"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.5454284558ae
Bannon wants a war on Washington. Now he’s part of one inside the White House.
Stephen K. Bannon — the combative architect of the nationalistic strategy that delivered President Trump to the White House — now finds himself losing ground in an internecine battle within the West Wing that pits the so-called “Bannonites” against a growing and powerful faction of centrist financiers led by the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Less than 100 days into Trump’s chaotic presidency, the White House is splintering over policy issues ranging from tax reform to trade. The daily tumult has created an atmosphere of tension and panic within the West Wing, leaving aides fearing for their jobs and cleaving former allies into rivals sniping at one another in the media.
The infighting spilled into full view this week after Trump removed Bannon from the National Security Council’s “principals committee,” a reshuffling that left the president’s chief strategist less fully involved in the administration’s daily national security policy while further empowering Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s new national security adviser.
Bannon, an unkempt iconoclast, has generally chafed at the transition from firebomb campaigning to more modulated governing and for weeks has vented about the possibility of quitting, one person close to him said.
This account of the latest West Wing turmoil comes from interviews with more than 20 White House officials and people close to those in the administration, many of whom requested anonymity to offer candid assessments.
Despite the demotion, Bannon attended Wednesday’s security council meeting, and his friends and allies say the position on the Cabinet-level security committee was always supposed to be temporary — a way for Bannon to keep watch over retired Gen. Michael Flynn, the controversial former national security adviser who was fired in February after he misled the Vice President Pence about his contacts with the Russians.
But the benign explanation for Bannon’s removal belies the growing strife between Bannon, Kushner and Gary Cohn, the National Economic Council director. A registered Democrat who previously ran Goldman Sachs, Cohn is close to Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, the president’s oldest daughter and adviser.
[Inside Trump’s White House, New York moderates spark infighting and suspicion]
Fairly or unfairly, Bannon has borne the blame for several specific policy and political failures, including the scattershot drafting and implementation of Trump’s first travel ban and the strategy and approach to dealing with the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which ultimately helped tank the Republican health-care bill by failing to support it.
The battle over control of a pro-Trump outside group also pitted Bannon, Republican super-donor Rebekah Mercer and her father, Robert, against Kushner.
And Bannon has felt the brunt of general frustrations surrounding the security council. In the early days of the administration, he elevated himself, without Trump’s knowledge, to the principals committee, a move that infuriated the president. He insisted, along with Kushner, on keeping certain staffers over the objection of McMaster.
But the ultimate argument against him, said one person with knowledge of the situation, is that “Bannon isn’t making ‘Dad’ look good.”
As Kushner has expanded his portfolio and consolidated his already vast power — the 36-year-old has been called “the Trump whisperer,” with a direct line to the president — he has surrounded himself with a small group of outsiders who largely hail from the ranks of business and Wall Street. The group includes Dina Powell, an Egyptian-born former Goldman Sachs official who served in George W. Bush’s administration. Both she and Cohn are part of Kushner’s newly announced Office of American Innovation, an internal team devoted to streamlining government.
Bannon and his populist allies view Kushner’s circle with growing suspicion, worrying aloud that the group — whom they dismiss as “the Democrats,” “the New Yorkers” or, simply, “Goldman” — are pushing Trump in a “Democrat Lite” direction. Kushner’s allies, meanwhile, label Bannon’s crowd as “the Bannonites,” “the Nationalists” or “Breitbart,” the name of the incendiary conservative website he previously ran.
Bannon, grousing to friends, has cast the tensions as a battle between the globalists and the liberal Democrats, whom he worries are eager to undercut the populist movement that helped lift Trump to victory. Looming over him daily on his office walls are the promises that Trump made during the campaign, which he methodically checks off.
Cohn has met with Democrats on several occasions and appears much more comfortable offering lawmakers olive branches than does Bannon, who during the health- care fight argued in favor of forcing a vote on the doomed bill to establish a public list of Republican traitors.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich cast the disagreements as important and weighty policy debates.
“It’s not about petty soap-opera stuff,” Gingrich said. “Bannon represents a very fundamental change in how we think about economic policy, taking us back to the era from Alexander Hamilton up through the 1920s when we were a much more national economy. Gary represents the New York international worldview and is a very competent and smart guy. There’s a natural tension.
“I think it’s very helpful to have the tension and the arguments,” he added. “I think presidents are much better served if they have different sources of information.”
The president, asked by reporters Thursday on Air Force One if a staff shake-up is looming, said he thought the administration had “already shaken things up.”
“I think we’ve had one of the most successful 13 weeks in the history of the presidency,” Trump said, wrongly referring to the 11 weeks he has been in office.
