody knew what he actually did.

[nitron]

Another perspective from alt-centrist: Note , he gets a little shouty half way on.
I really like the ending, it's so calm.