This Man Is the Most Dangerous Political Operative in America

[KamaAina]

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2015-steve-bannon/

On this February night, however, the party is roaring. Along with his CPAC triumph, a secret project he’d conceived was nearing fruition: His lawyers were almost finished vetting a book about Bill and Hillary Clinton’s murky financial dealings that he’s certain will upend the presidential race. “Dude, it’s going to be epic,” he tells me. I sip my “moonshine”—his wink at the Dynasty guests—and wonder, as people often do, whether Bannon is nuts. On my way out, the doorman hands me a gift: a silver hip flask with “Breitbart” printed above an image of a honey badger, the insouciant African predator of YouTube fame whose catchphrase, “Honey badger don’t give a s---,” is the Breitbart motto.

Bannon’s life is a succession of Gatsbyish reinventions that made him rich and landed him squarely in the middle of the 2016 presidential race: He’s been a naval officer, investment banker, minor Hollywood player, and political impresario. When former Disney chief Michael Ovitz’s empire was falling to pieces, Bannon sat Ovitz down in his living room and delivered the news that he was finished. When Sarah Palin was at the height of her fame, Bannon was whispering in her ear. When Donald Trump decided to blow up the Republican presidential field, Bannon encouraged his circus-like visit to the U.S.-Mexico border. John Boehner just quit as House speaker because of the mutinous frenzy Bannon and his confederates whipped up among conservatives. Today, backed by mysterious investors and a stream of Seinfeld royalties, he sits at the nexus of what Hillary Clinton once dubbed “the vast right-wing conspiracy,” where he and his network have done more than anyone else to complicate her presidential ambitions—and they plan to do more. But this “conspiracy,” at least under Bannon, has mutated into something different from what Clinton described: It’s as eager to go after establishment Republicans such as Boehner or Jeb Bush as Democrats like Clinton....

As befits someone with his peripatetic background, Bannon is a kind of Jekyll-and-Hyde figure in the complicated ecosystem of the right—he's two things at once. And he’s devised a method to influence politics that marries the old-style attack journalism of Breitbart.com, which helped drive out Boehner, with a more sophisticated approach, conducted through the nonprofit Government Accountability Institute, that builds rigorous, fact-based indictments against major politicians, then partners with mainstream media outlets conservatives typically despise to disseminate those findings to the broadest audience. The biggest product of this system is the project Bannon was so excited about at CPAC: the bestselling investigative book, written by GAI’s president, Peter Schweizer, Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich. Published in May by HarperCollins, the book dominated the political landscape for weeks and probably did more to shape public perception of Hillary Clinton than any of the barbs from her Republican detractors. ...

While attacking the favored candidates in both parties at once may seem odd, Bannon says he’s motivated by the same populist disgust with Washington that’s animating candidates from Trump to Bernie Sanders. Like both, Bannon is having a bigger influence than anyone could have reasonably expected. But in the Year of the Outsider, it's perhaps fitting that a figure like Bannon, whom nobody saw coming, would roil the national political debate.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. He doesn't look healthy. He looks, well, dissolute.

eom

[Fred Sanders]

2. It is just sad to see how so many on the Left have also broken bread at the table of RW propaganda.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Not nearly as many times as "moderate" (see HRC) has butterend their bread.

[sabrina 1]

10. You mean like David 'blinde by the money' Brock? I agree!

[Hortensis]

3. This may identify the occult leader of a certain subgroup here.

Such as ones who keep searching out and copying over right wing propaganda.

"...he sits at the nexus of what Hillary Clinton once dubbed “the vast right-wing conspiracy,” where he and his network have done more than anyone else to complicate her presidential ambitions—and they plan to do more. But this “conspiracy,” at least under Bannon, has mutated into something different from what Clinton described: It’s as eager to go after establishment Republicans such as Boehner or Jeb Bush as Democrats like Clinton."

Both that ardent antiestablishment chord and the anti-Hillary hiss are what this type of right and left reactionary has in common. I've often been unable to discern any real difference between some of the posts here and those of their counterparts on the right (the ones I thought I left behind at a mixed forum), and this would explain a cross-over that might well go both ways.

