Steve Bannon is an awful father and a wife beater

[GrumpyGran]

I don't see him taking this lying down. I do wonder what he'll do next. More division among the right?

Talking about the screen door hitting you in the ass on the way out.

[AmazonGrace]

On one hand, it's pretty terrible that the White House pressure can get someone fired from a private enterprise for not sucking up to POTUS enough.

On the other hand, it's Steve Bannon and I trust he will be alt-right.  

The silence you hear is the sound of my tiniest violin.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GrumpyGran]

Yeah, I'm bumping him back up. All of you probably thought I had news on him. Nope. Nothing. Nada. I am the only one who thinks that's odd? This man who was going to rule the world, who for a while effectively was running the WH. Now crickets.

It makes me wonder how that talk with Mueller went.

[onekidanddone]

59 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

Yeah, I'm bumping him back up. All of you probably thought I had news on him. Nope. Nothing. Nada. I am the only one who thinks that's odd? This man who was going to rule the world, who for a while effectively was running the WH. Now crickets.

It makes me wonder how that talk with Mueller went.

Witness protection. His name is now Herman Flipper-Flopper and he is a Walmart greeter in Searchlight Nevada.

[onekidanddone]

Not exactly sure what to make of this other than Bannon is as always a misogynist racist white supremacist fuck. Let's discuss.

Steve Bannon Thinks the Golden Globes Signal the End of the Patriarchy

Quote

 

Since his spectacular fall from Donald Trump’s good graces, there has been little word of Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist and self-styled populist kingmaker intent on razing the Republican Party to usher in a new, nationalist golden age. Abandoned by his wealthy backers, Robert and Rebekah Mercer, and devoid of his “weapons” at Breitbart, Bannon has largely faded into the background. Which, apparently, left him plenty of time to enjoy this year’s Golden Globes.

For the foreword to the updated paperback version of his book Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising, Bloomberg journalist Josh Green joined Bannon to watch the ceremony. And as actresses in black dresses paraded down the runway and speeches were given decrying the backwards attitudes pervasive in Hollywood, Bannon reportedly saw a turning point.

“It’s a Cromwell moment!” Bannon shouted to Green, according to a copy of the text obtained by CNN, referencing the 17th-century militaristic dictator. “It’s even more powerful than populism. It’s deeper. It’s primal. It’s elemental. The long black dresses and all that—this is the Puritans! It’s anti-patriarchy.”

Bannon noted Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s rapt attention on Oprah during her Cecil B. DeMille Award acceptance speech. “He’s ruined his career,” Bannon said, according to Green. “If you rolled out a guillotine, they’d chop off every set of balls in the room.” He also ruled that Oprah, should she decide to get involved in the 2018 midterms, could pose a legitimate threat, ushering in a wave of activism that could assist Democrats in taking back the House of Representatives.

"You watch,” Bannon is quoted as saying. “The time has come. Women are gonna take charge of society. And they couldn’t juxtapose a better villain than Trump. He is the patriarch. This is a definitional moment in the culture. It’ll never be the same going forward . . . The anti-patriarchy movement is going to undo 10,000 years of recorded history.”

 

 

[fraurosena]

9 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

"You watch,” Bannon is quoted as saying. “The time has come. Women are gonna take charge of society. And they couldn’t juxtapose a better villain than Trump. He is the patriarch. This is a definitional moment in the culture. It’ll never be the same going forward . . . The anti-patriarchy movement is going to undo 10,000 years of recorded history.”

And it's about time too.

[Howl]

I listened to part of a Terry Gross interview with Joshua  Green on NPR's Fresh Air last night.  His book, Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump and the Nationalist Uprising (summer 2017), was just re-released in a updated paperback.  I'm going to buy it the updated version today, if Barnes and Noble has it.  If you truly want to know about Bannon and Trump, Joshua Green has the insight and the goods.  

Link to audio of the interview here. 

Amazon reviews here.  The original has 484 reviews and was on the NYT's best seller list in the politics section. 

