Bannon, the American Big Mouth

I just viewed Steve Bannon’s interview by Ann Coulter on PBS Frontline. The man is a master of BS and follows a tactic used by many folks in that category, like Trump, Berlusconi (Italy) or Tapie (France).

He reminded me of three individuals that I worked with, who used to drawn their listeners in a deluge of gab, never interacting, never responding precisely at questions or backing up their statements, but always including a few intriguing words into the sauce to make their speech sound more elaborate and credible.

The key for these Big Mouths to succeed is the use of monologue, as they can’t afford to let dissenting voices debunk their unfounded theories. Of course, in that case, the right-wing interviewer just let him unload his Nationalistic dogma as if it were Gospel. People like Bannon are malevolent weather-vanes that use any convenient cause to advance themselves.

For instance, what are the benefits of the kind of fierce Nationalism Bannon advocates, in a planet that is dying of over-exploitation and overpopulation? None whatsoever. Globalism is the answer. Globalism can work if well regulated.

Bannon and his disciples are master at stirring the pot of anger and frustration that lay in the common man by oversimplifying issues and blurting out simple-minded, but unpractical truths. The large number of folks that approve his theories are evidently lazy, dumb, mean, or a combination of the three.

Interestingly, and because it is founded on a piling up of meaningless words and gobbledygook, this kind of Big Mouth communication that relies solely on a verbal tsunami doesn’t export itself too well. Berlusconi and Tapie could only work in Italy or France, and if Steve Bannon succeeded somewhat in the U.K. in validating Brexit, he failed miserably during his recent Italian of French indoctrination campaigns.

Finally, I much prefer Steve Bannon’s upgraded new look. It’s definitely more civilized, even though it retains his record number of shirt layers!

Bannon, the Puppet Master

As a follow up to my previous blog, I took the time to watch the “Zero-Tolerance” show from PBS, that details how deftly Trump was installed at the helm of the United States by a nefarious trio made of Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions and Steve Miller.

Bannon, was in fact the architect of the entire scheme under the guise of a new Nationalist dogma hinged around immigration and trade, and how he happened to pick Trump, a providential candidate, with “lots of flaws” as he admits, that has pretty much become Bannon’s puppet.

In fact, the film shows that Bannon “used” both Sessions and Miller in installing them in key positions to advance his agenda, secure Trump in place and also demonstrates that “businessman”

The documentary also shows that Trump was in fact totally clueless when it came to the business of leading the country.

Yet, this was okay, as long as Steve Bannon could excel at the art of manipulating the egocentric man who believed he was fully in charge.

Whether I like it or not, Bannon isn’t just a “Big Mouth”, but he’s also an effective Machiavellian.

Steve Bannon’s technique

A few weeks ago, I offered an extensive analysis of Steve Bannon and last night, I just saw a recent interview of the man on the channel Vice, conducted by Liz Landers, a very capable millennial journalist (watch it below).

In it, I observed once more that Mr. Bannon use a few tools that are essential with “B.S. Artists”; namely, that they speaks very, very fast so no one has time to analyze what is actually said and at the end, this endless juxtaposition of string of words, that make not much sense, are also devoid of any hard-hitting and convincing facts.

Furthermore, Bannon doesn’t live much room for interruption, interaction or just dialog, as it is essential that he blabbers all the time, without discontinuing. Finally, his unique presentation (slob style, bad teeth, unshaven, dirty looking) is a further distraction from the content – or lack thereof – of what is says.

Bullshiters the world over, follow his modus operandi if you want to make a strong impression upon the mentally under-served!

The Steve Bannon Interview

Sunday night, I watched the Steve Bannon interview, by Charlie Rose, on CBS's "60 Minutes" and saw about 30 minutes of feisty exchange between the two.

Too bad that Charlie lost a bit of his temper (which happens all the time he sits down with folks he doesn't like), but in the end, it didn't change much of the outcome.

I was hoping to discover the real genius in Bannon; after all, the man had “fabricated” our 45th president, but instead, I discovered that he was a mirror image of Trump and someone making up his "strategy" as he spoke.