It would also explain why Bernie is currently appealing to, not just some moderates on both left and right, but to more and more reactionaries on both the right and left.

[zalinda]

5. No, it has nothing to do with what you posted.

It has everything to do with 20 years of knowing Hillary Clinton and 20 years of knowing Bernie Sanders. Videos of what the candidates have actually said (it's coming out of their mouths) and government records show the proof of who is wanted for the Presidency.

Some of us, do not trust Hillary. I actually tried to think of something I could trust her on, and couldn't, not even women's rights. Her 'takes a village' story, is just that, a story. While she hobnobs with the elite, Bernie eats lunch with the workers, in the building.

No, we are the poor and the people who realize that anyone could become poor, at any minute. We are those who toil to keep America running, wreck our bodies, and told that we need to work harder to get out of poverty. We are the ones who see people around us dying, because we can't afford quality medical care (ACA and medicaid only goes so far). We are the ones who see the planet dying because those who make the most money, live above it all. We are the ones who played by the rules, and still got screwed over. We are the ones who don't see a future, if we don't do something NOW.

Bernie, has taken up the mantel to try to make things better for those of us who always seem to be ignored. He did this, not because he wants to, but because he has to. It is his nature to fight for the common man, it is his strength.

Bernie is not a saint, not a savior, not someone to be worshiped. He is what the founding fathers envisioned to lead the country, not someone who is driven to the position by ego or hunger for power.

This is why we support Bernie.

Z

[Hortensis]

6. What you just wrote could have been written by a conservative,

heck a TP conservative, without changing a word. Where are Bernie's high, democratic socialist principles in all this "we are the poor" and this guy is going to help us business? And where in these words is any hint of difference between your philosophy and that of the right-wingers who dragged us down into this mess?

I would sympathize with your stated position FAR more, Zalinda if your support was based on principles that went far beyond your personal situation and endured no matter what. Mine have never changed, although our economic situation has a number of times over our lives. It's never been all about poor little me and people like me.

I am a progressive liberal and helping the poor is only one of my priorities. I believe that all men are created equal and have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of freedom. I believe in liberty and justice for all. One man, one vote. I want America to be a vital, vibrant nation of proud, prosperous people envied around the planet. And so on.

[zalinda]

7. Really? A Conservative? LOL

I guess you never heard of the collective 'we'.

I see nothing vital or vibrant about under funding of schools, highways or bridges in disrepair, people still having to go to the Emergency room because most doctors don't take Medicaid or corporations getting away with moving jobs overseas.

You believe that all men are created equal, but they are not all treated equal, just ask any mom who has lost her son to over zealous cops. What about all the people who get us into war, but neither they or any of their family members actually have to fight in it.

What about all the people we kill in the name of FREEDOM? Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen to name a few. How are the innocents enjoying freedom?

Maybe if you really had some skin in the game, you'd understand. I could go on and on, but you'd never get it.

Z

[Hortensis]

11. Under New Deal-type progressive programs, we once approached

it, Zalinda, and did achieve it for many. Instead of building on our great successes, though, beginning in the late 1970s we began tearing down in a disastrous national swing to the hard right that only recently ended. You may remember the mantra, "We have to get off the backs of business" that so many quoted for decades while they held their pockets open for business to pick.

I will add that IMO people with little in the way of resources are the last ones who should be calling for the kind of drastic economic experimentation Bernie really wants. That's another very strong similarity between some of his supporters here and TP types -- a willingness to burn down the economic barn without bothering to consider if it's necessary, much less if they should build a new one first. You don't even seem to know how close we came to what you want once under traditional progressivism -- but you could and should before voting day.

[zalinda]

14. I do know.

I voted twice for Jimmy Carter, the only Democrat that I voted for and never regretted it.

Bill Clinton was not a good President, just a charismatic person, kind of like Ronald Reagan. Clinton lucked out with the Internet. If the Internet boom hadn't happened, we would have barely gotten out of the recession. If you really take a close look at what he did and accomplished, it wasn't much and certainly not for people of lesser means. People were selling personal items and taking on credit just to make ends meet. As NAFTA got going, companies that had basically funded entire towns, left. Now, what? The town would give Walmart or some other big box store a huge tax break to come into the town and hire the locals. But, guess what happened? The store did not make as much money as it wanted to, so they packed up the merchandise, and left town. Leaving in it's wake many, many local stores that no longer existed because they just couldn't compete with Walmart. It's the same story all over the country, no matter where you go. People work, play by the rules and get screwed and no one is held responsible.

