Gerrymandering Explained

Thoughts On Steve Bannon

My apologies to the people whose writings I'm "appropriating" for this post. It's just a collection, a mishmash of thoughts taken from different pieces about Steve Bannon, and especially his connection with a political philosophy espoused by the Russian Aleksandr Dugin, something called "The Fourth Political Theory."

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The Fourth Political Theory is a book by the Russian political scientist and theorist Aleksandr Dugin, published in 2009. In the book, Dugin states that he is laying the foundations for an entirely new political ideology, the fourth political theory, which integrates and supersedes the three past "theories" of liberal democracy, Marxism, and fascism.

Dugin: "All of these three political theories - liberalism, communism, and fascism - were locked in a life and death struggle in the 20th century. First liberalism and communism defeated fascism together, then, as we know, the Cold War began between communism and liberalism. Then in 1991, liberalism defeated communism on a global scale."

Francis Fukuyama published "The End Of History" in 1992, which posited that mankind had reached the end of its ideological development: liberal democracy would be the basis of society forever more.

Dugin apparently believes that the first three have failed; predatory capitalism brought about the collapse of 2008, and a "fourth theory" is poised to take its place as the new world order (perhaps my unfortunate phrasing; no relation to the black-helicopter U.N.-dominant "New World Order" feared and despised by the wingnut militia anti-Bilderberg crowd).

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Dugin: "In order to escape this coded field of coded thinking, we need to deconstruct all of modernity." "If we reject the laws of modernity such as progress, development, equality, justice, freedom, nationalism, and all of this legacy of the three centuries of philosophy and political history, then there is a choice. And it is in fact very broad in the least. This is what I have been saying. This is traditional society."

Dugin explaining the worldview of the fourth theory: "... at its heart lies at least one thing: disagreement with liberalism, totalitarianism, the doctrine of the individual subject, and disagreement with the world in which we live. It is a rejection of liberal democracy, a rejection of the notion that liberalism is universal…"

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Dugin: "... in America how people rejected Clinton’s globalism and accepted Trump, without even knowing what he specifically stands for. He didn’t say anything in particular, simply “I am not liberalism, not globalism,” and the people said “let him be president, tell us more.”

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Dugin: "f we reject the laws of modernity such as progress, development, equality, justice, freedom, nationalism, and all of this legacy of the three centuries of philosophy and political history, then there is a choice. And it is in fact very broad in the least. This is what I have been saying. This is traditional society."

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Dugin is a proponent of traditionalism — a philosophy in which all moral and religious truths come from divine revelation and are perpetuated by tradition.

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Bannon isn’t above forming a partnership to fight liberalism, something held in equal contempt by Dugin. As the Economist reported, “whatever the differences [between Dugin, Putin, and Bannon, they] do want to be in vanguard of a fight against certain common enemies, including secularism, multi-culturalism, egalitarianism and modernity.”

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"... anonymous pro-Russia Twitter account holder @Ricky_Vaughn99, who has been acknowledged as one of the most influential tweeters for Trump, was interviewed on Radix Journal, edited by racist ‘alt-right’ figure Richard Spencer, which itself hosts numerous articles by and about Dugin,” the Herald reported in June. “The Ricky Vaughn 99 account has even retweeted videos in Russian. It’s like one big happy family generating social media buzz for Trump, Dugin and the cause of white identity.”

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Dugin on Trump: "[He is] tough, rough, says what he thinks, rude, emotional and, apparently, candid. The fact that he is a billionaire doesn’t matter. He is different. He is an extremely successful ordinary American,” wrote Dugin. “He is crude America, without gloss and the globalist elite. He is sometimes disgusting and violent, but he is what he is. It is true America.”

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Even if Dugin doesn’t pull Putin’s strings, he maintains a clear and ominous connection to dark segments of American and European society; specifically, white nationalism.

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Bannon speaking at CPAC:

"Bannon framed much of Trump’s agenda with the phrase, 'deconstruction of the administrative state,' meaning the system of taxes, regulations and trade pacts that the president says have stymied economic growth and infringed upon U.S. sovereignty. Bannon says that the post-World War II political and economic consensus is failing and should be replaced with a system that empowers ordinary people over coastal elites and international institutions."

"Bannon and Priebus were interviewed jointly on stage by Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, which hosts CPAC. Priebus celebrated Trump’s administration as 'the best Cabinet in the history of Cabinets,' and Bannon said that many nominees 'were selected for a reason, and that is deconstruction.'” [A director of the EPA who detests the EPA; a secretary of education who is opposed to the public school system; a director of HUD who has said government subsidy of public housing creates dependency].

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Former Ohio governor Ted Strickland (D) said Bannon is a “dangerous person driven by an authoritarian ideology who, I fear, has more influence than anyone in the administration.” “This is a mean, vicious, intolerant group,” Strickland continued. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my political life.”

Warning: Bannon Alert!

Here is a frightening answer on Quora to the question: "Does Trump want a nuclear war?" The answer is inconclusive (and the question a little nonsensical), but it purports to explain the alarming political philosophy of Steve Bannon; if correct, we all should be very, very afraid.