Some friends of both Bannon and Kushner, who talk daily and still have a cordial rapport, say the tensions are mostly driven by policy.
[White House disavows two controversial tax ideas hours after officials say they’re under consideration]
In February, for instance, a group of former Republican Cabinet secretaries met with Cohn to pitch him on the idea of a carbon tax, arguing it would help reduce fossil fuel emissions while also addressing budget issues. Some left the meeting believing Cohn was open to the idea. Bannon was furious when he caught wind of the proposal, saying the White House was veering too far from Trump’s core nationalist principles as it molded its economic policy.
A meeting last week at the White House at the behest of Kushner and Cohn to discuss health care with Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and one of the architects of President Obama’s health-care bill, was another fault line. The mere existence of the staff-level discussion with Emanuel — who had previously met with Trump three times — raised concerns among conservatives that the president was serious about his threat to work with Democrats after his initial health-care proposal failed.
Bannon, allies said, still has the president’s ear, especially on key issues like immigration, where he and Trump are in a complete “mind meld.” But the chief strategist has struggled to adjust to the more regimented mores of the White House. One friend said he hates attending meetings, bemoans the need to frequently wear suits, and finds the government bureaucracy stifling. While living in Los Angeles, Bannon would sometimes participate in Breitbart conference calls before showering and in a T-shirt or bathrobe; his D.C. staff would joke about the last time he got a haircut.
Some of those who resent Kushner’s rising power have compared him to Icarus, the youth in Greek mythology who flew too close to the sun and melted his wings. But because Kushner holds so much clout, many of his rivals fear bad-mouthing him and train their ire on his deputies instead. “When you complain about Gary or Dina, you’re really complaining about Jared and what he’s doing, because you’re not able to complain about Jared around here,” said one senior White House official.
But one administration official warned that Bannon was playing “a dangerous game” because it is “not a smart strategy to go up against the president and his family. That’s a game Steve will never win.”
Patrick J. Caddell, a veteran pollster who advises Breitbart and is friends with Bannon, said that “an outsider administration is vulnerable to these kinds of cracks.”
“Steve is taking the slings and arrows, but I hope Trump understands that the attacks on Bannon are an attempt to undermine Trump,” Caddell said. “That’s the crucial point. Steve is essential to him, the only person who has a clue why the president was elected and why he’s there.”
Regardless, the ongoing drama has taken a toll on West Wing operations, where aides continue to jockey for power and worry about their job security. One senior official pointed to Trump’s interview Wednesday with the New York Times, during which at least six senior White House staffers, including Pence, crowded into the Oval Office.
“Why were they there?” asked the official, saying they should have been working on other tasks. “Now the expectation is you have to be in every picture and every meeting.”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, dismissed reports of palace intrigue. “There are many serious issues at hand, which the president has been totally focused on, and the only conflicts his advisers are concerned with are those that are impacting the lives and safety of Americans, as well as the citizens of the world,” she said.
Trump, for his part, enjoys a somewhat chaotic management style and so far hasn’t aligned entirely with either camp. Aides say one moment the president will praise Bannon and sound out nationalist themes. The next, he’ll see a headline about “President Bannon” and grimace.
Wooooo!!!
Trump deflects masterfully from his Russian ties in the "American way" ie: bombing the snot out of a weak foreign power that has no reply:
https://wonkette.com/615254/trump-bo...zzing-about-it
If dead babies are the trigger...this is a campaign that has only just begun
http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/trump...licy-1.4061371
Ja-mata TosaInu
Perhaps; Such a response would need Russia to have shared the warning with Assad...no idea if they did.
Syria does have the Pantsyr, supplied by Russia, whether or not Syria had a chance to use it; again I have no idea.
It might be the case that the target was just not worth the expenditure of any ammunition to defend it; airfield? there are more of those, and not like its difficult to make another one; besides Russia has loads of planes :)
Ja-mata TosaInu
Russia has still not the means to oppose USA.
Putin didn't (couldn't) react to a Russian airplane shot down by Turkey and one of the crew member murdered by the militian paid by Turkey. No way in my opinion, at this time, Putin/Russia will do something.
Now, more worrying is how Russia will use this for their own purpose. If I was Ukrainian, I would be deeply worried about Trump's wording (national interest).
US president changed, US policy still the same.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire.
"I've been in few famous last stands, lad, and they're butcher shops. That's what Blouse's leading you into, mark my words. What'll you lot do then? We've had a few scuffles, but that's not war. Think you'll be man enough to stand, when the metal meets the meat?"
"You did, sarge", said Polly." You said you were in few last stands."
