Who is using Trump?

[AlpsStranger]

The Orange One and Dumpster Divin' Bannon ( Seriously LOOK at this ******* ) will be literally nailed to wood long before they manage to do anything of the sort.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

The Orange One and Dumpster Divin' Bannon ( Seriously LOOK at this ******* ) will be literally nailed to wood long before they manage to do anything of the sort.

By who?

 

[jackelgull]

I think Trump has an advantage over Hitler or Mussolini in that party loyalty is so fierce that Trump won't have to work as hard to gain control of the legislative branch. He doesn't have to build his own party machine like Hitler did, he can use the existing one. However, that might just be what saves us. There isn't enough spine between all the Republican politicians in the party for a repudiation of Trump, but they will block his more controversial policies.

 

[innonimatu]

Trump cannot be another Hitler of Mussolini because he is too old already. At 80 he can hope for 10 more years with sufficient health and sanity to remain on top in politics, no more. Not enough for dreams of Empire. Though to be fair the US already is the Empire. So he has more power to start with. But also does not need to start any war to get that power. Again, any comparisons with the political contexts of Hitler or Mussolini fail.

I don't think he can possibly be more damaging to the world that his three predecessors were. As for the country... that is up to the american politicians, and what a sorry crop of people they seem to be. It may all go to hell. Or maybe this will make voters there worry more about the spine and the principles of whom they vote for, and you will be better of in the end.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

A the thread title says, it isn't about Dingbat Don, it's about who is using Dingbat Don. Bannon openly refers to Trump as "our blunt instrument." At least he did before he got involved directly in the Trump campaign. He's kept that on the down low since.

 

[Bootstoots]

The weirdest thing I know about Steve Bannon is that he ran Biosphere 2. He ran it into the ground, of course, which he now looks set to do on Biosphere 1 as well. Definitely a guy I need to learn more about.

I know he's a right-wing populist, worked his way up first by heaping praise on Sarah Palin and then climbing the ranks of the Tea Partiers until he took over Breitbart, and is the one behind most of Trump's strategies including the faux "outreach to the black community", the last commercial, and promoting an infrastructure project. He seems to have a Joker-like view of what to do with the federal government, but I don't know if it's just destructive or if he has a coherent plan. Also, he's an anti-Semite but probably not a white nationalist.

But that's about all I know right now, and it's hard to even find information behind the thicket of outrage articles.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

A valuable Bannon quote:

And we’re at the very beginning stages of a very brutal and bloody conflict, of which if the people in this room, the people in the church, do not bind together and really form what I feel is an aspect of the church militant, to really be able to not just stand with our beliefs, but to fight for our beliefs against this new barbarity that’s starting, that will completely eradicate everything that we’ve been bequeathed over the last 2,000, 2,500 years.

He doesn't fear this brutal and bloody conflict, he relishes it. He feels it is his duty to bring it about. That is the man that Dingbat Don put on the national security council.

 

[crabapple]

Business is using Trump, the richest cabinet in history, and most CEOs. This cabinet has but big business for the first time directly in charge of the country. This wont end well

 

[Lexicus]

I don't think he can possibly be more damaging to the world that his three predecessors were.

Quite naive of you.

 

[choxorn]

Try telling a white nationalist that their ideas are totally out of step with modern times...when 'their guy' is the choice of the vast majority of Americans.

If Trump was the choice of the vast majority of Americans, why did he lose the popular vote and hit 50% disapproval 8 days into his presidency?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

If Trump was the choice of the vast majority of Americans, why did he lose the popular vote and hit 50% disapproval 8 days into his presidency?

You should have quoted the whole post, as this was already addressed. Trump's faithful don't believe he lost the popular vote because he and Breitbart are telling them that he didn't.

 

[Lexicus]

You should have quoted the whole post, as this was already addressed. Trump's faithful don't believe he lost the popular vote because he and Breitbart are telling them that he didn't.

Either that or they think he lost the popular vote because of the votes of people who shouldn't have been voting anyway. Like illegal immigrants. And black people. And latte-sipping urban elites.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Either that or they think he lost the popular vote because of the votes of people who shouldn't have been voting anyway. Like illegal immigrants. And black people. And latte-sipping urban elites.

