Steve Bannon has been fired. This should create some interesting fallout, although Charles Pierce thinks it might not all be for the good.
While this is all entertaining as hell, and it is, and while it’s even more entertaining to speculate what vengeance Bannon and his army of angry gnomes could wreak on this presidency*, I am not going to be turning handsprings along the Charles over this development. First, it’s eight months overdue and both Stephen Miller and the ridiculous Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Ph.D. are still there. Second, I decline at the moment to believe that Bannon will be blocked entirely on the president*’s cell phone. And third, given that this is a president* who would require his paper boy to sign a non-disclosure agreement, I think it’s reasonable to speculate that Bannon’s silence will be handsomely remunerated. But there’s one more general reason that I am not popping corks over this.
Whatever else he was, Bannon was one of the few people in that operation who still at least was making mouth noises about economic populism after inauguration day. I have to think that the various corporate sublets in the Republican congressional leadership—Paul Ryan, chief among them—are looking at Bannon’s departure as an opportunity to lead a president* who knows nothing about anything right down the trail of corporate oligarchy. I’m glad he’s gone, but there’s still enough left to concern us all.
Josh Marshall has an interesting observation:
Here’s one thing to consider as Steve Bannon leaves the White House. There’s hardly anyone in the close Trump orbit who hasn’t been tripped up in some way by the Russia investigation. There’s one big exception: Steve Bannon.
Obviously I don’t know all the ins and out of the Russia probe. The Mueller operation has been extraordinarily tight. But I keep pretty close tabs. Look at all the stories. Bannon’s name basically never comes up. As far as I know he hasn’t even hired a lawyer in the probe. Why is this? My best guess is the most obvious one: for whatever reason he just wasn’t involved. …
… Bannon probably knows a lot that could be big trouble for Trump. But would he hurt Trump like that? Who knows? Initial reports suggest otherwise: What we’re hearing is that he and Breitbart want to go to war with the ‘globalists’ – some mix of the Jews, the former Democrats, the generals and perhaps basically everyone who’s still left.
But here’s the last part of the puzzle and it’s a key one. Back in early summer, Bannon seemed to have the idea that Kushner could and would take the fall for Russia. He was dirty and, if he could be jettisoned, the White House and Trump could be walled off from the damage.
That always struck me as zany.
Zany, because blood comes before anything else with Trump. Come to think of it, other than Chief of Staff Kelly is there anyone left in Trump’s inner White House circle he is not related to?
Jonathan Chait writes that Bannon simply had nothing to offer the White House any more:
Steve Bannon, the most recent loser in the White House game of thrones, leaves the White House best known as the chief ideologist of a new right-wing synthesis, which he used to call “alt-right†and now calls “nationalism.†Those ideas, though, have been followed only intermittently. President Trump has followed Bannon’s xenophobia and barely disguised racism, but ignored his anti-Semitism and fascination with fomenting trade war with China, a trillion dollar infrastructure bill, and a higher tax rate on the rich. Bannon’s true contribution to Trump is less widely understood. “Devil’s Bargain,â€Â Josh Green’s fine history of Bannon’s role in the campaign, makes clear that the chief strategist’s essential work lay in his attacks on Hillary Clinton. That was what won the presidency for Trump. And that, of course, is a skill made obsolete through Trump’s victory.
The remaining members of a presidential arts and humanities panel resigned on Friday in yet another sign of growing national protest of President Trump’s recent comments on the violence in Charlottesville.
He really does seem to be coming apart at the seams.
One down, two to go! At least for now. I wouldn’t be disappointed seeing Conway and Ma Kettle Huckabee getting the boot also.
Liars never prosper and cheaters never win..so let the sunshine in.
t-RUMPLE-THIN-sKKKin is so unseemly, I find it hard to believe he’s coming apart at the seams!
The seams were sown with rotting thread.
Oops! Maybe that should be sewn.
There was a Monty Python sketch where the director of the career advisory board has a sudden emotional breakdown and sobs, “I never wanted to be director of the career advisory board. I hate this lousy job. I wanted to be a lumberjack.”
It seems likely that everyone in Washington has figured out that Trump never wanted this lousy job. He wanted to be a celebrity. People on the White House staff and in the executive departments and at the Pentagon have come to realize that he is just a grumpy old man who wants to sit on his couch and talk to the TV and vent about things on Twitter. He never cared much about economic nationalism but Bannon actually did. Therefore he had to go.
Miller and Gorka are equally creepy so I can’t decide which one I’d like to see get the boot next..I suspect Gorka is probably next.
I saw a humorous comment somebody made on an article about Trump’s chances of getting impeached.
It went: Dear Lord..If Trump is going to be impeached give us a sign by blocking out the sun within the next week.
Yeah, the only policy that I heard in the WH that I liked came from Bannon. 40% taxation over 5 million. Don’t think that will be revisited in his absence.
“If Trump is going to be impeached give us a sign by blocking out the sun within the next week”
I saw that too! I’d like to see that Gorka character get the boot, what a loathsome phony that guy is, with his smug attitude and mail-order doctorate, he belongs on FAUX news not in the white house! On the other hand once all the dunces are gone it will be easier for Pence and Kelly to normalize Trump, I say the more crazies the better, why should Trump be allowed to hide behind a veneer of normalcy?
I suggest Bannon may have lost patience with the doings og the White House and is feeling he will be more influential returning to Breitbart.
Talk is that the “globalists” Ivanka and Jared, and the “democrats” Cohn and others were diametrically opposed to Bannon’s white supremacy er, “nationalism.” And I suspect Kelly realized that the racist scab that Charlottesville pulled off was not going to be a one news cycle thing, and as long as Bannon was there the White House would never be credible on protestations against racist hatred and violence. Trump not being loyally to anyone was okay with throwing his personal Rasputin overboard.
Bannon’s war means we’re about to see a third front open up in the GOP to oppose the freedumb caucus and the Ryan establishmentarians. The nationalists will seek to push policies that will essentially seek to normalize bigotry and replace the GOP’s dog-whistle with a megaphone on racism.
Trump, as stupid and ignorant, is essentially a pawn in all this. The prize in all this is having Trump front the winning faction.
The notion of a three front war seem like a good one, (thanks csm)Â and which side will God be on? Â
http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2017/august/exposing-loyalty-rorschach-test-of-charlottesville-for-evan.html
As an addendum, Jerry Falwell Jr. presented a bit different evangelical view on ABC news this AM. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-inside-information-protested-charlottesville-falwell-jr-defense/story?id=49313453
Falwell is a mini bag of shit. I mean how can someone say that they admire Trump’s honesty for saying what he really thinks and not take into consideration the content of what he says.
It really puzzles me to the extreme how anybody can make the statement that Trump doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. The only way that could possibly make sense is by playing on words knowing that bones aren’t sentient.
The circus continues.. and I’m a believer that the weight of constant criticism and exposing Trump’s deceits, stupidity, ignorance, ineptitude, insincerity, and all of his other bad qualities will eventually pay a dividend.
I’m looking forward to Bannon unchained.. Kinda like Popeye opening his can of spinach?
I hear that General Mattis announced that Trump has arrived at a decision regarding the way forward in Afghanistan. I guess he’s going to inform the nation of his decision in a game show format.. And the winner is..Eric Prince of Xe, formally Blackwater. Come up and take a bow,Eric!
So fine of a characterization Swami, but remember, Falwell would not be the first Christian to sell out for thirty pieces of silver, and will probably not be the last. Let us hope he is the loneliest voice in the world’s religious communities and is well noted as being such.