"Yeah, lad. But I was holding the metal"
Sergeant Major Jackrum 10th Light Foot Infantery Regiment "Inns-and-Out"
AFAIK, Russia was informed by the US about the missile strike and they got their planes and people away from the airfield which was targeted. Russia uses this airfield as a stage one (planes do not "live" there, they come to refuel and the like), so when ALL OF THEM packed and left hastily I don't think Syrians didn't guess the import of this even if they weren't directly told about what was to come.
Besides on one of the pictures of the airfield after the strike an upturned Pantsyr was spotted. So the conclusion is that Russia/Syria did have something to counter the strike with, the question is why they didn't - either they didn't dare or the weapons weren't up to the task (despite the eulogies which had been voiced before).
Perhaps I missed something, so I'm not worried a bit. If you give details I might start to.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire.
"I've been in few famous last stands, lad, and they're butcher shops. That's what Blouse's leading you into, mark my words. What'll you lot do then? We've had a few scuffles, but that's not war. Think you'll be man enough to stand, when the metal meets the meat?"
"You did, sarge", said Polly." You said you were in few last stands."
"Yeah, lad. But I was holding the metal"
Sergeant Major Jackrum 10th Light Foot Infantery Regiment "Inns-and-Out"
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire.
"I've been in few famous last stands, lad, and they're butcher shops. That's what Blouse's leading you into, mark my words. What'll you lot do then? We've had a few scuffles, but that's not war. Think you'll be man enough to stand, when the metal meets the meat?"
"You did, sarge", said Polly." You said you were in few last stands."
"Yeah, lad. But I was holding the metal"
Sergeant Major Jackrum 10th Light Foot Infantery Regiment "Inns-and-Out"
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
Trump briefly looks "Presidential" and "strong" and it is something he can do to stand up to Russia that is superficially good but meaningless. Russia can continue to do what it wants. Hell, if hypothetically if every runway was destroyed Russian planes would still be enough. Until every runway is levelled along with infrastructure and the Rebels are given SAMs it will at best impede.
Putin can even get all shouty and both sides can look great to their admirers - a strong man standoff.
The USA will struggle to have a follow up that will sort out the quagmire - Russia is lucky as all they want is warm water ports and specific influence with no interest in the locals. The West has such high standards they are all but impossible since most of the locals are unclear what a resolution looks like.
An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
Remove Assad + ??? = Problem solved?
Days since the Apocalypse began
"We are living in space-age times but there's too many of us thinking with stone-age minds" | How to spot a Humanist
"Men of Quality do not fear Equality." | "Belief doesn't change facts. Facts, if you are reasonable, should change your beliefs."
Bringing Hitler into the mix is generally a losing proposition.
Sanitizing Hitler is not usually the choice of reasonable people.
Sean Spicer hits it out of the park:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...weapons-237116
Ja-mata TosaInu
Oh Sean.
Tillersons odds this week in Russia
2-1 remove Assad and remove Russian sanctions
10-1 status quo and a bunch of hot air about "open communication"
15-1 total breakdown, further entrenchment of ideas
25-1 polonium sandwhich.
There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford
My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire.
"I've been in few famous last stands, lad, and they're butcher shops. That's what Blouse's leading you into, mark my words. What'll you lot do then? We've had a few scuffles, but that's not war. Think you'll be man enough to stand, when the metal meets the meat?"
"You did, sarge", said Polly." You said you were in few last stands."
"Yeah, lad. But I was holding the metal"
Sergeant Major Jackrum 10th Light Foot Infantery Regiment "Inns-and-Out"
Sean spicer denys the holocaust, even though it's obvious he was referring to hitler's reluctance to use poison gas on the battlefield and he mentions the holocaust in the same speech.
Sean spicer is set upon by journalists out for blood, part 182: this time he caves.
Trump needs to relieve this guy, he's clearly traumatized. Find someone who is better suited to surviving the shark tank.
In before husar screeches "sauron of akkad! Uh muh Gawd!"
I disagree this is a big loud statement to the world that the Obama era's constant retreat is over and those small nations that provoke the USA are no longer safe. To have little ultimate impact on the syrian war effort is in america's favour as it is not to thier benefit for assad to lose, but having assad run screaming to putin to beg for more russian entanglement is. It wil be interesting to see how trump tries to capitalize on this shock to the system.
Last edited by Greyblades; 04-12-2017 at 11:03.
Yet Trump was saying the exact opposite as of a few days ago and throughout the campaign about how he was going to get the USA out of NATO / the Middle East and so on.
Obama's "retreat" included attacks in Lybia, and sending black hawks into Pakistan on an illegal assassination mission.
Trump sent in a small attack that managed to damage one of the 22 airbases in Syria. And then... silence. As there is no real strategy.
