This scooplet from the Bannon voter fraud story is, IMO, much more troubling. pic.twitter.com/VReF1YsJ0d
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 26, 2016
As far as Bannon’s sketchy Florida property ownership goes, some people say it is not coincidental that Florida has possibly the most generous “homestead tax exemption” in the country — it’s a good place to legally “reside” if one wants to maximize one’s tax deductions, and it’s not as though the state requires one to actually live there to reap the benefits. The only “principle” involved in Bannon’s residential choices seems to be not paying his share… much the same as his new boss.
Last October, Bloomberg called Bannon “The Most Dangerous Political Operative in America”:
… Bannon, an ex-Goldman Sachs banker, is the sort of character who would stand out anywhere, but especially in the drab environs of Washington…
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… 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…
Bannon likes money, and he’s been smart or lucky enough to amass a lot of it. He likes attention, and in recent years has put as much effort into raising his profile as he did towards making money. And he’s got the same self-centered, gleefully nihilistic public persona as the current Republican presidential candidate. John Cassidy, in the New Yorker:
… The theory making the rounds is that Trump’s latest campaign reshuffle isn’t really about trying to win the election. In bringing in Steve Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, and recruiting Roger Ailes, the disgraced former head of Fox News, as an adviser, Trump is making a business play: he’s laying the groundwork for a new conservative media empire to challenge Fox…
The appointment of Bannon isn’t merely another affront to establishment Republicans, such as Paul Ryan, whom Breitbart News has lately been targeting. It is an acknowledgment by Trump that he no longer has any interest in modifying his strategy to appeal to college-educated voters in places like the suburbs of Philadelphia and Milwaukee, where he is running miles behind where Mitt Romney was in 2012. Instead, he has decided to retreat to his base, which is a surefire recipe for political failure. But not necessarily business failure.
Back in June, Vanity Fair’s Sarah Ellison reported that Trump was “considering creating his own media business, built on the audience that has supported him thus far in his bid to become the next president of the United States.” A person briefed on Trump’s thinking told Ellison that it went like this: “Win or lose, we are onto something here. We’ve triggered a base of the population that hasn’t had a voice in a long time.” One of Ellison’s sources also reported that Trump resents the fact that he has helped raise the ratings of certain news organizations, such as CNN, without getting a cut of the additional revenues. Trump has “gotten the bug,” the source said, “so now he wants to figure out if he can monetize it.”
Right now, the idea of Breitbart going head to head against Fox seems fanciful. Fox News isn’t merely the most popular cable news network; in prime time, it’s the most popular cable channel of all, beating out entertainment networks like Disney and USA…
But what if Trump and Breitbart could team up, raise some money from outside investors, and bring aboard some of the television executives who built Fox News? As part of his lucrative severance package from Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, Ailes almost certainly signed a noncompete agreement. But how long does it last? And does it preclude him from providing some informal advice to an old friend?…
And if it breaks one of the only two governing parties in the country, or worse… Well, Bannon/Trump/Ailes didn’t mean any of it; they were just working their grift, as grifters must.
Carolina Dave
To what end? Ryan and the rest of the existing Republican party that is actually employed will still use Fox as their go ton outlet for messaging. Like the article says, Fox News is the biggest cable channel. Trump TV pulls 10%, 20% tops from Fox. And for how long? A week, a month? The record of Trump attracting tip TV talent after the election beat down is questionable.
chromeagnomen
if they’re going to break one, let it be the right.
Keith P.
How long before Trump hires someone else with a title more senior than “CEO”, and Bannon leaves a couple weeks after that?
Emma
@Carolina Dave: You’re assuming he’s thinking logically. Trump is all about ego and impulse.
Hal
Huh? What?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Bannon
Major Major Major Major
Vice has a bunch of NSFW photos of people dressed like Ronald McDonald, you’re welcome.
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
I am disturbed.
Mike in NC
Seen photos of Bannon that make him look like a guy who bathes once a week whether he needs to or not. Sad!
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft: that’s the idea, yes.
Jeffro
OT but Norm Ornstein (author of “It’s Even Worse Than You Think”) is royally incensed on Twitter at Tom Korologos’ and Richard Allen’s “Memo to GOP: Forget 2016. Start Thinking About 2018 and 2020” op-ed in the WaPo.
The “Memo”s four points are:
1) A landslide isn’t all bad, as it will increase the chances that an HRC administration will overplay its hand.
2) The GOP needs a massive “how to split your ticket” info campaign from now through Election Day, to save the down-ballot GOP candidates.
3) “There will be more than 2,000 presidential appointees, many requiring Senate confirmation — the entire Cabinet and sub-Cabinet, agency heads and commissions. Republicans should pick and choose carefully the most egregious liberals and expose their views.” They go on to point out SCOTUS nominations specifically should receive this treatment.
4) Last, change the primary rules that ‘allowed’ (LOL) Trump to win the nomination.
#1 is laughable, #2 isn’t up to them/won’t work, #3 is disgusting, and #4 reassures me that should there be another RNC “autopsy”, they will learn nothing from this cycle and continue to light their own funeral pyre. But as part of #2, the authors note:
Hearings every week on ‘inevitable missteps’. Issa and Chaffetz and Gowdy, times eleventy.
This is why we have to keep going after November – overturning CU, working on midterm GOTV, ending all the ridiculous gerrymandering and packing that’s keeping the GOP in control of the House.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Where do these lowlives find each other? It’s like there must be some kind of sleazy Craigslist site for shitbag conservatives looking to get together to fuck society over and make some money doing it.