As I listened to Steve Bannon, a chill ran through me. The first time he said it, I thought I had misheard. The second time, I was sure. the third time I was horrified. It explained EVERYTHING, yet no one in the room had heard. "Deconstruction of the administrative state." And there it was. The reason that someone who wanted to destroy the Environmental Protection Agency was given the top job at the EPA. The reason someone who wanted to close all schools got the job in charge of education. The reason a surgeon who wants to eliminate public housing got that job. But, that is not what made my blood run cold. See, whilst the Republicans in the room whooped it up with delight because they keep saying they don't like paying taxes, cut public works - it is socialist, they had not "heard" what the madman was saying. Unlike Mein Kampf telling us what Hitler wanted to do, Steve Bannon doesn't need to write a book. It has already been written. And like the the phrase the "Third Reich" that was coined by van den Bruck, it uses a similar set of predictions in a new political ideology called The Fourth Political Theory.

See, when Bannon stood there at his conference and declared that they would deconstruct the administrative state, he wasn't talking about America. He was talking about the world! Steve Bannon is nothing but honest. He has told everyone for a long time what he is all about. He is an ardent follower of the principles of the Fourth Political Theory and has long since declared that he is a Leninist. He even declared that every single morning he is pushing this ideology onto Trump just to make sure he stays on track.

So, what is the Fourth Political Theory? It's tag line is simple. "Beyond left and right but against the center." Doesn't that sound exactly like the Trump administration? Hell, he isn't even a Republican! The Fourth Political Theory was designed by Alexander Dugin. Whilst everyone is scrambling to find the Russian-Link, perhaps this is the one that they are missing. DUGIN IS PUTIN'S STEVE BANNON!!!

Essentially this "theory" is a mish-mash of communism, fascism and corporatism and wants what it calls "a traditional society," a society based on caste, religion and "pre-modernity." They want to take us back to the dark ages and reject, and this is a quote, "progress, development, equality, justice and freedom, " leaving a dictator behind to control it all. They talk about the "global rehabilitation of Tradition, the sacred, the religious, the cast related, the hierarchical and not equality, justice or freedom. " Basically, the administrative deconstruction of world order with only one or two leaders and the people will accept it because they have religion. (Sounds like they are halfway there with the Republican voters as it is!)

So, when Bannon continually stated he is using Trump to deconstruct the administrative state, he is doing the bidding of Alexander Dugin, who states, "American Liberalism must be DESTROYED. " And. "We need to return....to the New Middle Ages......The Modernity is wrong - science, values, philosophy, art, society....We are going to end it. " It sounds like the 1933 rants of Heidegger that even that Nazis thought was off his rocker.

This is why Bannon told Trump in the next few years America will war with China leading to Trump just declaring that he will be asking for the largest nuclear arms budget ever. This is why Bannon is telling Trump he will get worldwide resistance, but to keep going. This is why the National Front of Le Pen, leading in France polling for the upcoming election, wants to destroy Europe and join an alliance with Russia - and you can see pictures of Le Pen and Bannon together. This is why Trump is so pro-Russia - because he is nothing more than a vessel for Bannon. (We know this because he did not even realize that he was promoting Bannon to National Security Council WITHOUT background checks in an unprecedented move that removed the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff.) This is why Trump does what he likes and does not care for laws or rules or budgets, because Bannon has made him see that none of it will matter when he is the master in the West and Putin is the master in the east.

It is absolutely perilous to ignore the influence of Dugin on Putin, with his "expand-or-die" philosophy because Russia can never be at peace with its neighbors. It is now equally perilous to ignore the influence Bannon has on Trump. Russia and Ukraine. America and Mexico. Bannon and Dugin advising Putin and Trump to "go apocalyptic" in order to survive (Last War of the World-Island Dugin 2015)

America, you have been warned.

Click here for an article by Ezra Klein at Vox, entitled "Donald Trump is dangerous when he’s losing."

It's an interesting article that says that Trump's illiberal, authoritarian tendencies come to the fore when he's losing; he lashes out at perceived enemies -- the media, Mexicans, Muslims, a Hollywood actress or a department store -- out of rage and frustration when he doesn't get his way. The subtitle of the article is "Trump’s failures at governing feed his illiberalism."

His staff is riven with infighting, inexperienced with the mechanics of government, and unable to corral their boss’s worst impulses. Trump’s slipshod executive orders are being easily batted back by courts, and his agenda hasn’t even made it to Congress yet. How is he going to go from here to strongman?

Klein spoke to Ron Klain, who had been chief of staff to both vice presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden, and he headed Hillary's debate prep team. He was thought to be the most likely candidate as chief of staff for Hillary, had she been elected.

Klain had a theory that combined Trump’s authoritarian impulses and troubled White House management in a way I found hard to dismiss. In Klain’s view, it’s Trump’s dysfunctional relationship with the government that catalyzes his illiberal tendencies — the more he is frustrated by the system, the more he will turn on the system.