Russian entanglement? Apart from the planes, helicopters and ships? Oh I see - it is a ploy to cunningly get Russia to take control of the assets they want and now seem to be helping against an illegal act by the USA. That is such a cunning plan...
An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
Which is why this was a strike and not an invasion. A smack on the jaw to dispell the idea that US will ignore the use of chemical weapons, without having to set foot in the quagmire.
Obama's retreat was talking tough on chemical weapons and then doing nothing when ghouta was gassed. It compromised america's credibility.Obama's "retreat" included attacks in Lybia, and sending black hawks into Pakistan on an illegal assassination mission.
Planes, helicopters and ships, but no tanks or front line infantry. Russia like us doesnt want syria to turn into another afghanistan and is using Assad's men as a proxy while supporting them from a point of relative safety.Russian entanglement? Apart from the planes, helicopters and ships? Oh I see - it is a ploy to cunningly get Russia to take control of the assets they want and now seem to be helping against an illegal act by the USA. That is such a cunning plan...
Putin does not want to have to invade properly and every strike against assad makes it more likely he will have to eventually if he wants to secure his naval bases.
Last edited by Greyblades; 04-12-2017 at 12:07.
I do find it odd how the red line is one method of indiscriminate killing.
Smack to the jaw? Making Assad closer to Iran and Russia is smacking who in the jaw? Assad was killing civilians within a day or so - but thank goodness with conventional munitions. Surely Vietnam showed if nothing else that dropping vast amounts of ordinance by itself doesn't win a war. Yes, the bombs these days are more powerful and targeted, but so few in number.
Obama shouldn't have mentioned red lines as he was outplayed by Russia.
Troops on the ground are courtesy of Assad, Iran and Hezbollah. They are doing a decent job of crushing the rebels in all the main centres whilst Russia bombs any things that are too tough. Given they have few qualms about overuse of force it'll probably continue to work.
A few cruise missiles made a very small local difference tactically - planes now have to use other bases until they rebuild. Russia might even give some some army surplus to help get it all up and running.
If Russia has troops in the ports they want, why need they go further? America has a base in Cuba that the locals didn't allow them to have.
An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
I'm not going to talk the morality of being selective in which methods of killing is allowed; it's rather unimportant, the point is to show that america's promises and threats are worth something again.
Assad being driven closer to the russians and iran is also unimportant as it's too late for that; he's there already, bridge burned.
Agreed.Obama shouldn't have mentioned red lines as he was outplayed by Russia.
Which is good, the US doesnt want another somalia and the rebels are long past the point of being desireable puppets.Troops on the ground are courtesy of Assad, Iran and Hezbollah. They are doing a decent job of crushing the rebels in all the main centres whilst Russia bombs any things that are too tough. Given they have few qualms about overuse of force it'll probably continue to work.
A few cruise missiles made a very small local difference tactically - planes now have to use other bases until they rebuild. Russia might even give some some army surplus to help get it all up and running.
They need to go further because the rebels wont let him keep the bases, Russia would have to either keep fighting off attempts to dislodge them for decades to come, or set up another proxy, in which case they might as well have kept assad.If Russia has troops in the ports they want, why need they go further? America has a base in Cuba that the locals didn't allow them to have.
Last edited by Greyblades; 04-12-2017 at 12:33.
That's the point - America's promise was they were not going to get involved in the Middle East. There was no threat, just action without warning. And now, no follow up or strategy. Amateur hour.
If the rebels are almost as bad as Assad then what is the point? Unless this is purely about the methodology of the killing. Nonsensical to me.
I am sure Russia can manage to protect bases if they want them. Rather like the Israelis have managed to keep the Golan Heights, Russia in Crimea and so on. Give some weapons to the nearby warlords to kill their enemies usually works.
Russia will back whichever puppet looks like winning in the areas of the country they wish to control, as will Iran. I doubt Russia has any loyalty more than a chess grandmaster does.
An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings.
"If you can't trust the local kleptocrat whom you installed by force and prop up with billions of annual dollars, who can you trust?" Lemur
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter. Winston Churchill
Fascist alt-right, anti-press propaganda garbage from Trumpblades! Uh muh guhd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111
Sean Spicer says stupid things all the time and this wasn't even an exception since the point he did want to make was just as idiotic as any possible misinterpretation. Cry me a blathering, bloody river for cheeese sake!!!!!!!!!11111111111111
"Topic is tired and needs a nap." - Tosa Inu
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39585029
Trump now backs NATO - against "Terrorists" rather than Russia.
Uh huh.
"If it wears trousers generally I don't pay attention."
[IMG]https://img197.imageshack.us/img197/4917/logoromans23pd.jpg[/IMG]
Bookmarks