 

[GrumpyGran]

10 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Not exactly sure what to make of this other than Bannon is as always a misogynist racist white supremacist fuck. Let's discuss.

Steve Bannon Thinks the Golden Globes Signal the End of the Patriarchy

 

Huh. Okay. Maybe he's been in rehab and has sobered up. I am absolutely not prepared for the emergence of a new Steve Bannon.

[onekidanddone]

6 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

Huh. Okay. Maybe he's been in rehab and has sobered up. I am absolutely not prepared for the emergence of a new Steve Bannon.

He still sounds pretty drunk to me. Screaming on how women are going to undo 10,000 years of patriarchal civilization because they are speaking out against sexual assault, and because of the color of their dresses.  He also had to get word in about Oprah  because a woman of color who is a strong, successful, and well resected leader is going to be the downfall of society. 

I really hate that guy

[GreyhoundFan]

"‘Let them call you racists’: Steve Bannon delivers fighting speech to France’s National Front"

Spoiler

Former White House senior staffer Stephen K. Bannon addressed France’s far-right National Front on Saturday, heralding the global populist tide and attacking the “opposition party media.”

Bannon’s surprise visit to the party’s conference in Lille — announced via Twitter late Friday — was his most recent stop on a European tour that has included Switzerland along with Italy, where last week, voters abandoned establishment parties and opted for a hung Parliament dominated by right-wing anti-immigrant populists.

“I came to Europe as an observer and to learn,” Bannon said, wearing his typical rugged attire before a cadre of the party elite dressed in suits.

“What I’ve learned is that you’re part of a worldwide movement, that is bigger than France, bigger than Italy, bigger than Hungary — bigger than all of it. And history is on our side,” he said. “The tide of history is with us, and it will compel us to victory after victory after victory.”

He also encouraged the party to stick to its nationalistic roots. “Let them call you racists. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists,” he said.

His speech contained a familiar litany of attacks against a global elite, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and journalists. Some of it translated; some of it did not. When Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, mentioned that he once sold a company to the French bank Société Générale, the room erupted in jeers, not cheers. “I thought you might like that,” he said in response.

On some level, the speech presented another development in the relationship between far-right movements in the United States and Europe, particularly in France. Last month, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen — the niece of National Front leader Marine Le Pen — spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in Maryland.

Her speech echoed many of the statements of Donald Trump, whom Bannon helped to get elected to the U.S. presidency. “I am not offended when I hear President Donald Trump say ‘America first,’ ” she said. “I want Britain first for the British people, and I want France first for the French people.”

But in general, the meeting between Bannon and the party of Marine Le Pen came at a particularly fraught moment for Bannon himself and the National Front, with each trying to remain relevant in an unforgiving political environment.

During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Bannon was a close ally and confidant of Trump’s, and he joined the West Wing staff as Trump’s chief strategist. But he was forced out of the White House last August.

Likewise, Le Pen was a prominent contender for the French presidency in May 2017, but she suffered a landslide loss to Emmanuel Macron. Her party — widely seen as the alternative to Macron during the election — then fared poorly in France’s legislative elections: In a parliament of 577 seats, the National Front now holds only eight. That figure presents a striking contrast with the 34 percent of the popular vote that Le Pen won in the presidential election, and her party cannot be labeled the opposition.

To that end, rebranding the National Front’s image is the primary purpose of the “party congress” in Lille this weekend. Le Pen and her allies are also expected to announce a new name for the party that they hope will appeal to more voters in the future.

Le Pen has long sought to “de-demonize” her party by distancing it from its origins.

The National Front was co-founded in 1972 by her father, the convicted Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen, who continues to refer to Nazi gas chambers as a “detail” in the history of World War II. Last week, he published the first volume of his memoirs, “Son of the Nation,” which feature an empathic defense of Philippe Pétain, the leader of France’s Vichy government, a body that willingly collaborated with Nazi Germany after Germany’s invasion of France during the war.