“If Trump became a full-fledged autocrat, it will not be because he succeeds in running the state,” Klain said. “It’s not going to be like Julius Caesar, where we thank him and here’s a crown. It’ll be that he fails, and he has to find a narrative for that failure. And it will not be a narrative of self-criticism. It will not be that he let you down. He will figure out who the villains are, and he will focus the public’s anger at them.”

Don't forget Trump's infamous antimedia tweet:

The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

Klein tells of his conversation with Yascha Mounk, a lecturer on government at Harvard. Mounck has studied democracies that backslide into authoritarianism or autocracy, like Turkey and Hungary in recent years. "His concern is palpable. And his argument is persuasive."

The distinction you need to make with Trump, Mounk argues, is that he’s not an ideological authoritarian but a contextual one. He is not entering office with a program to weaken the judiciary and bulldoze legislative roadblocks, as Viktor Orbán did in Hungary. His dangerous tendencies, rather, are reactive to the situations in which he finds himself.

“In a world where institutions let him do what he wants, he doesn’t have a problem with institutions,” Mounk says. Think of Trump’s friendly relationship with the media back when he felt the media was friendlier to him — a comparison the president himself made at his press conference. “Remember, I used to give you a news conference every time I made a speech, which was like every day,” Trump said, almost wistfully.

“But,” Mounk continues, “in a world where they don’t let him do what he wants, he thinks these institutions are unpatriotic and need to be destroyed.” That would have sounded hyperbolic to me if, later that day, Trump hadn’t tweeted that the New York Times, NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN were “the enemy of the American people.”

Klein says:

Of course, losing makes you weaker, not stronger. Trump’s anger at the press or at the courts or at Congress poses little threat if his approval ratings linger in the 40s or 30s. But imagine Trump spends years being stymied by the system and marinating in fury toward the institutions he feels have foiled him. He spends years telling his supporters that the courts are making them less safe, that the press is their enemy, that the congress is corrupt. And then, all at once, Trump gains the power and popularity to do something about it.

"All at once": If Trump has his Reichstag fire, or his 9/11. W's popularity soared after 9/11, and he was able to push through extreme measures in the Patriot Act. If Trump were to spend months building up his fury and resentment at being constrained, and condemning the press, the courts, Congress, and any perceived restrictions on his power to act, what would Trump's Patriot Act look like? It wouldn't be pretty:

Matt Olsen, the former head of the National Counterterrorism Center, told the New Yorker. “C.I.A. black sites, enhanced interrogations, Gitmo, and warrantless surveillance will all be on the table. In addition, regardless of nationality, there will be changes to immigration and refugee policies.”

Klein says:

Trump is already telling supporters the media is part of “the corrupt system” he was sent to destroy. He has already mused about legislation making it easier to sue journalism organizations for libel. He has suggested using the antitrust powers of the Justice Department to retaliate against Amazon for the Washington Post’s coverage of his campaign. Trump’s son-in-law and consigliere, Jared Kushner, is already pressuring CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, to soften the cable network’s coverage of the president.

Klein goes on to discuss the undercurrent of violence at Trump's rallies and expressed in some of his tweets.

“My great fear,” says Larry Diamond, a Stanford University political scientist who studies democracies, “is that if we have a major terrorist attack on the United States, that the psychology of fear that sets in in these circumstances naturally gives a leader like Trump enormous scope to abridge civil liberties, amend constitutional guarantees, and move in a more authoritarian direction.”

Some analysts even suggest Trump wants this kind of attack and is laying the rhetorical groundwork for it. Jack Goldsmith, a top Justice Department official under Bush, has argued that Trump wants his travel ban overturned, because he is “setting the scene to blame judges after an attack that has any conceivable connection to immigration.” In a chilling New Yorker article, Ryan Lizza quotes Todd Breasseale, a former Department of Homeland Security official, saying, “I am fully confident that an attack is exactly what he wants and needs.”

Imagine Trump spends the next year furious at the media and the courts and the leaks within his own bureaucracy — warning that they are making us less safe and that they are the people’s enemies — and then there is a terrorist attack that pushes the country to rally around its leader.

It's disturbing to think about a recent article in The Washington Post by Erik Wemple, entitled "How to build a Donald Trump media bubble," that revealed a new strategy Trump's minions are adopting to keep him from lashing out with angry tweets: They make sure he is fed a steady diet of favorable news stories. He watches an enormous amount of cable TV news, so there's not much they can do to filter out negativity. But he doesn't use a computer, so they print out reams of stories from favorable media outlets -- Breitbart, Fox News, Infowars -- and that keeps him happy. So to some extent he lives in a comfortable bubble, surrounded by sycophants who try to keep him happy.

It is easy to imagine Trump, in a year, cornered in his own White House, furious at the manifold enemies he blames for his failures, and cocooned within an ever-smaller and more radical group of staffers and media outlets that tell him what he wants to hear and feed his grievances and resentments.

Donald Trump v. Tony Soprano

Click here for an article in The Atlantic by James Fallows, entitled "‘With Such a People You Can Then Do What You Please.’"

The difference between Tony Soprano and Donald Trump:

Doing what you can get away with is the governing ethic of the tribe, of the feudal lord, of today’s autocrats. It’s the ethic of Tony Soprano—although a difference between him and Donald Trump is that Tony showed more awareness of codes he was supposed to observe, and more inner conflict when he did not observe them.

