US Politics: YOUTUBE LINKS OR GTFO

[MerenthaClone]

Spicer has now referred to an attack in Atlanta, alongside San Bernadino and Boston, as justification for the ban multiple times.  That attack also hasn't happened.  The trend of just outright lying to the people, knowing full-well that people will listen and believe it, is fucking scary.  

 

e:  vvvvv  Of course it is, but nothing will come of it.  

[Mexal]

This has to be an abuse of his Presidential position right? Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump's clothing line due to poor sales. This is where the Office of Government Ethics would get involved right? It's the US President attacking an American company because they made a sales decision on a member of his family.

 

[OldGimletEye]

17 minutes ago, Mexal said:

This has to be an abuse of his Presidential position right? Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump's clothing line due to poor sales. This is where the Office of Government Ethics would get involved right? It's the US President attacking an American company because they made a sales decision on a member of his family.

 

Don't know much about fashion.
In fact, if I can match my socks correctly, it's a good day for me.
But, it just seems to me, that Ivanka Trump Storm Trooper Boots are so 1930s.

[OldGimletEye]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/08/the-gop-tax-plan-could-mean-a-big-break-for-some-of-donald-trumps-least-favorite-people/

Taxing Trumps least favorite people (allegedly).

Quote

Under a plan put forward by Republicans in Congress, tax rates for hedge-fund managers would be far below where they are now due to a provision that, at first, might seem unrelated to their work: a tax exemption for exports.

Yeah, I think one area where the United States has strong comparative advantage is in financial services and in the production of financial assets.

I don't think that is one export sector that needs a lot of help. And I don't think a lot of people had that in mind when they talk about helping out the export sector.

[Zorral]

4 hours ago, Happy Ent said:

Request for the politicos here: Please point me to a reference where I can read up on what Bannon wants.

(Many years ago, Cheney ran GWB, one could read the Project for a New American Century document. That’s what I’m after, or something like that.)

It is important to me that the material is accurate. I’d like a presentation that Bannon would agree with, in the sense of saying, “yes, this does not misrepresent my position or motivation.” If you can furnish me with material that is critical, all the better. But if it’s from Bannon’s own side (or even his own hand): fine.

I am not looking for an ill-willed presentation of his viewpoints. (Not because I find them uninteresting, but because such presentations have been easy to find and I need no more help.)

A set of articles, a book, … I’m willing to invest a few hours of reading time.

Surely it is to laugh to request an accurate reading of anything coming out of a gang of thugs whose entire modus operandi is lies and chaos?  They say anything, then say they didn't say it and sue you for repeating their words, and then they change their minds.

But basically Bannon's objective is to destroy the US federal government and the Eurozone and create a white supremacist fortress to go to war on Islam.  Religion is its first arm and 'white' is its second.  O and shut up all women forever and breed to make the world white again.

 

[Mexal]

1 hour ago, Mexal said:

This has to be an abuse of his Presidential position right? Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump's clothing line due to poor sales. This is where the Office of Government Ethics would get involved right? It's the US President attacking an American company because they made a sales decision on a member of his family.

 

Just to add to this, the official POTUS account just retweeted this. We're one step away from him promoting the rest of his family businesses.

 

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

5 hours ago, Happy Ent said:

Request for the politicos here: Please point me to a reference where I can read up on what Bannon wants.

(Many years ago, Cheney ran GWB, one could read the Project for a New American Century document. That’s what I’m after, or something like that.)

It is important to me that the material is accurate. I’d like a presentation that Bannon would agree with, in the sense of saying, “yes, this does not misrepresent my position or motivation.” If you can furnish me with material that is critical, all the better. But if it’s from Bannon’s own side (or even his own hand): fine.

I am not looking for an ill-willed presentation of his viewpoints. (Not because I find them uninteresting, but because such presentations have been easy to find and I need no more help.)

A set of articles, a book, … I’m willing to invest a few hours of reading time.

If you want his own words, I'd suggest listening to his radio show. Not sure that he's much of a writer to be honest.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/31/bannon-odds-islam-china-decades-us-foreign-policy-doctrine/97292068/

 

/Hmm, quick google search doesn't reveal much. Not sure if you can find them archived, or in podcast form. I'm not having much luck.

[Happy Ent]

4 hours ago, Mexal said:

One article here. Another here. A third here. There is an article I'm looking for but having a hard time finding it. If this isn't what you're looking for, feel free to ignore.

Thank you. Those are more or less what I was quickly able to find myself, and it left me wanting. 

Bannon’s Vatican speech is the closest thing to what I’m looking for, and I found it useful for understanding where he’s coming from, but is this really all we have? The issues raised in the speech are very big, and there’s a lot of stuff written on these questions. (History and mechanisms of the Enlightenment, clash of cultures, economics of capitalism, demographics, etc.)

It’s all very interesting, but decent and intelligent people can have a wide variety of opinions on these issues, and I still have difficulties in pinning Bannon down. Is there really no more comprehensive source of information about the opinions of the man who seems to be currently running the Free World?