Although several of Marine Le Pen’s aides were also accused of Holocaust denial during the recent election campaign, she claims to be estranged from her father. The party conference in Lille also will feature a vote on whether the elder Le Pen can keep his title as the party’s honorary president. His daughter officially expelled him in 2015 for repeating the remark about gas chambers.

Bannon had some advice for those who might be embarrassed by such a history: “Wear it as a badge of honor. Because every day, we get stronger and they get weaker.”

In French media, Jean-Marie Le Pen — noting that Bannon was widely perceived as the “most radical” of Trump’s advisers — cast doubt on the value of his daughter’s American guest.

“I think this is not exactly the definition of ‘de-demonization,’ ” he said.

He needs to crawl back under his bridge.

[Howl]

9 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"‘Let them call you racists’: Steve Bannon delivers fighting speech to France’s National Front"

  Reveal hidden contents

Former White House senior staffer Stephen K. Bannon addressed France’s far-right National Front on Saturday, heralding the global populist tide and attacking the “opposition party media.”

Bannon’s surprise visit to the party’s conference in Lille — announced via Twitter late Friday — was his most recent stop on a European tour that has included Switzerland along with Italy, where last week, voters abandoned establishment parties and opted for a hung Parliament dominated by right-wing anti-immigrant populists.

“I came to Europe as an observer and to learn,” Bannon said, wearing his typical rugged attire before a cadre of the party elite dressed in suits.

“What I’ve learned is that you’re part of a worldwide movement, that is bigger than France, bigger than Italy, bigger than Hungary — bigger than all of it. And history is on our side,” he said. “The tide of history is with us, and it will compel us to victory after victory after victory.”

He also encouraged the party to stick to its nationalistic roots. “Let them call you racists. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists,” he said.

His speech contained a familiar litany of attacks against a global elite, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and journalists. Some of it translated; some of it did not. When Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, mentioned that he once sold a company to the French bank Société Générale, the room erupted in jeers, not cheers. “I thought you might like that,” he said in response.

On some level, the speech presented another development in the relationship between far-right movements in the United States and Europe, particularly in France. Last month, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen — the niece of National Front leader Marine Le Pen — spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor in Maryland.

Her speech echoed many of the statements of Donald Trump, whom Bannon helped to get elected to the U.S. presidency. “I am not offended when I hear President Donald Trump say ‘America first,’ ” she said. “I want Britain first for the British people, and I want France first for the French people.”

But in general, the meeting between Bannon and the party of Marine Le Pen came at a particularly fraught moment for Bannon himself and the National Front, with each trying to remain relevant in an unforgiving political environment.

During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Bannon was a close ally and confidant of Trump’s, and he joined the West Wing staff as Trump’s chief strategist. But he was forced out of the White House last August.

Likewise, Le Pen was a prominent contender for the French presidency in May 2017, but she suffered a landslide loss to Emmanuel Macron. Her party — widely seen as the alternative to Macron during the election — then fared poorly in France’s legislative elections: In a parliament of 577 seats, the National Front now holds only eight. That figure presents a striking contrast with the 34 percent of the popular vote that Le Pen won in the presidential election, and her party cannot be labeled the opposition.

To that end, rebranding the National Front’s image is the primary purpose of the “party congress” in Lille this weekend. Le Pen and her allies are also expected to announce a new name for the party that they hope will appeal to more voters in the future.

Le Pen has long sought to “de-demonize” her party by distancing it from its origins.

The National Front was co-founded in 1972 by her father, the convicted Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen, who continues to refer to Nazi gas chambers as a “detail” in the history of World War II. Last week, he published the first volume of his memoirs, “Son of the Nation,” which feature an empathic defense of Philippe Pétain, the leader of France’s Vichy government, a body that willingly collaborated with Nazi Germany after Germany’s invasion of France during the war.

Although several of Marine Le Pen’s aides were also accused of Holocaust denial during the recent election campaign, she claims to be estranged from her father. The party conference in Lille also will feature a vote on whether the elder Le Pen can keep his title as the party’s honorary president. His daughter officially expelled him in 2015 for repeating the remark about gas chambers.