The title of the article in The Atlantic is from a famous quotation by Hannah Arendt:

The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows.

And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.

Infowars Screenshot

What's Wrong With Fox News?

Click here for an article at The Washington Post by Paul Waldman, entitled "How Trump’s obsession with the media endangers his presidency — and all of us."

It includes an excellent critique of Fox News:

It isn’t just that Fox News is conservative, it’s that it portrays a vision of the world meant to play on the fears and frustrations of its core audience, which is elderly white people (the median age of a Fox News viewer in prime time is 68). In that world, immigrants are overrunning our country, minorities are committing crimes at unprecedented levels, Muslims want to kill us all, and the white man is the most oppressed person in America. Individual stories that have zero practical significance are treated like urgent crises if they reinforce that worldview (see, for instance, Megyn Kelly’s dozens of breathless reports about the New Black Panther Party). And Fox News, like the other cable news channels, has no incentive to tell its viewers to calm down and think things through in a sober way; you get people not to change the channel by keeping them agitated and telling them that the next story is vitally important or threatening, whether it actually is or not.

Trump In A Nutshell

This is Trump:

Trump is erratic, self-absorbed, intellectually un-curious, and vindictive. And he lacks two of the most important traits a successful president must have: humility and empathy.

That's the best concise critique of Trump I've seen. Click here for the excellent article it comes from, by Derek Chollet, Colin Kahl, and Julie Smith, entitled "President Trump's Terrible One-Month Report Card."

No. 1 With A Bullet - Felix Sater

Two names to watch: Felix Sater and Bayrock.

Watch this space.

Thanks, Teddy

H/T Meteor Blades @ Crooks & Liars:

The Posse Comitatus Act And The National Guard

According to a report from Associated Press, the Trump administration floated the idea of using 100,000 National Guard troops of 11 border and border-adjacent states to round up illegal immigrants. (Spicy denies the existence of such a proposal.)

Wikipedia: Posse comitatus is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff, or other law officer, to conscript any able-bodied man to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry." Originally found in English common law,^[2] it is generally obsolete; however, it survives in the United States, where it is the law enforcement equivalent of summoning the militia for military purposes.

The Posse Comitatus Act was passed in 1878, in the wake of the deadlocked presidential election of 1876 in the aftermath of the Civil War, during the period of Reconstruction. In a tradeoff, the U.S. government agreed to pull federal troops out of the South, so that they would no longer enforce laws about voting, lynching, and suchlike. That ushered in the era of Ku Klux Klan terror and 75 years of Jim Crow.

The Trump proposal would try to get around that law by asking the governors of 11 southern states to cooperate in using their National Guard troops to assist federal immigration officers -- ICE -- in rounding up and deporting undocumented immigrants. But the proposal wouldn't seek to federalize them; that means the states would have to pay the expense -- and most of the states can't afford it.

Trump could federalize the National Guard in those 11 states, but that would mean the federal government would have to pay for it, and that requires an act of Congress -- which probably won't happen.

First Press Conference - Fodder For Comedians?

David Letterman, after Obama's first press conference:

How about President Barack Obama's first prime time press conference last night? He was cogent, eloquent, and in complete command of the issues. I'm thinking to myself, what the hell am I supposed to do with that?

No Comment

Donald Trump, before taking office, and criticizing Obama's vacation time:

I would rarely leave the White House, because there's so much work to be done. I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off ... You don't have time to take time off.

Trump: Incredibly Tough On Russia - Wait, What?

Spicy, at a press conference:

The irony of this entire situation is that the president has been incredibly tough on Russia.

It must be utterly soul-destroying to have to go out and lie to the world like that every day.

Trump's ... Answer? Is That What You Call It?

This Q&A occurred during Trump's press conference after his meeting with Bibi Netanyahu:

Q: Mr. President, since your election campaign and even after your victory, we've seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitic—anti-Semitic incidents across the United States. And I wonder, what do you say to those among the Jewish community in the states and in Israel and maybe around the world who believe and feel that your administration is playing with xenophobia and maybe racist tones?

A: Well, I just want to say that we are very honored by the victory that we had—306 Electoral College votes. We were not supposed to crack 220. You know that, right? There was no way to 221, but then they said there's no way to 270. And there's tremendous enthusiasm out there. I will say that we are going to have peace in this country. We are going to stop crime in this country. We are going to do everything within our power to stop long-simmering racism and every other thing that's going on, because lot of bad things have been taking place over a long period of time. I think one of the reasons I won the election is we have a very, very divided nation. Very divided. And, hopefully, I'll be able to do something about that. And, you know, it was something that was very important to me. As far as people—Jewish people—so many friends, a daughter who happens to be here right now, a son-in-law, and three beautiful grandchildren. I think that you're going to see a lot different United States of America over the next three, four, or eight years. I think a lot of good things are happening, and you're going to see a lot of love. You're going to see a lot of love. Okay? Thank you.

God help us.

Brietbart v. Priebus?