(To repeat, I am absolutely not interested in slander. There is plenty of that. I’ve already seen it.)

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

1 hour ago, OldGimletEye said:

Don't know much about fashion.
In fact, if I can match my socks correctly, it's a good day for me.
But, it just seems to me, that Ivanka Trump Storm Trooper Boots are so 1930s.

You can save so much time and worry, and even feel a bit rebellious if you quit matching your socks.  No worries over the dryer eating one, or only one getting a hole.  Makes life so much better, I now even buy my socks not matched.  It is one of the best things I have done for myself  

[Zorral]

22 minutes ago, Happy Ent said:

Thank you. Those are more or less what I was quickly able to find myself, and it left me wanting. 

Bannon’s Vatican speech is the closest thing to what I’m looking for, and I found it useful for understanding where he’s coming from, but is this really all we have? The issues raised in the speech are very big, and there’s a lot of stuff written on these questions. (History and mechanisms of the Enlightenment, clash of cultures, economics of capitalism, demographics, etc.)

It’s all very interesting, but decent and intelligent people can have a wide variety of opinions on these issues, and I still have difficulties in pinning Bannon down. Is there really no more comprehensive source of information about the opinions of the man who seems to be currently running the Free World?

(To repeat, I am absolutely not interested in slander. There is plenty of that. I’ve already seen it.)

You can't fully repeal the Enlightenment and have an apocalyptic crusade against Islam without the Pope, can you?  The pull quote: 

>Bannon has maintained a focus on the Vatican . . . and returned to direct the documentary “Torchbearer” featuring “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson as the reality TV star considers the apocalypse.

You read that right. I dare you to watch the trailer for Torchbearer, linked to above. I dare you. It's produced by David Bossie for Citizens United. Yes, that Citizens United. See also Bannon's Breitbart interview with Benjamin Harnwell.  

All this has been here, in plain sight, all along. People just haven't wanted to see it. 

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/steve-bannon-is-trying-to-undermine-pope-francis-through-an-ultra-conservative-american-cardinal/

Steve Bannon is trying to undermine Pope Francis through an ultra-conservative American cardinal: report
Travis Gettys
07 Feb 2017 at 14:41 ET                   

President Donald Trump’s chief strategist has been cultivating a bond with a right-wing cardinal who’s waging war against Pope Francis.

Steve Bannon met with archconservative Cardinal Raymond Burke, who has openly challenged the pope, during a 2014 trip to Rome to cover the canonization of John Paul II for Breitbart News, reported the New York Times.

The American cardinal and Bannon, who is Catholic, held a “meeting of hearts” over their shared antipathy toward Islam and their concerns that the west had abandoned traditional conservative values, according to Benjamin Harnwell, founder of the Institute for Human Dignity and a confidante of Burke.

Bannon shared his apocalyptic vision of the world during a Vatican conference sponsored by Harnwell during that trip. His comments were widely reported after the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.

The newspaper also reported that he approached Edward Pentin, a conservative Vatican reporter and fierce critic of Pope Francis, about covering Rome for Breitbart — which Bannon has described as “a platform for the alt-right.”

Bannon has maintained a focus on the Vatican since that visit, and returned to direct the documentary “Torchbearer” featuring “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson as the reality TV star considers the apocalypse.

The president’s chief strategist also criticizes the pope as a global elitist, echoing concerns by conservative Vatican insiders, the Times reported.

Bannon has encouraged Breitbart and its Rome correspondent, former priest Thomas Williams, to champion Cardinal Burke — who was punished just weeks ago by Pope Francis.

According to sources within the centuries-old Knights of Malta, the pope felt the chivalrous order’s grand master was following the lead of Burke, its chaplain and a Trump supporter, in disobeying Vatican authority, the newspaper reported.

The grand master and Burke were both stripped of their powers within the 1,000-year-old order, although Vatican watchers disputed whether American politics played any role in the scandal.

Esquire columnist Charles Pierce, writing about the Times report, described Burke as a “theological thug” and Bannon as a “political thug.”

“(Bannon) is not someone who wants to ‘disrupt the elites,’ or whatever techie garbage he likes to toss around,” Pierce wrote. “He wants to establish himself at the head of a new, worldwide authoritarian elite that will reach into every institution and that will demolish any of those institutions that stand in the way of what he wants.”
 

[Rippounet]

This article was not reassuring: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/13/trumps-radical-anti-americanism

Quote

Some choose to find comfort in the belief that the incompetence will undermine the anti-Americanism. Don’t bet on it. Autocratic regimes with a demagogic bent are nearly always inefficient, because they cannot create and extend the network of delegated trust that is essential to making any organization work smoothly. The chaos is characteristic. Whether by instinct or by intention, it benefits the regime, whose goal is to create an overwhelming feeling of shared helplessness in the population at large: we will detain you and take away your green card—or, no, now we won’t take away your green card, but we will hold you here, and we may let you go, or we may not.

