Rayvin
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Everything posted by Rayvin
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That looks like the kind of thing most Republican presidents would do. Depressing stuff though.
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Manipulation based on what though? Trump was elected so Bannon offers him nothing now on that front. They've only worked together for 6 months so I can't imagine Trump trusts him particularly. What does Bannon have that could be used to control Trump? The only thing I can think of is a superior intellect.
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Yeah that's a fair enough article. Becomes a little hyperbolic towards the end but the departing from tradition aspect of the NSC appointment is a worry. I'm not entirely sure that Bannon would be in a position to just insist he was on it though. He has no real power beyond that which Trump has given him. And I think for me, that suggests that he can't be the main power. Maybe you could argue that Bannon gave the power to Trump as well though. If Bannon is able to manipulate him that it makes the difference, but it's too grand a stage for him to operate with impunity.
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Yeah he clearly does, but as has been claimed repeatedly on this thread, Trump listens to no one. I'm not sure we can have it both ways on this. I could see Bannon in a kind of Grima Wormtongue kind of role, but I'm not sure I see him as the man behind the curtain. I checked the holy war comment as well. Not quite sure if I'm picking it up the same way - he seems to have claimed that the Judeo-Christian Western society was in a near permanent state of war with Islam. I mean, I can see the reading of that as a 'Holy War' but I can also see the reading of it as a statement that Western liberal values should be protected. Is he a massively Christian guy? I dunno, I guess all of this is possible but I think all criticism should be aimed at Trump.
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So you think he infiltrated the Trump campaign and took over the whole thing in six months? I mean to be fair to you, if that's true we really do have to be worried. Cos the guy has gone from running a news site no one had ever heard of to running the United States of America in 6 months. If he can do that, he can do anything. Why couldn't he be on the NSC as a puppet of Trump?
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Didn't he say those things 9 months ago or so? Actually this is an intriguing point, hasn't Bannon only been working with Trump for 6 months? I'm not sure about the idea that he's the power behind the mask, he was very much a late arrival in the whole debacle. I think Trump is perfectly capable of being the real evil himself.
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You don't think he'll create a US-Russian axis? Not sure the 'rest of the world' would be able to say very much at that point.
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I get what you're saying but he was definitely reading some of it - as I say, I watched the Guardian's cherry picked section. You can tell he read some of it because he didn't realise that MLK had 'junior' on the end of his name and had to insert it awkwardly a second or two later. You could also tell because he was looking down at it while speaking like That's not to say he wasn't ad libbing a lot mind, as he clearly was. But there was a speech. How much of it made it through is another question altogether.
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He's just reading a speech though, isn't he. I wonder if any of them actually read up on it. He looked a tit because his ego got in the way. If he'd kept himself out of it I think it would have been a poorly read speech by someone not well informed on the subject, but I don't think it would have been contentious. I think the fact that he and Bannon were both effectively forced to be there by convention suggests that we aren't as far down the slippery slope to fascism as has been suggested recently though. We may, however, be closer to realising the vision set out in idiocracy.
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:lol: It's exactly like her.
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I watched it Very cringeful, yes. He clearly knows nothing about black history but I'm not sure that's too surprising for a non-politician. What is deplorable is his rambling on about CNN, the media, the bust of MLK.
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"...and which offers him zero political capital" Then again, no I didn't see that speech.
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I think I could accept that the Trump team as a collective played this one badly. Not sure I can see Trump overruling everyone in the room about something he doesn't understand and which offers him essentially zero political capital. It all comes down to whether or not you think he's a total idiot, or whether you think he's actually dangerous. I'm more inclined to think he's the latter. Either way, whether it was Trump himself or a collective failure from his team, the buck stops with him. EDIT - and tbf, if it was a collective failure then I could see it being Bannon after all, as ewerk said.
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Does seem feasible actually given that it was an operation that Obama prepped, presumably some time ago. I guess the likelihood of 'things changing' was lost on the decision making team. This must be more on Mattis than anyone else though, isn't this stuff basically what he's there for?
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We covered that on the previous page It's a bizarre thing to say, especially since Berkeley seemed to be acting out of a desire to protect people rather than make a political point.
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That may be true but the issue at hand is that their intelligence was wrong. I suppose it's possible they were given a report that estimated resistance and noted that further reconnaissance was needed, and simply chose to ignore it.
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I see.
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It'll not be Bannon though, it has to be someone on the military side. Worrying really.
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Who is advising Trump on counter terrorism and military objectives then? He sounds useless whoever he is.
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Yeah, tempted to say at this point that even without Trump we'd find something to argue about.
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Quite possibly but what they're doing is more likely to bring about what they fear. Trump can't just make America a police state. He needs a reason to do it that will scan with the public. Enter Antifa. How long before we start seeing false flags on this as well...
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The worrying thing for me is that these protesters are upping the ante by becoming violent - and that protest actually sounds pretty bad. Fireworks fired into the building, break ins, rocks being thrown, etc. Trump can very easily say they're attacking free speech, and to be honest, how much of this does he need to happen before it's built up enough for him to be able to claim that additional force is required to handle these issues. I imagine they'll be branded terrorist organisations at some point if they keep this up. 'Playing into his hands' , I would call this. Which is why political violence can only ever be a last resort. If Trump decides that this is a physical fight rather than a hearts and minds one, he'll fucking destroy them.
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Did you see what Antifa were doing to the student union I woulda fucking cancelled it as well. I'm not sure he can claim that Berkeley did it for political reasons, they seem to have done it simply because Antifa activists are utter psychos. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/01/milo-yiannopoulos-uc-berkeley-event-cancelled
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I thought it did come directly from the perpetrator... it comes from the state, does it? Then I agree, that's weird.