Just like Donald Trump, the man who served as the White House Chief Strategist during the first seven months of his presidency, is a big mouth and a bully, but there is nothing of substance behind his boisterous remarks and, at least in my view, the Vice-Emperor had no clothes.

Thank you Charlie Rose for debunking the only mystery left in the Empire of the Donald.

My only Sundance movie

On Thursday, I went to see my “token” Sundance movie of this festival, and I'm glad to report that it was a very good one.

In a slice-of-life style, the documentary recounts one full year during which, director, camerawoman and one-person producer's Alison Klayman was basically granted full access to Steve Bannon during his post-Trump crusade.

The movie shows Bannon’s alibis for pushing a far-right agenda while keeping a straight face, from Brexit to Trump, the French “Yellow Vests” and the the right's big loss at the November elections.

It ultimately suggests that while if Bannon got lucky with Trump, carrying his nationalist and fascist gospel forward isn't easy, especially among Europeans, we might not get quite enamored by his rough, brutal style of communicating and his deep misunderstanding of cultures beyond his very own.

What’s inside Trump’s head?

Some think Donald Trump is dumb, other say he’s smart and many believe he’s nuts. This therefore beg the question what’s really inside his head. He doesn’t read but watches a lot of TV instead and rambles a lot. This won’t help in making him the intellectual person of the year! 

Yet, the man also appears to be cunning and generally mean and cruel. Just like smiles don’t belong to his face, there’s no good words coming out of his mouth, yet some of his tactics have worked perfectly to his advantage. 

Of course, he’s got Steve Bannon and Steve Miller in the background, engineering most of Trump’s nefarious moves and populating him like a Trojan horse. This said, Trump got elected on the basis he was a fantastic businessman and to back it up, one worth a whopping 10 billion dollars! 

This of course was another lie. He’s got very little business acumen, if at all, and his net worth was at best one quarter of what he was boasting. He was lucky to ride the Obama’s economic recovery, fueled by a corporate tax-cut that boosted Wall Street to record levels and made sure Steve Munchin would keep that balloon inflated through this last election. 

Yet, when Covid-19 reared its ugly head, he was just smart enough to understand that this would torpedo the economy and sink Wall Street. So, as a result, Trump chose to ignore the pandemic, killing 100,000 people more than a country like America should have lost, leaving himself with plenty of blood splattered over his hands. 

Then, there’s been the systematic lying, a Trump trademark, that no one found objectionable, and now there is his denial of the election results that sometime makes me think that the man might truly believe in his own B.S. if he isn’t totally demented. 

So back to the original question: “What inside Trump’s head?” the answer might be “Unadulterated crap.”

New-Zealand, Trump, Bannon and supporters...

During his presidency, Donald Trump has done the very best he could to legitimize white supremacy, and along with Steve Bannon and Roger Stone, gave more visibility and validity than ever to this ugly world view.

Even though, Trump supporters don't seem to mind them, hate-filled words or innuendos have some devastating impact on society by numbing people to their corrosive effects.

Bottom line, Trump, the great divider of America, his minders and all of his supporters have some New-Zealander' victims blood splashed onto them.

Trump vs. Xi

Last night we watched Frontline, the news show on PBS, about Trump's trade war and its relationship with Xi Jinping.

The excellent piece included comments from Steve Bannon, who, aside from wearing too many shirts at the same time, was pushing the idea of “regime change” in China, which says a lot about the mental sanity of that clown!

The thing that wasn't articulated however, was a key difference between Trump and Xi. That difference is simply that Trump needs to work within the limitations imposed on him by democratic rules and that are tying his hands, compared to Xi, a leader for life, that now has total and unlimited control and can do what he wants when he has to.

So, no matter what happens, the Chinese dictator will prevail or will do everything to crush our “deal maker” from New York. This stupid challenge so poorly planned and executed bode very badly for American like us and will cost us a bundle.

Am I convinced that nationalism as preached by Trump will work in the end?
Not one bit. I remain a staunch globalist!

The American view of Europe

For years, American pundits have looked at the European Union with skepticism and have never ceased to speculate about its future and coming demise.