 

[Zorral]

In the meantime that android who thinks she's a First Lady -- look at what she said about "I have no intentions of profiting from this," and then see what she does: sue the newspapers for reporting facts about her that she says has ruined her chances of cash cowing the White House with her 'brand of clothes, jewelry, accessories, perfume.'  Her lawsuit maintains that what the Daily Mail and others have reported about her have ruined a splendid opportunity of four years yuge pr exposure.  

Now -- contrast this with what our beautiful and intelligent and kind First Lady, Michelle Obama, did with fashion.  She used what she chose to wear to highly young, and sometimes struggling American designers, and to compliment the countries she was visiting with wearing outfits designed by their own countries' designers.

Just give it up.  These people are vulgar stupid, coarse, ugly exploiters who pick you pocker every way they and figure out. And haters. Who are out to destroy the planet coz they are so stupid.  A dead planet provides no jobs, yawl.

 

[Gertrude]

Can we just not with the personal insults? I don't see much difference between calling Michelle Obama an ape in heels and calling Melania an android. Aside from that, I agree with the assessment of Melania et all as crass opportunists who don't give a fuck.

(yes, I know one is highly racially charged. The point is - can we just stop?)

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

6 hours ago, Happy Ent said:

Request for the politicos here: Please point me to a reference where I can read up on what Bannon wants.

(Many years ago, Cheney ran GWB, one could read the Project for a New American Century document. That’s what I’m after, or something like that.)

It is important to me that the material is accurate. I’d like a presentation that Bannon would agree with, in the sense of saying, “yes, this does not misrepresent my position or motivation.” If you can furnish me with material that is critical, all the better. But if it’s from Bannon’s own side (or even his own hand): fine.

I am not looking for an ill-willed presentation of his viewpoints. (Not because I find them uninteresting, but because such presentations have been easy to find and I need no more help.)

A set of articles, a book, … I’m willing to invest a few hours of reading time.

Here are his own words:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/steve-bannon-apocalypse_us_5898f02ee4b040613138a951?cel0dptrhnttep14i

Quote

“You have an expansionist Islam and you have an expansionist China,” he said during a 2016 radio appearance. “They are motivated. They’re arrogant. They’re on the march. And they think the Judeo-Christian West is on the retreat.”

“Against radical Islam, we’re in a 100-year war,” he told Political Vindication Radio in 2011.

“We’re going to war in the South China Seas in the next five to 10 years, aren’t we?” Bannon asked during a 2016 interview with Reagan biographer Lee Edwards.

This worries me (and not just because conditional on the US going to war with China, I'm 50/50 that I'm headed to a concentration camp) especially. If you think war is inevitable, then you'll take aggressive actions that might improve your chances of winning, but will increase the chances that it'll happen. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, like the way the German General Staff* thought in 1914.

*Not to say that French, British, and Russian leadership's didn't also think this way

[Happy Ent]

53 minutes ago, Zorral said:

You can't fully repeal the Enlightenment and have an apocalyptic crusade against Islam without the Pope, can you?

Oh, you absolutely can. The Papacy was not known for its support of the Enlightenment, and Pope Francis is very actively communicating with Muslim leaders. So I think this position is perfectly valid (though I disagree). But Bannon himself is a Roman Catholic…?

I am still struggling to piece together a consistent picture of the man. Though I follow American politics only tangentially, this seems important. I’d have hoped that some of the American here had made more progress than I have; I’m still at the stage of random googling and wading through mountains of obviously malevolent characterisation from sources that hate him. Let me repeat: That is not what I’m after. I already found that. It’s not enlightening. That’s like reading Tea Party blogs about Obama.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Trump on the travel ban:

Quote

"We have to give you the weapons that you need, and this is a weapon that you need, and they're trying to take it away from you," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-attacks-travel-ban-challengers-bad-high-school/story?id=45345238

ISIS must be celebrating. This idiot is going to do more for their recruiting than they could have ever hoped to have done themselves. 

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

I have a serious problem with the Daily Mail slut shaming Mrs Trump.

 

(but I think her husband is more likely the cause of any losses, so I'm torn on the suit.)

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

Just now, Happy Ent said:

Oh, you absolutely can. The Papacy was not known for its support of the Enlightenment, and Pope Francis is very actively communicating with Muslim leaders. So I think this position is perfectly valid (though I disagree). But Bannon himself is a Roman Catholic…?

I am still struggling to piece together a consistent picture of the man. Though I follow American politics only tangentially, this seems important. I’d have hoped that some of the American here had made more progress than I have; I’m still at the stage of random googling and wading through mountains of obviously malevolent characterisation.

 

His intellectual connection to guys like Moldbug is worrying to me, but probably not so much to you.

What should be worrying to you is his conviction that Western Civilization is already at war. When you think you're already at war, and stakes are the survival of your entire civilization, then you have no reason not to escalate.

[Happy Ent]

9 minutes ago, White Walker Texas Ranger said:

What should be worrying to you is his conviction that Western Civilization is already at war. When you think you're already at war, and stakes are the survival of your entire civilization, then you have no reason not to escalate.

I am happy to worry about a bunch of things. But I need to understand the man first.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

 This interview Bannon does with Trump is pretty interesting. I think it kind of underlines some of the dynamics of their relationship.