The Breitbart crew regard the ouster of Gen. Michael Flynn as a palace coup led by Reince Priebus; they fear that Steve Bannon and Steve Miller are in Priebus's crosshairs.

Trump loyalist Roger Stone, according to an article by Rosie Gray at The Atlantic:

I think this is Pearl Harbor for the true Trump supporters, the Trump loyalists. I believe Reince Priebus moved on General Flynn and I think he intends to move on Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller next. He is not serving the president well. The people he hired are loyal to the Republican National Committee, not the President of the United States.

Next European Election To Watch: The Netherlands

The national election in the Netherlands is March 15.

 Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Freedom Party, wants a Brexit-style withdrawal from the E.U. and a ban on immigrants from Muslim countries. In December, he was found guilty of "insulting and inciting discrimination against Moroccans." Wilders is leading in a fragmented field with 20% support, but most of the other parties have indicated they will not enter into a coalition with the Freedom Party, so it may not be able to govern even if it wins a plurality.

A win by Wilders will be a huge encouragement to France’s Marine Le Pen, Germany’s Frauke Petry and populists across Europe.

Flynnghazi - According To InfoWars

Click here for an article at InfoWars, by Paul Joseph Watson, entitled "The Real Reason General Flynn Was Forced to Resign," subtitled "The military-industrial complex is trying to sabotage Trump."

The resignation of General Flynn is part of an ongoing effort by the military-industrial complex to sabotage President Trump and re-assert control over foreign policy.

Flynn was backed into a corner after it was revealed that he had a conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak back in December. This was seized upon because it could be spun to validate the otherwise completely baseless conspiracy theory that Russia “hacked the election” to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton and that Flynn’s talk with Kislyak was a promise of payback.

In reality, Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak was merely the excuse that establishment neo-cons and neo-libs from both parties were desperately searching for. They wanted him gone from the very beginning. This was a deep state coup.

In essence, Flynn was merely exercising due diligence as incoming National Security Adviser by communicating with a prominent foreign official. However, the politicized intelligence community and the breathless, hysterical anti-Trump press demanded Flynn’s head on the basis that he had violated the Logan Act, even though that contention is shaky at best.

Flynnghazi!

Here's a timeline of the Flynnghazi events:

December 29 - Sanctions announced by Obama administration; subsequent Flynn phone call with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak

December 30 - Putin response to sanctions (no retaliation) raises FBI interest; they investigate Kislyak communications, discover Flynn contact; Trump tweets: "Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!"

January 12 - leaked information prompts David Ignatius (WaPo) column on Flynn call. Citing the Logan Act, Ignatius said: “What did Flynn say, and did it undercut U.S. sanctions?”

January 13 - Spicer says Flynn told him he did not discuss sanctions with Kislyak

January 15 - VP Pence on CBS says there was no mention of sanctions in Flynn's call

January 19 - former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, CIA Director John Brennan, DNI James Clapper, FBI Director James Comey discuss briefing pres-elect Trump, but do not; Comey vetoed it, saying it might jeopardize an FBI investigation

January 20 - Trump inauguration

January 23 - Spicer reiterates in press conference that Flynn did not discuss sanctions with Kislyak; Comey withdraws his veto

January 26 - Yates informs White House counsel Donald McGahn of Flynn concerns; McGahn immediately notifies Trump; White House starts investigation

January 30 - Sally Yates fired over unrelated immigration executive order

February 9 - Pence learns (two weeks after Trump) that Flynn had misinformed (or lied to) him; WaPo breaks the story that despite denials, Flynn had discussed the sanctions in his conversation with Kiselyak

February 13 - Conway says Flynn has president's "full confidence"; minutes later, Spicer says "The president is evaluating the situation"; hours later, Flynn resigns (the story is that he wasn't fired)

February 14 - at press conference, Spicy says Trump asked for Flynn's resignation; says it was strictly an issue of trust, and no laws were broken

*****

What did the president* know, and when did he know it? Trump was informed on January 23 that Flynn had "misinformed" Pence and Spicer about his call with Kiselyak and that he (Flynn) may be vulnerable to Russian blackmail. The White House story (through Spicy, February 14 press conference) is that the president* "lost trust" in Flynn and therefore demanded his resignation. But the decision was not made until more than two weeks after the president* had been informed, and only after WaPo broke the story on February 9.

Spicy's News Conference, February 14

Spicer said Trump has been "extremely tough on Russia," unlike the Obama administration, which allowed Russia to annex Crimea -- and to prove his point, he cited Nikki Haley's tough speech at the U.N. In other words, nothing whatever that Trump himself has said, because he hasn't said anything that expresses toughness toward Russia.

Throughout the period since Flynn's announcement about 18 hours before, the story had been that Flynn was resigning; according to Spicer, Trump had lost confidence in Flynn and demanded his resignation.

Spicer said Trump had been informed about 18 days earlier that Flynn had misinformed (or lied to) Mike Pence, telling him that he (Flynn) had not discussed the subject of sanctions with the Russian ambassador in a telephone call that took place on the day the sanctions were announced. Yet Flynn remained in his position; the only thing that occurred to change the situation was three weeks later, when The Washington Post reported it. Would Flynn have resigned (or been fired) if the situation had not been made public?

Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. (And Bannon?)

Steve Bannon, quoted in The Hollywood Reporter, November 2016:

Darkness is good. Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That's power. It only helps us when they (the media) get it wrong. When they're blind to who we are and what we're doing.

Get To Know Steve Bannon (If You Can Handle It)

Click here for an article by Asawin Suebsaeng at The Daily Beast entitled "Steve Bannon Wanted Mel Gibson for His Movie About Nazis, Abortion, ‘Mutants’."

More than a decade before Stephen K. Bannon became one of President Donald Trump’s closest White House aides, he tried to make an epic documentary-style film about the eugenics movement, Adolf Hitler, “blood purity,” abortion, contraception, Darwinism, mutants, and cloning. According to his longtime Hollywood writing partner, Bannon even met with controversial Oscar winner Mel Gibson in his effort to get the picture made.

The 11-page outline for Bannon’s unmade movie, a copy of which was reviewed by The Daily Beast, was written in the spring of 2005 and bears the ominous title The Singularity: Resistance Is Futile. (The project’s alternate working title: The Harvest of the Damned.)

The document, which credits Bannon as a writer, producer, and director, divides the movie into 22 segments spread across four sections. A heady, incomplete mix of science, history, religion, and politics, it sketches out a story in which mankind’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge and scientific advancement has led to horrific, fascist atrocities and forced sterilization, drawing a direct line between those atrocities and modern bio-technology.

The draft is unfinished, so it is unclear precisely what Bannon's full message and story arc were intended to be. But the theme that genetic and reproductive sciences has led to Nazi horrors and war crimes is a theme seen in a lot of conservative agitprop.

Essentially, Bannon’s is a Christian right-friendly story of arrogant scientists trying to perfect the human race at the expense of the natural order and God’s vision of humanity.

The article goes on:

Before Bannon headed Breitbart and then became one of the most powerful people in the world via the Trump administration, he operated in the Democratic bastion of liberal Hollywood as a right-wing filmmaker influenced by the filmmaking of Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl. Some of his projects became films, others did not.

Last week, The Washington Post published excerpts from his draft for a movie that warned about how Muslim extremists could try to turn the U.S. into the “Islamic States of America.” The document also blamed the “American Jewish Community” as being one of the “enablers” of this supposed threat.

There's more. Quite a piece of work, old Steve.

WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE? (updated)

I jump out of bed every morning eager to find out what new outrage The Donald has come up with. Like everyone else, I'm obsessed with each new shiny thing Trump comes up with -- he's bashing Nordstrom over his daughter's clothing line? He's trashing a federal judge? He's escalating his feud with John McCain? -- and my attention has been diverted from the BIG story.

And there is a very big -- some might call it yuge -- story out there that seems to have fallen from the public view. And I'm not exaggerating when I say it is potentially one of the biggest stories in United States history -- and it could destroy Donald Trump.

DID RUSSIA SWING THE 2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?

It looks very much to me as if they did (with some help from FBI Director James Comey). Did they hack the Democrats -- at least the Democratic National Committee and Hillary's campaign chief, John Podesta -- and release a steady stream of damaging material to Julian Assange and Wikileaks, with the intention of harming Hillary and electing Trump?

If it's true -- and I suspect it is -- it's a scandal that's WAY bigger than Watergate. And no one is paying attention anymore.

UPDATE:

Click here for a story by David Corn at Mother Jones, entitled "The Mysterious Disappearance of the Biggest Scandal in Washington," subtitled "Whatever happened to the Trump-Russia story?"

I guess others have noticed too.

Is Trump Mentally Ill?

I haven't been blogging much lately because I'm feeling overwhelmed by the torrent of Trump's outrages, one after another; I can't possibly keep up. But here's a piece from The New York Times that caught my eye:

John Garner, a Baltimore psychotherapist, has launched an online petition that says Trump “manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States.” So far, more than twenty thousand mental-health workers have signed the petition.

Look At The Good Things That Came From Dylann Roof's Mass Murder!

Unbelievable.

Click here for the most mindboggling thing since Trump said "You think our country's so innocent?" How low can this country sink? Watch Congressman Sean Duffy (R) Wisconsin completely disgrace himself, asked about the Dylann Roof mass murder in a church in Charleston, South Carolina:

Look at the good things that came from it. Nikki Haley took down the Confederate flag. That was great!

You have a lot to learn about politics, young grasshopper. First lesson: Don't be an idiot.

Second lesson: Re-read the first lesson.

Tapper v. Conway - Winner, Tapper!

This is a 20+ minute interview of Kellyanne Conway by Jake Tapper, where Tapper really holds her feet to the fire. Well done, Jake!

Gun Deaths, Terrorism

Trump, and the Republican party, are engaging in fearmongering of the worst kind. They want you to think there's a Muslim terrorist hiding behind every bush, and that every Muslim American wants to impose sharia law on the country. This graph puts the risk of death by terrorism in perspective:



Chances of death this year of an American in the U.S. at the hands of a terrorist: 1 in 3.6 million. Chances of death this year of an American in the U.S. at the hands of a refugee: 1 in 3.6 billion.