Call it a contrarian view if you want, but I see this mindset more as petty envy coming from a country utterly convinced it's the world's best. You might call this an expected outcome of “American Exceptionalism”, I guess.

The same holds true of course for the fate of the Euro that never could have survived as a prime currency, and yet it still stands strong on the eve of its twentieth birthday!

More dramatic yet is Brexit and its unintended consequences that are demonstrating that “breaking up is hard to do” and indirectly, that the value of a Union that's much more resilient and essential to the entire Continent than Steve Bannon's would like us to believe.

I'm not even mentioning the recurrent Airbus - Boeing feud and all the ugly disagreements that were generated by the ill-conceived Iraq war. Perhaps it's time for America to grow up a bit and reassess it's new, real place in today's world!

What makes people sticking to Trump?

My wife often wonder why Trump voter don’t see that the former president has done nothing for them, and I respond, “That’s doesn’t matter, they still love him!” My reason for saying this, is that Trump (or more appropriately, Steve Bannon and company) understood one essential element: Scapegoating.

He and his team identified two areas that could be built relentlessly into society’s scapegoats: The Democratic (aka socio-communist) party and the Media (Fox New and a few select “others” excepted) and it worked beautifully. 

People were miserable and not successful because of bad luck or because they were simply stupid or lazy, it was now because of these two evil forces, removing the proverbial monkey off their back. In fact, it’s a lot easier to convince folks to be against something than in favor of anything. 

I sure did work, and why wouldn’t it because it’s so much easier to blame a third party for one’s unhappiness than one’s own fault!

A short conversation with Trump

We don't typically frequent fancy restaurants in town, but on this occasion, we had a $50 coupon to use at the Glitretind restaurant in Deer Valley Resort. While we were still enjoying our meal, I had to briefly step out to grab something from the car. 

As I headed outside, I noticed a big guy, clad in a long, thick wool coat, sitting on the deck, deep in thought. I asked if he was alright, and he launched into a lengthy rant about some event he had attended earlier, exclaiming, "These darn Mormons don't know what they want, and they can't seem to support me!" 

Upon closer inspection, I couldn't help but notice his familiar appearance. I inquired, "Excuse me, sir, by any chance are you a Donald Trump impersonator?" He interrupted, "No, I'm the real Donald J. Trump!" I chuckled and replied, "Come on, you've got to be kidding me." "No, I'm dead serious. I'm currently campaigning for a third term to kick Biden out of the office he stole from me," he confidently declared. 

I shook my head and said, "Well, good luck with that. But just so you know, you might find yourself behind bars before you step foot in the Oval Office again." He scoffed, "Ah, another pathetic, woke, liberal, communist brainwashed by the leftist media!" 

I retorted, "Not at all, Donny. I gather my news from reputable, non-partisan sources. And don't think you can insult me like you do with those who fear your wrath. Watch your language, or I might give you a swift kick in the rear, straight down to the valley!" Detecting a hint of a French accent, he questioned, "I sense a French accent in you. Why don't you go back to your sorry country and be one less frog for me to stomp on?" 

I rolled my eyes and shot back, "Dude, if you had even an ounce of education, you'd remember Lafayette. But your arrogant and bellicose attitude reminds me of Adolf Hitler. He must be your hero, right? Although, I must say, the Führer was a tad more cunning than you and actually put in some hard work!" He dismissively replied, "I don't understand a word of the nonsense spewing from your sorry face, man!" 

I smirked and said, “Well, this is precisely your biggest problem, Instead of teaching you how to lie, your father should have told you that you'd catch more flies with honey than with vinegar? If you had applied this simple rule, you would have grown your base big time, and possibly defeated Biden in 2020. Today, you might have already toppled our democracy and its institutions, but you are too stubborn to listen to smart people, you prefer to hear what Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani keep telling you! 

Waving me off his sight, he grumbled, “You’re a total disgrace, get out of here!” As I walked to my car, I put and end to the conversation by saying, “No worries, Dude, just enjoy the witch hunt on your way to jail!”