Friday, August 18, 2017

Has Breitbart always seen Squirrel-Hair as shaky and in need of Bannon's guidance?

Is  Joel Pollack's latest piece at Breitbart indicative of how that site has seen Bannon's impact on Squirrel-Hair all along? He offers a scenario parallel to what happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger's agenda in California now that Bannon's influence is gone from the White House:

Like Trump, Schwarzenegger ran for high office as a celebrity outsider, promising to reform a corrupt, wasteful and lethargic political system, reaching across party lines.
When he took office in 2003 as Governor of California, “The Terminator” carried the hopes of conservatives in the Golden State, who saw him as a vehicle for their ideas, even if he was not a doctrinaire conservative himself. The faltering California Republican Party looked to Schwarzenegger to reverse its long-term decline, and Republicans elsewhere saw his success as a model from which they could learn as they courted moderate, swing-state voters.
But after struggling with intense media criticism, and after losing a key referendum on reforms to state government, Schwarzenegger gave up on his agenda, and abandoned the political base that had brought him into office. He re-invented himself as a liberal, embracing policies such as California’s controversial cap-and-trade program, which had zero effect on climate change but has chased businesses, jobs, and middle-class families out of the state.
Politically, Schwarzenegger’s gambit was a success. He won re-election in 2006. But his second term was a disaster. When he left office in 2010, the state was in a financial shambles and the California Republican Party had begun a decline from which it still has not recovered.
EvBannon was not just Trump’s master strategist, the man who turned a failing campaign around in August 2016 and led one of the most remarkable come-from-behind victories in political history. He was also the conservative spine of the administration. His infamous whiteboard in the West Wing listed the promises Trump had made to the voters, and he was determined to check as many of them off as possible. Steve Bannon personified the Trump agenda.
With Bannon gone, there is no guarantee that Trump will stick to the plan. That is why — too late, in retrospect — conservative leaders wrote to the president Friday to advise him that Bannon and campaign manager-turned-counselor Kellyanne Conway were too valuable to lose. Bannon had delivered for the movement, reportedly convincing President Trump to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords, and to visit Israel on his first trip abroad.
Bannon was also probably the only person who could deliver honest advice and criticism to the president, because he did not need the job. He is a self-made man, and not a Washington climber. Thus it was that Bannon reportedly told Trump that firing former FBI director James Comey would be more trouble than it was worth. He was right.
Trump voters have been patient, but they will soon know if Donald Trump is really Arnold Schwarzenegger 2.0.
Pollack may see Bannon as S-H's saving grace, which seems counter to reality to me, but calling Bannon the administration's "conservative spine" is the kind of thing people aimlessly wandering the streets hearing voices in their heads come up to you and say.

Still, a Breitbart - White House war would be popcorn-worthy indeed.




12 comments:

  1. As much anarchy as we see today I personally am glad I have the chance to learn from this. How ever imperfect this union, it is still relied upon by the rest of governments as the bench mark. Pray we keep it tis way

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  2. The benchmark for what? The international conspicuous consumption race we started?

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  3. For the primacy of freedom among the conditions for human well-being. For peaceful transfers of power between administrations every four years since the 1780s, for checks and balances between the three branches of government, for rich cultural legacy, for a spirit of inventiveness.

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  4. The conspicuous consumption race (species) is unquestionable. Benchmark for what's left I guess is keep trying.

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  5. Yes my dear Michael, the malady is species-wide and species-specific. Conspicuous production and consumption and the advertisng and marketing of same work because they are actually based on those invisible little fingers working the invisible little hands: envy, pride, gluttony, lust, greed, anger, sloth makes 7 and we all pretty much got 'em, so as far as it goes it works but it is not salvation, not even enlightenment and those who are deceived thereby, including me, are not wise. Wouldn't peace, love and understanding complete the 10 digits of the invisible hand. Now excuse me as I have to go hug a tree.

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  6. I think if we look we do have all these invisible hands. We are off topic I think.

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  7. No we are not off topic as it morphed into the consumerism America is spreading around the globe.

    Three generations into the Kim family's ruling dynasty, markets have blossomed and a consumer culture is taking root. From 120 varieties of "May Day Stadium" brand ice cream to the widespread use of plastic to pay the bills, it's a change visibly and irreversibly transforming her nation.





    While Kim has in recent weeks gained attention for his threat to fire missiles near Guam, his trademark two-track policy focuses on the development of both nuclear weapons and the economy. His acceptance of a more consumer-friendly economy is meant to foster economic growth and bring profits into the regime's coffers. But like his pursuit of nuclear weapons, it's a risky business.

    Facing even more international sanctions and a flood of Chinese imports that has generated a huge trade imbalance, there are good reasons to believe the North Korean economy is in a bubble that could soon burst. Prices for gasoline imports have soared more than 200 percent in less than six months, the AP has found. The price of rice is also believed to be sharply rising, although harder to independently confirm because of the difficulty in visiting local markets.



    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-18/the-real-revolution-in-nkorea-is-rise-of-consumer-culture

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  8. This is about as vomit-inducing as anything I've read in decades. To try to use the injection of a paltry amount of consumerism to justify the world's most evil regime is so contemptible anyone who attempts it is culpable in something very dark.

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  9. I am not justifying the world's most evil regime you dumb ass!

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  10. I'm saying they and the rest of the world have become like we are. And this aspect of us is not all sunshine, lollipops and roses.

    Recently, I gave up my electric toothbrush. There was nothing wrong with it. It was, in fact, an upscale model, and when I used it, I felt certain my teeth were not only getting cleaner and whiter but also perhaps even better aligned. And yet, my old manual toothbrush, poking out of a mug on the vanity, beckoned. One night, as I wearily approached the sink, I realized the last thing I wanted to experience was the frantic whir of yet another spinning gizmo. I plucked out the old-timey toothbrush instead, and never looked back.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/sunday/technology-downgrade-sanity.html?ribbon-ad-idx=16&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article

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  11. China has the stated goal of replacing ALL workers with robots by 2048. And all this STEM talk and gauging higher education by the amount of money a specific major might make, and grandparents bragging that their grands are gonna major in robotics, they're certain they're gonna beat the curve. Somewhere lost in all this is our souls. And we did start the fire....

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  12. And you know the only way back to that. In fact, I'm about to clean up and head out to be with a congregation of people focused on just that.

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