Graph, H/T Digby at Hullabaloo (The big cover-up).

Protest Demonstrations Work! (Sometimes, At Least)

Click here for an article at The Economist entitled "Huge protests force Romania’s government to reverse itself on corruption." The article explains how giant crowds of protesters in the capital, Bucharest, forced the government to reverse itself.

Liviu Dragnea, leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD), has been charged with abuse of power. It is alleged that he granted contracts to associates who performed no work. The government passed an "emergency decree" effectively decriminalizing corruption where the amount of money involved is less than US$47,600.

Within an hour of the measure’s adoption, more than 10,000 protesters were on the streets. The following night the numbers rose to an estimated 250,000 in more than 50 cities and towns across the country, the largest rallies in a quarter of a century.

The demonstrations peaked at over 500,000 people last Sunday, even though the government had rescinded the emergency ordinance earlier that day. Protesters hoped to send the message that they would be watching to see that the government did not backslide.

Melania Trump, Grifter

Click here for an article by Julia Marsh in The New York Post, entitled "Melania sues Mail Online a third time for claiming she was an escort."

I don't care about the "escort" claim; it's in the courts, and we may find out one way or the other. Until we do, it's just an unsubstantiated allegation. What I do care about is part of the defense Melania has filed, complaining that she is being harmed by bad publicity ruining her opportunity to cash in on her husband's presidency* -- is that not the definition of corruption? The idea that Trump and his family will not use the presidency* to cash in is frankly ludicrous: Of course they will.

”Mail Online’s conduct was extreme and outrageous in falsely making the scurrilous charge that the future First Lady of the United States worked as a prostitute,” reads the Manhattan Supreme Court suit, filed Monday ...

”Plaintiff had the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as an extremely famous and well-known person…to launch a broad-based commercial brand in multiple product categories, each of which could have garnered multi-million dollar business relationships for a multi-year term during which plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world,” the Manhattan suit says.

“As a result of defendant’s publication of defamatory statements about plaintiff, plaintiff’s brand has lost significant value, and major business opportunities that were otherwise available to her have been lost and/or significantly impacted,” the suit says.

Al Franken v. Rick Perry

During Perry's Senate hearing for the position of Secretary of Energy, the following exchange took place:

FRANKEN: Did you enjoy meeting me?

PERRY: I hoped you were as much fun on that dais as you were on your couch.

FRANKEN: Well ...

PERRY: May I rephrase that, sir?

FRANKEN: Please. Please. Please. Oh, my lord.

PERRY: Well, I think we've found our Saturday Night Live soundbite.

Perfect Game. (I Once Ran 76!)

Copy and paste into your address bar. Ronnie O'Sullivan, 147.

https://www.facebook.com/949111835206758/videos/1166226760161930/

SNL Cold Open - Steve Bannon As Death; Sean Spicer

This is the best SNL Trump parody yet (I don't know who the "David" is that tells his parents he works at Applebee's):



And here's Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer:

European TV Mocks Trump

Courtesy of HuffPo, Here are 7 short videos from European nations, all wanting to be second if America is first. I think other nations around the world will be getting in on the project.

The first one, that the others are imitating, is from the Netherlands. 4 minutes, 5 seconds:



Belgium, 1 minute, 58 seconds:



Switzerland, 3 minutes, 47 seconds:



Lithuania, 6 minutes, 42 seconds:



Portugal, 7 minutes, 28 seconds. Jump to 2:06, because the first part has a narrative spoken in Portuguese, with no subtitles:



Denmark, 5:40:



Germany, 12:20 (but the mock video ends at 4:52:

What We Need Is Another Kent State?

Click here for an article at Electablog (by Electablog) entitled "UPDATED x2: Northern Michigan Republican calls for “another Kent State” to deal with campus protesters."



Reacting to a campus protest against Breitbart's odious Milo Yiannopoulos speaking at UC Berkeley, Republican Party Secretary and former Chair in Marquette County, Michigan, Dan Adamini posted on Facebook:

The violent protests at our universities certainly indicates Portage acacian at the lower level. I’m thinking another Kent State might be the only solution protest stopped after only one death. They do it because they know there are no consequences yet.

He also tweeted:

Violent protesters who shut down free speech?Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery.

In the past, he mocked and belittled the civil rights protests of Congressman John Lewis:

John Lewis: 'I don't see Trump as a legitimate president': https://t.co/h5I1BNitWK via @AOL. Too many blows to the Head during protests?

The Marquette County Republican Party has issued a mealymouthed statement distancing themselves from Adamini.

Click here for an article at abc13.com, untitled, by Deborah Wrigley. It tells how a racist flier was left in the night at a home of Asians in Riverstone Ranch, a community in Fort Bend County, Texas (southwest of Houston).< br />


It reads:

Our new president Donald J Trump is God's gift to the white nation. We want to get out country back on the right track. We need to get rid of Muslims, Indians, blacks and Jews.