As for Bernie, he IS a FDR Democrat, of that there is no doubt. Right now, there is over 2.1 trillion dollars being held off shore that is not being taxed. The little guy is keeping the government running, not the big guys. In the 50's, we had the greatest prosperity ever, just about everyone prospered. If we had kept going down that road and added in social liberalism, we could have been the greatest country in the world. Bernie is not suggesting anything that wasn't before. He wants this country to be more equal economically as well as socially. That is not far left wing and it is not something that is unknown.

Bernie wants peace, what is wrong with peace? We don't have to be the policemen of the world. We don't have to send our best and brightest to die, so someone can make more money.

Do you think Bernie is a dictator and can move the country leftward, if they don't want it? He is enjoying crowds because people are more liberal than is reported. We are not a moderate nation. We never have been. There is story after story about people helping people whether in red or blue states. The farmer who needs help bringing in a crop or the neighborhood who organizes a fund raiser for someone in need. The poor have always been connected and helped each other, it's the only way they could have survived.

The territory that we are headed to and are almost there, has been tried, it was called The Gilded Age. It didn't work out too well. FDR turned it around. Read the items in The First New Deal, and then read the items in The Second New Deal, that's what Bernie is aiming to get back to.

Z

[Hortensis]

15. Bernie is a democratic socialist, not a New Deal progressive, but I believe

we've found some common ground. One, like any president, at best he could achieve only a fraction of what he wanted, and there would be chains on his experimentation. Second, we both want to use already tested and successful means of building a prosperous and equitable society.

Oh, yes, and the problems of the Middle East especially, climate change, disappearing water, and religious extremism foremost among them, but also over-dependence on oil revenues, are far beyond our ability to save that region from great suffering. So I'm pretty sure we agree on doing what we can without getting disastrously mired in war that cannot be won there.

[Fumesucker]

8. Right wing reactionary propaganda indeed...

How can one really know what she believes or intends to do about anything? The only things Hillary's experience seems to be good for is perfecting how to talk out of both sides of her mouth, engaging in the politics of personal destruction and other aspects of her ruthless pursuit of power that remind one of what a Karl Rove might do. That kind of person ought not to be the Democratic nominee. -Steven Leser v 2.0.08

[sabrina 1]

12. Lol. And in one comment you get on board with the subject of the OP himself. You know, sometimes

things are just plain simple. But hey, if you want to jump on board with every new CT be my guest.

Here, as a Bernie supporter, let me help you understand why this Bannon guy, who I never heard of before, has absolutely ZERO to do with my support for the only candidate in this race who actually is speaking the truth.

Let me ask you. Do you approve of Citizens United which has flooded our electoral system with tainted Corporate money?

I don't.

Do you agree with Neocon FP which, in case anyone forgot, promoted 'Turning the ME into a Glass Parking Lot?

I don't.

Do you agree that Wall St criminals should have been bailed out while Main St victims of their corruption are still left to fend for themselves?

I don't.

I'll stop there but I have a whole lot of other questions to ask of those who want to continue the status quo policies of both parties that have so devasted the people of this country and others for decades now.

Who IS this guy btw?

[Hortensis]

13. NO ONE but the GOP establishment and some of the very wealthy

want to continue those policies. But you really know that, don't you? Of course you do.

[sabrina 1]

16. No, I don't know that actually. Nor do millions of other Americans. And that is the reason

why people are flocking to a candidate whose positions on these and other issues they ARE concerned about, has been CONSISTENT over the years. A candidate who doesn't evolve every time there's an election.

So no, we the people do NOT know 'that' whatever 'that' means.

[ancianita]

9. This is one perspective-widening article. Thanks for the post.

I love the part where Breitbart calls Bannon the Leni Riefenstahl of the Tea Party. Which makes the Tea Party .... should I say it?