Bannon had some advice for those who might be embarrassed by such a history: “Wear it as a badge of honor. Because every day, we get stronger and they get weaker.”

In French media, Jean-Marie Le Pen — noting that Bannon was widely perceived as the “most radical” of Trump’s advisers — cast doubt on the value of his daughter’s American guest.

“I think this is not exactly the definition of ‘de-demonization,’ ” he said.

He needs to crawl back under his bridge.

I saw this yesterday and was actually pretty shocked, but I shouldn't have been.  Steve Bannon goes into the truly evil column.  When you're too awful to survive at Breitbart.....just sayin'. 

[GrumpyGran]

6 hours ago, Howl said:

I saw this yesterday and was actually pretty shocked, but I shouldn't have been.  Steve Bannon goes into the truly evil column.  When you're too awful to survive at Breitbart.....just sayin'. 

He's looking for a new tribe and maybe a safe house. He's got to have financiers so he's shopping himself.

Edited March 11, 2018 by GrumpyGran
cause I can't spell.

[Howl]

1 hour ago, GrumpyGran said:

He's looking for a new tribe and maybe a safe house. He's got to have financiers so he's shopping himself.

Yeah, I'd be curious to know what his finances look like.   His background is such that he likely has major investments, so I can't believe his personal finances are in disarray.  He's been married three times, though and he has three adult daughters. That can set you back. 

[GrumpyGran]

3 minutes ago, Howl said:

Yeah, I'd be curious to know what his finances look like.   His background is such that he likely has major investments, so I can't believe his personal finances are in disarray.  He's been married three times, though and he has three adult daughters. That can set you back. 

He may be well set personally but someone's got to finance his mouth. A guy like this needs to have an attorney on retainer. And that trip to Europe cost a bit, I'm sure he doesn't fly coach. He's the kind who believes that what he has to say is so important that someone should be paying him to say it.

[Howl]

24 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

He's the kind who believes that what he has to say is so important that someone should be paying him to say it.

He's beginning to sound a bit messianic; too bad it's for such a shitty and despicable world view. 

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

He's beginning to sound a bit messianic; too bad it's for such a shitty and despicable world view. 

It still shocks me that this man goes to church. I mean, why bother?

[Cartmann99]

Idiot.

I know he doesn't care about the average folks whose retirement accounts are taking a beating right now, but the wealthy who aren't batshit crazy are really not happy about what's happening in the stock market right now. It's not wise to piss off people who you may need something from later on.

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

Idiot.

I know he doesn't care about the average folks whose retirement accounts are taking a beating right now, but the wealthy who aren't batshit crazy are really not happy about what's happening in the stock market right now. It's not wise to piss off people who you may need something from later on.

Idiot indeed. A has-been, washed out idiot to boot, who was kicked out of Breitbart after he fell out with his benefactors, the Mercers, and is now desperately trying to stay relevant.

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[Cartmann99]

57 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

It's okay if you're a Republican.

[GreyhoundFan]

3 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

It's okay if you're a Republican.

Yeah, I considered posting it in the hypocrisy thread.

[Howl]

On 3/11/2018 at 3:30 PM, GrumpyGran said:

It still shocks me that this man goes to church. I mean, why bother?

Thank you for this.  I actually guffawed.  It's fun being reminded that in the rogues' gallery of characters associated with Trump, he's the turd that's floated to the top of the sewage. 

No surprise at all that he's sucking up to the Nationalist scene in Europe. Sadly, I expect him to become more extreme with time. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"He was fired 10 months ago, but Stephen K. Bannon has won"

Spoiler

He was fired 10 months ago, but Stephen K. Bannon has won.

Truculent, anti-immigrant nationalism; disdain for the “deep state”; disparaging democratic allies while celebrating dictators: These are now the pillars of President Trump’s rule. In his administration’s policy, foreign and domestic, and in the compliant Republican Party, Bannonism is ascendant.