We can start with the great state of Texas and President Trump will take care of the country. Those foregeiners [sic] are taking our high paying [sic] jobs and leaving us stranded. So please do not sell or rent your homes to them. We are everywhere and watching every move. We have our members in the law enforcement and government so don't bother going to them.

That's contained in the image above. The letter goes on:

If you are one of those above-mentioned race [sic] then this is a warning. Leave Texas or better yet go back to where you came from. If you don't heed this warning then we are not responsible for the torture starting now.

The racist bigots feel legitimized by Trump's hateful rhetoric.

Chaffetz: Mental Health Exam For President?

Click here for an article at PoliticalConundrum Forum [no, I've never heard of them either, but I've verified the article's content with various other sources], entitled "WOW! JASON CHAFFETZ 'MULLING' LEGISLATION TO REQUIRE PRESIDENTS TO UNDERGO MENTAL HEALTH EXAMS."

In a meeting last week with The Post editorial board, Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chair of the House Oversight Committee, said he was weighing legislation to require presidents to undergo an independent medical examination, including for mental health. Chaffetz cautioned that he wasn’t “talking about some of the rhetoric that’s flying around” about Trump. Still, he said, “If you’re going to have your hands on the nuclear codes, you should probably know what kind of mental state you’re in.”

He's not suggesting Trump should undergo a mental health exam; he's suggesting that presidents or presidential nominees should be tested in the future.

Presidential Approval

Presidential approval in February of the first year of their presidency:

"The Only Thing We Have To Fear ..."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt:

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Too bad Trump, fearmonger/hatemonger in chief ("American carnage"), didn't get the memo.

Tapdancing 101, With Betsy DeVos

In her Senate hearing for confirmation as Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos was being questioned by Senator Tim Kaine, as follows:

KAINE: ,,, if confirmed, will you insist upon that equal accountability in any K-12 school or educational program that receives federal funding, whether public, public charter, or private?

DeVOS: I support accountability.

KAINE: Equal accountability for all schools that receive federal funding?

DeVOS: I support accountability.

KAINE: Is that a yes or a no?

DeVOS: I support accountability.

KAINE: Do you not want to answer my question?

DeVOS: I support accountability.

Panicdote!

panicdote (n): a story about the goings-on in Washington that leaves you convinced the world is maybe about to explode.

H/T Ariel Edwards-Levy @ Twitter

Trump's Tired, Needs A Florida Vacation

As of fall 2016, in his eight years in office, Barack Obama had taken 28 vacation trips lasting 217 days. W. (aka C-Plus Augustus) took 88 trips lasting 533 days. Trump complained bitterly about Obama's vacations, though he never mentioned W.'s. And now, after two weeks in office, Trump needs a break at Mar-a-Lago. Poor baby.

And this is a couple of days after Trump's disastrous, crotchety conversation with Australia's Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, which his staff described as coming at the end of a long, exhausting day -- at 5 p.m. (I guess that is a long day, considering His Trumpness arose at 3:30 a.m. to send out a barrage of nonsense tweets.)

Der Spiegel Covers

Der Spiegel is a popular, influential German magazine.

Melania And The Donald

This is unsupported, but I read that when Barbara Walters (Baba Wawa) interviewed Melania years ago, she asked him if she would have married The Donald if he wasn't rich. Melania replied, "Do you think Donald would have married me if I wasn't beautiful?"

Insanity Rules: InfoWars Gets White House Press Credential

Hard as it is to believe, birther Jerome Corsi will be an accredited representative of Alex Jones's InfoWars at White House press conferences. If you're not familiar with Alex Jones, feast your eyes on this (there are so many clips similar to this -- it's like shooting fish in a barrel).

Bannon: Stop Legal Immigration!

Yes, it's immigration -- legal as well as illegal -- that is the heart of the problem. Novel theory, no?

Click here for an article at The Washington Post by David Ferenthold and Frances Stead Sellers, entitled "‘Why even let ’em in?’ Understanding Bannon’s worldview and the policies that follow."

It's an excellent article, and an understanding of how Steve Bannon's mind works is apparently going to be a big help in figuring out what's going on, as he continues to act as Trump's Rasputin. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling well today, and I'm not going to take the trouble to summarize the article and provide quotes: Read it for yourself!

Click here for a previous post of mine, entitled "Who Is Steve Bannon?", based on an article at The Daily Beast, by Ronald Radosh, entitled "Steve Bannon, Trump's Top Guy, Told Me He Was 'A Leninist' Who Wants To ‘Destroy the State.'"

The 3 a.m. Phone Call

That phrase has always been shorthand for the hot line ringing in the White House with news of an emergency -- perhaps nuclear. Now the U.S. doesn't need to worry about that so much; the rest of the world has to worry about "The 3 a.m. Tweet."

Is It Okay To Punch A Nazi?

This is a question that was bouncing around the Net; it's been a while now, but it's all about the viral video that shows alt-right Richard Spencer getting hammered with a sucker punch while babbling about his Pepe the Frog pin:



So, is it okay? You decide!

Poster At The Holocaust Museum

Warning signs of fascism:

Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Closing Down

After 146 years, they've been driven out of business by the competition -- the Trump administration.