A new ethno-nationalist politics is upon us in the run-up and aftermath of Trump’s defeat, as the Werwolfen will infest more than the Bronx. GOP sympathizers in the Congress will impede democratic legislation and obstruct WH progress as it has for the past eight years.
Will there be an appeal to a new Edelweißpiraten, disaffected and anti-political Millennials whose hipsterism and patriotic zeal will resemble the paid riots of 2000.
And will the post-election recoup Trump’s popularity and wealth as he pursues new media and investment projects as he rebrands damaged eponymous holdings.
But the real story will be the entrepreneurial reign of his autocrat whisperers like campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, Breitbart’s head and erstwhile RW media mogul.
The new nightly Facebook Live show that Trump advisers have launched ahead of the final two weeks of the campaign may signal a foray into a formal media presence, but the transition from political campaign to cable news show — or even channel — has been tried before, without great success.
When asked if the live show, dubbed "Trump Tower Live," was a precursor or test case for a larger, post-election media operation, Trump communications adviser Cliff Sims said, "this effort is a result of conversations that took place inside the communications team on how to best utilize Mr. Trump's massive online platforms to reach people with his message."…
"Trump Tower Live," which is recorded in Trump's building in midtown Manhattan, is set to air every night through the Nov. 8 election, with the start time and program length depending on the candidate's schedule every evening.
The guests will rotate, with Sims saying staffers plan to "take advantage of our resources and surrogates that are here in the building to advance whatever Mr. Trump's message of the day is."
abcnews.go.com/...
a new ethno-nationalist politics is upon us — Remember the rent-a-car!
“Think of the bunker right before Hitler killed himself,” said one anonymous campaign staffer to New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman. “Donald’s in denial. They’re all in denial.”
The mood in Trump Tower, Sherman reported, has vacillated between gloom, rage, denial and then brief glee on Friday when the FBI reported that the agency is reviewing new materials in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State...
New York Times conservative columnist echoed the adviser who compared the situation to Hitler’s bunker. In a tweet on Friday, he said, “In Trumpworld as Hitler’s Bunker terms,” the re-opening of the FBI investigation is “like when Goebbels thought FDR’s death would save the Nazi regime.”
www.rawstory.com/…
It’s no surprise, then, that Trump has been advised for decades by Roger Stone, a prominent political strategist and conspiracy theorist who believes that Lyndon B. Johnson had Kennedy killed (Stone is silent on Rafael Cruz’s role) and that George H. W. Bush may have tried to kill Ronald Reagan. It’s also not shocking that Trump has been a regular guest on the radio show of Alex Jones, who, among other interesting things, believes that Americans are in danger of being controlled by “clockwork elves.”
But it took someone a little smarter—and more cynical—than Trump, Stone, or Jones to distill Trump’s platform of protectionism, closed borders, and white identity politics into one message about a global conspiracy. The man behind this new message is Steve Bannon, who became the C.E.O. of the Trump campaign in August. Bannon is on leave from Breitbart, the right-wing news site where he served as executive chairman, and where he honed a view of international politics that Trump now parrots…
Bannon embraced the growing populist movement in America, including the “alt-right,” a new term for white nationalists, who care little about traditional conservative economic ideas and instead stress the need to preserve America’s European heritage and keep out non-whites and non-Christians. Under Bannon, Breitbart promoted similar movements in Europe, including the United Kingdom Independence Party, the National Front in France, Alternative for Germany, and the Freedom Party in the Netherlands. Bannon likes to say that his goal is “to build a global, center-right, populist, anti-establishment news site.” After the election is over, Breitbart, which has offices in London and Rome, plans to open up new bureaus in France and Germany...
Bannon has never been a campaign strategist. He is a right-wing new-media entrepreneur who is building a political and news infrastructure that mimics Europe’s nationalists. After Trump’s speech on Thursday, when he linked Clinton to “international banks” and “global financial powers,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, issued a statement that Trump “should avoid rhetoric and tropes that have historically been used against Jews and still reverberate today.”…
Trump’s response to these numbers has been to tell his supporters, repeatedly in recent days, that the election is “rigged,” creating a sense of grievance about the likely results that can be exploited after November 8th. Trump and Bannon have given up on trying to defeat Clinton. They seem more interested in creating a platform for a new ethno-nationalist politics that may bedevil the Republican Party—and the country—for a long time to come.
www.newyorker.com/...