Corey Stewart, the xenophobic, Confederate-celebrating Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Virginia, is cheered by Trump as the face of this new party. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), tweeting on behalf of old principles, is a total outsider. Supposed leaders such as Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in the Senate and Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) in the House fall abjectly into line.

This is the victory not only of a Trump personality cult, as it has been described, but also of an ideology, one closer to Putinism than Reaganism.

To realize how thorough is the rout, it helps to think back to spring 2017 — when such an outcome did not seem inevitable.

Back then, you may recall, some of the “crazies” — such as national security adviser Michael Flynn — had left the White House, and supposed pragmatists had taken charge: H.R. McMaster for national security, Gary Cohn for economics, Jared and Ivanka for — well, for general reasonableness.

There was talk of working with Democrats on infrastructure. Trump wanted to help the “dreamers,” those blameless young immigrants brought to this country as children. It seemed that existing international agreements — NATO, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Paris climate accord — might be preserved, with some face-saving adjustments. Trump was still the politician who had spoken tolerantly on LGBT issues.

Now, any hint of compromise with Democrats has been purged. The White House defines itself and prepares to motivate its voters by the “enemies” it constantly creates, refines and rediscovers, including African American athletes, the press (“Our Country’s biggest enemy,” in a recent Trump tweet), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (“very dishonest & weak”), and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III (directing a “Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats”). Also: Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Democratic leaders in the Senate and House, former FBI director James B. Comey, his own attorney general, his deputy attorney general . . . The list will never end.

But Bannonism is not just a snarling attitude. It encompasses a contempt for democracy and a respect for authoritarianism. When Trump refused to sign a statement of solidarity with the world’s other six leading industrial democracies and then proceeded to slather praise on North Korea’s dictator (“a tough guy . . . a very smart guy”), this was not just a sign of personal pique or favoritism: The U.S. president raised questions in the minds of other leaders about whether the concept of the West itself can survive his presidency.

It encompasses an “America First,” for-me-to-win-you-have-to-lose philosophy now being implemented in tariff wars against virtually every U.S. trading partner.

It encompasses a contempt for immigrants, for outsiders of any kind. Certainly it is possible to support lower levels of immigration without being a racist. But to countenance the deliberate policy of tearing away small children from their parents that we are seeing today on the U.S.- ­Mexico border is consistent only with a worldview that deems Mexicans and Salvadorans somehow less human, less worthy, than white Americans.

And it’s no coincidence that Trump, who boasted about being the first Republican to say LGBTQ in his convention acceptance speech in 2016, has, as The Post’s James Hohmann noted last week, tried to ban transgender people from the military, removed protections for transgender inmates, employees and students, failed to acknowledge Pride Month and disbanded the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. As in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, this revival of bigotry dovetails with an effort to woo the conservative Christian establishment.

Finally, Bannonism encompasses contempt for the government itself. Trump has served this well with his constant disparagement of the Justice Department and the FBI; his at times insultingly unsuitable appointments (such as his personal physician to head the mammoth Department of Veterans Affairs); and his generally cavalier attitude toward staffing. Even today, 17 months into his first term, fewer than half of the 667 key positions tracked by The Post in collaboration with the Partnership for Public Service are filled, and for almost 200 there are no nominees.

How has Bannonism prevailed without Bannon? In part, with the help of true believers who remain in the White House, including Stephen Miller (on immigration) and Peter Navarro (on trade).

But another answer came from Trump himself, who said after Bannon’s firing: “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. . . . Steve was a staffer.”

Even discounting for Trump’s normal petulance and self-aggrandizement, there may have been an element of truth in what he said. The anti-democratic, protectionist, anti-immigrant, pro-authoritarian administration that has now taken shape, in other words, is not only Bannonism. It is raw and unvarnished Trumpism, too.

 

[Howl]

This is almost too much to read, because of its painful truth.  And it has all happened in a staggeringly short period of time.