Actually they have dialed in on the "fact" that millions of votes in California were cast by illegal aliens so don't count. They think the black people and latte sipping urban elites were stupid to vote against Trump, but at least admit that they legally did. The "massive vote fraud" in California is sufficient for them, especially since it has been "officially investigated and acknowledged" by no less than the president of the United States.

 

[Lexicus]

Actually they have dialed in on the "fact" that millions of votes in California were cast by illegal aliens so don't count. They think the black people and latte sipping urban elites were stupid to vote against Trump, but at least admit that they legally did. The "massive vote fraud" in California is sufficient for them, especially since it has been "officially investigated and acknowledged" by no less than the president of the United States.

Meh. I've run a lot into the sentiment that people who vote for Democrats are just voting themselves free stuff, and therefore that their votes are less legitimate than the votes of the Real Americans(tm) in the heartland who work hard and contribute and built this country only to have it stolen from them by the dusky races. This is a view that isn't just common among the Breitbart faithful, either - you get shades of it whenever people defend the electoral college.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Meh. I've run a lot into the sentiment that people who vote for Democrats are just voting themselves free stuff, and therefore that their votes are less legitimate than the votes of the Real Americans(tm) in the heartland who work hard and contribute and built this country only to have it stolen from them by the dusky races. This is a view that isn't just common among the Breitbart faithful, either - you get shades of it whenever people defend the electoral college.

Oh, no doubt. That complaint though is of the form "their vote shouldn't count." The theme that Bannon is hammering right now is of the form "their votes were illegal and don't count." The position overall is "We all know that there was no way the election of Obama wasn't rigged both times, and only Trump could overcome the rigged process and get elected anyway." The purpose seems to be to preemptively discredit the idea that our electoral process can be relied on going forward, so that Trump can put forth a "reformed" process that "can't be rigged" so that his chosen successor "won't be 'cheated.'" In short, expect a new system where only Bannon's vote counts.

 

[Archbob]

The Nazi party was better organized by orders of magnitude than Trumps supporters. Also Hitler himself escalated his radical policies slowly over years. What would Trump/Bannon do if the army and the CIA conspire with democrats and republicans to end this madness? I mean, they take Breitbart off the internet, they enact a curfew and have some tanks patrol the street, and thats basically it. There would be no revolution because there would be no organization.

Germany was also going through its worst depression in history before the Nazi's came along. We're not doing that bad, I doubt Trump will be able to pull off anything close to what Hitler did.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I know we're not doing that bad, and you know we're not doing that bad, but have you actually listened to Trump, Bannon, and the people who believe them?

 

[Bootstoots]

I found the whole speech he gave that contained that quote, which is worth reading in its entirety. He appears to be talking about a war between "Judaeo-Christian civilization" and radical Islam, which he believes is already ongoing and will inevitably get far worse, although the extent to which he actually wants that war isn't clear. It's in the context of a speech to a group of right-wing to far-right Catholics.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfede...e-entire-world?utm_term=.weGpZ9GrL#.yjNkvDBax

 

[choxorn]

Bannon is genuinely balls-to-the-wall bat-excrement crazy. Like, to the point where he makes Trump look like a reasonable moderate in comparison.

 

[innonimatu]

I found the whole speech he gave that contained that quote, which is worth reading in its entirety. He appears to be talking about a war between "Judaeo-Christian civilization" and radical Islam, which he believes is already ongoing and will inevitably get far worse, although the extent to which he actually wants that war isn't clear. It's in the context of a speech to a group of right-wing to far-right Catholics.

I've been hearing talk in some european institutional circles (not going to say which institutions), for the last two years or so (after Libya and Syria), about how to handle the refugee and immigrant "invasion" from the middle East and Africa as the countries there collapse. This is far worse than when Algeria was having its civil war: then the talk was about how to stabilize it. Now those having this arguments take as granted that all those countries are going to collapse and millions of people will be trying to get into Europe. The idea is to deal with militarily, as enemies. As in kill enough of them to make an example and stop the flow, turn all that region into a much larger version of Gaza.
The politicians may now still say lots of platitudes about refugees, but the career military and bureaucrats are preparing for war and all human rights concerns be damned. Counting on the situation within a few years demanding this from them.
I'm guessing that the institutional environment in the US is similar. Scary stuff.