Breitbart bids Bannon “buh-bye”
Stephen K. Bannon has stepped down from Breitbart News Network, where he served as Executive Chairman since 2012.
Bannon and Breitbart will work together on a smooth and orderly transition.
Bannon said, “I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform.”
According to Breitbart CEO Larry Solov, “Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish.”
Does anyone think that Bannon’s stepping down was the least bit voluntary?
His fall reminds me of the Emerson maxim: “When you strike at a king, you must kill him.” Bannon is perhaps more ruthless than smart, because somehow he seems to have thought he could strike at Trump and Trump’s family and come out the winner.
By the way, if you don’t get the reference in the post’s title, it’s from this:
I must admit that I never understood the attraction of Bannon. His leaving the public stage, for now, is a positive.
I’m saddened that Steve B has been vanquished from the West Wing and from his sinecure at Breitbart, especially so publicly.
He could not have had an easy time of it in the West Wing as the leading, (if not the only), true believer in the values that carried Trump into the oval office.
About the only thing Wolff got right in his biased sham of a book, which I forced myself to read so I could know what the fuss is about, was that on entering the White House, despite being the embodiment and personal representative of all the ideals of Trump’s electoral mandate, Steve B faced off against not one but two formidable rival power centres.
One of these he dispatched but the other was always going to beat him, through ties of blood and marriage if nothing else.
They were Reince, when CoS, trying to woo Trump back over to the establishment position and, much worse, Jared and Ivanka, (“Javanka”), not just official advisers but family to a doting father and fond father in law, and doing their best to lull him over into liberal Democrat positions, because that is what they are. Javanka needs to go.
I believe that Trump was perfectly sincere on the campaign trail in making the promises that he did but I also believe that he is very easily distracted, swayed and manipulated by family and by flatterers prepared to appeal to his ego and his enormous need to be liked and admired.
Yes, his own publicity certainly went to his head and he sadly misjudged his own power and influence by trying to corral a man who simply can’t be harnessed but if I had been lionised like Steve B was was my head would have swollen up too and my good judgement would also have been diminished.
Steve was a conviction politician and a true warrior for Trumpism-Bannonism but the values that put Trump into power were afoot before Trump gave them a voice and are bigger than both men.
We must hope that new leaders come forward to guide the movement and ensure that Trump abides by his promises because the people who put him there because they were disgusted at being ignored and betrayed by the political establishment will turn their backs on him and walk away should he betray them too.
Observers like Ingraham and Coulter who rightly admire what Trump has done so far aren’t being psychic when they predict his demise should he sell out his base – it is just common sense.
When the Mercers, father and daughter, his long time mentors and financial backers, (as well as being the majority shareholders in Breitbart), publicly disowned him last week his fate was sealed.
Interesting times ahead for those devoted to Trump’s mandate. I remain optimistic because Bannon and Trump are just the messengers. The message is far bigger than either man. Steve has now learned that the hard way so let’s hope Trump knows it too.
My view of all this? I borrow from someone on the other side of politics who once memorably said of a far less worthy cause:
“…the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die”
as a interesting aside with little coverage, like the forbidden city dinner…
South Korean President Moon Jae-in credited U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday for helping to spark the first inter-Korean talks in more than two years
Sloppy Steve writes as though he knows more than most of us, certainly I, know. I will not contest that.
To me, Bannon was a quintessential loose cannon. He may have had a role to play with Trump; but, I certainly do not believe that he understood the role viz a viz a public WH position.
I have no idea what transpired between Bannon and Trump. I do know, with a measure of certainty, that if you are going to serve the “Main Man”, then you have to sublimate your own personality–at least publicly.
Oldflyer, your view corresponds closely to mine. Bannon comes across as undisciplined and ultimately Trump decided he was not a positive for his staff. Speculating but Trump may have felt he was a source of leaks. I don’t think the rift was over ideology.
I am with Oldflyer and FOAF. Bannon is so convinced that his way is the only one. He may be good at starting revolutions, but that is not governing.
I was just starting to like Bannon and thought he could be the future conservative Republican leader (maybe even the candidate), when things turned around for him. I’m far more concerned with ideology than personality.
Bannon worked wonders in the sphere of politics. who else could get a Democrat elected to the Senate in Alabama?
“Nice” work, Steve.
This country has so many internal factions at each other’s throats, even I can’t keep track of all them.
Bannon was known for his internal conflict with Shapiro’s faction in the Breitbart employee worker set. Bannon is divisive, even if Trum found him useful because of his media propaganda decisiveness.
Bannon was also the champion of the Alt Right. No idea why the Alt Right hold him in high values. Perhaps because they believe or were led to believe that Bannon is the only or one of the only true believers in Trum’s policies.
Not a leader, just a champion, a front line tank. His qualities were precisely because division was needed to take political power through the REpublican party, and to negate or nullify Trum’s previous allies, HRC and the media.
As for Americans and humans continually begging for new and better leaders: people get the leaders they deserve, since they killed off and got rid of the competition.
The Watchers, elohim class divine entities once worshipped as gods by the Canaanites, including Abraham’s Father and Abraham’s descendants, were once the leaders of humanity entirely, before the Divine Flood ended their little regime.
Humanity will always be divided between at least two factions.
A tiny, insistent voice in my head keeps telling me that a President who starred in a reality show, and has proven his chops at spinning the media, has probably thoroughly scripted a lot of what is gushingly reported about his inner circle. Perhaps it is based on the natural inclinations of Jared, Ivanka, and Steve, but… this President knows that some silly story must be thrown to the media regularly to keep control of the narrative.
He’s in… he’s out…. he’s at Brietbart…. he’s out…
The major accomplishment is keeping Bannon and the alt-right views he’s associated with in the public eye…. So people will keep talking about it until they no longer talk about it… Because it’s been mainstreamed.
This is exactly how activists shifted the Overton Window on homosexuality. A constant drumbeat of media exposure to Big Lies and carefully scripted stories.
As the activists themselves said:
http://www.conservapedia.com/After_the_Ball
Even more interesting are the sharply contrasting comments here:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/503597.After_the_Ball