"It is a tactic which consists in committing bombings and attributing them to others. By the term 'tension' one refers to emotional tension, to what creates a sentiment of fear. By the term 'strategy' one refers to what feeds the fear of the people towards one particular group".
The strategy of tension (Italian: strategia della tensione) is a theory that Western governments during the Cold War used tactics that aimed to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions in order to achieve their strategic aims.[1]
Banana Republicans: How the Right Wing Is Turning America Into a One-Party State
is a book by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber of the Center for Media and Democracy.[1] It was published in 2004.
In the book, Rampton and Stauber argue that a right-wing political machine, in the form of the Republican Party and its functionaries in the media, lobbying establishment and electoral system, is undermining dissent and squelching pluralistic politics in the United States.
In writing Banana Republicans, Rampton and Stauber experimented with collaborative research, inviting Disinfopedia users to contribute their own research and analysis while the book was being written.
The book examines:
- The legacy of the 2000 Florida ballot scandal, and how it has continued to play out in a nationwide effort at racial gerrymandering and redistricting schemes.
- How a GOP echo chamber methodically spreads its views through conservative media giants and highly placed columnists, journalists, and opinion makers.
- How, even within its own environs, the national Republican Party has squelched disagreement and moderation, stripping traditional oversight agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, of mission and influence.
- How GOP leaders have strong-armed powerful lobbying firms into exclusively hiring Republicans, so that even K Street is political, rather than merely opportunistic.
- How corporate-funded think tanks and Republican Party pundits have equated disagreement with treason, and the government has used its power to punish dissent.
But even the one-party State can (and should) be smashed, according to some superficial understanding of Leninism by RWNJs.
Stephen Bannon, the Trump campaign’s new chief executive as of Wednesday, used the phrase two years ago in emails with Breitbart reporter Matt Boyle. Bannon ran Breitbart at the time, and the two schemed about how to get activists to “turn on the hate” as part of a plan to “burn this bitch down.” The emails, obtained by The Daily Beast, are just another reminder that the Trump campaign’s new management is unlikely to play nice with party leaders.
“You know I agree,” he replied. “Let’s just not hurt ourselves in the process. If we’re gonna burn this bitch down, to quote the great Louis Head, we need to make sure the fire doesn’t burn us in the process. I’m working on plans with people right now to make it happen.”
https://t.co/fQHoXGhjIO
Though his unkempt and bare-knuckles style might not suggest it, Steve Bannon began his career as part of the Wall Street establishment, as a banker at Goldman Sachs, the firm whose name became synonymous with the financial industry corruption and arrogance that led to the 2008 crash — though Bannon left the firm in 1990 to start his own smaller Wall Street firm.
While at Goldman Sachs during the 1980s, according to a profile by Bloomberg News, Bannon became part of that decade’s boom in corporate “hostile takeovers,” working mainly in defense of companies which had been targeted by corporate raiders like Michael Milken. That decade also had its own major financial crash, also spurred by the often illegal activities of investment bankers.
But Bannon was also part of several major takeovers himself, including one deal involving a company known as Bain Capital, spearheaded by a rising executive named Mitt Romney…
Former Breitbart writer Ben Shapiro also says that “under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart openly embraced the white supremacist Alt-Right.”
“Breitbart has elective affinities with the Alt Right, and the Alt Right has clearly influenced Breitbart,” added Richard Spencer, head of the white supremacist National Policy Institute. “In this way, Breitbart has acted as a ‘gateway’ to Alt Right ideas and writers.”
He never called himself a “populist” or an “American nationalist,” as so many think of him today. “I’m a Leninist,” Bannon proudly proclaimed.
Shocked, I asked him what he meant.
“Lenin,” he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” Bannon was employing Lenin’s strategy for Tea Party populist goals. He included in that group the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as the traditional conservative press.
www.thedailybeast.com/...