Bobby D
I called this one WAY early. Trump was always about milking the rubes and monetizing it ala Glenn Beck, because his real estate and casino ventures are over due to lack of financing and repeated failures, the TV run is over, and branding penny ante crap like water and rubbery steaks is low stakes fare at best. His spawn are clearly no smarter than him, and will ensure the family name and fortune is pissed away within their lifetime.
Schlemazel
I am reading “The Fiery Trial” WHich is a sort-of biography of President Lincoln. “Sort-of” because it really is only looking at his growth on the issue of slavery and equality. But there is a very interesting piece in the preface. I think it bears repeating:
I think none of those apply to the tangerine turd but Hillary can claim them all.
Jeffro
POLITICO has up a similar article entitled “GOP plots early wake-up call for Clinton”, btw. Hopefully she and her team are already planning how to go at this very quickly, very forcefully. Something along the lines of, “Your only philosophy was opposing President Obama – not governing – and you ended up with Trump” would be a nice opening line…
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@efgoldman:
Given how fast Trump dumped his exes, especially not if he put them up as collateral.
ThresherK
@efgoldman: I smell a Max Bialystock bit, except with two Bialystocks and no Bloom.
Schlemazel
@Schlemazel:
The other quote from Weber I thought worth sharing:
Schlemazel
@efgoldman:
Wife & kids? I would expect a lender would want something the borrower valued as collateral.
hovercraft
@Carolina Dave:
It started with FOX and Rush, as the homes of the far right, and there has been a steady movement further and further right, the talkers have been becoming more and more extreme, people like Mark Levin. Over the last few years as the base has become more extreme they’ve been turning to Infowars, Alex Jones, Glen Beck, this is the sliver that a Trump Breithbart network would go after. Trump got 13+ million votes in the primary and will probably get a minimum of what 50 million in the general, if he only has 5 million of those follow him to a new network, that would still almost double the Fox audience which is about 3m in prime time. Fox is making a ton of money with that 3m. As for the establishment, they would have a choice to make, split the party or follow their base. So far they’ve been following their base, what they would do after Trump loses will be interesting to see, they co-opted the Tea Party, and it’s eating them alive. Will they choose to amputate, or will they go the final step and let the virus complete the takeover?
Jeffro
@efgoldman:
UPPERDOWNVOTE! lol Yes, I think you’re right. If Senate decorum’s going to go out the window (like not confirming SCOTUS appointments, or even allowing a vote, in a timely manner) then it should all go out the window.
The Clinton team – and Hillary herself of course – have impressed me thus far, to where I’m hoping/praying/almost visualizing them strategizing and noting that of almost equal importance to getting HRC elected is making sure there are at least 50 Dems in the Senate next term. The House is still going to be the House for a while, but at least with folks like Gohmert and Brat, there’s plenty to mock until 2020 rolls around. The Senate is a MUST.
Doug R
@efgoldman: Maybe a joint venture with RT?
Major Major Major Major
My friend brought some whale sausage back from Norway. It was a little oily I guess.
M. Bouffant
Say, you don’t suppose taking whatever from an Egyptian politician has anything to do w/ his ex-wife claimng
Can’t wait until the alt-right goes full pro-ISIS. The enemy of my enemy & all.
Keith P.
@Jeffro: They’re high if they think the filibuster is going to stop whatever judge President Clinton wants to nominate. They have completely removed any good faith, particularly with Judge Garland, so they’re going to pay a steep price.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Carolina Dave:
You’re thinking in conventional business terms that a business has to be viable to be valuable. In Trump’s world it’s valuable if he gets paid. Doesn’t matter if it flames out and takes hundreds of jobs with it as long as he choppers away with his check in his pocket. Another grift, this one in media instead of real estate.
Cacti
Will Bannon follow Manafort in leaving the campaign to spend more time with his lawyers? :-)
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Will raise you a woman who married the Eiffel Tower.
OzarkHillbilly
@efgoldman: Adduces WARRANTS not in evidence.
FTFY. You’ll get my bill in the mail.
Anoniminous
“Fox News” = Rupert Murdoch
Interesting, interesting, interesting.
Jeffro
@Keith P.:
Yeah, I hope so…but then again I thought they might actually change, learn, and/or grow up a bit after 2012. (Perhaps I was high?)
I guess one nice, clarifying thing about having HRC as president (knock on wood): from Day 1, both sides will know exactly where she stands and that she definitely is willing to go full-on against the GOP deadenders.
Achrachno
Haven’t we all thought “Bannon Is Just Another Grifter ” for quite a while now, or did I just dream that I had many allies?
Anoniminous
@Carolina Dave:
Fox News only draws 2.37 million people. It’s actually a minor player compared to the lowest rank network news at 10 million.
Anoniminous
@hovercraft:
We know that.
What did you think about the pictures?
Keith P.
@efgoldman: And she’s been racking up enough GOP support thanks to Trump being a trainwreck that she could tighten the screws to the dead-enders any number of ways.
OzarkHillbilly
@efgoldman: Awwww c’mon, I’m cheap. Just ask my wife.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@efgoldman:
Definitely not going to make Obama’s most crippling mistake of assuming that his colleagues across the aisle would work with him in bipartisan fashion because we elected him President. That wasted so much time and effort before it became obvious that their heels were permanently dug in on absolutely everything. HRC knows that in most cases the GOP will act as her enemies and she’ll have no problem dealing on those terms.
debbie
@Keith P.:
They’re even higher if they think this is the way to go. If the GOP hasn’t realized that their actions over the past eight years are what got them to where they are today, then they will never learn and they are doomed.
Achrachno
@efgoldman: An obscure grifter then, who only some of us think about.
hovercraft
@Anoniminous:
Clap, clap, clap.
Doug R
@Ultraviolet Thunder: President Obama’s reaching across the aisle was actually RUTHLESS strategy. By appearing reasonable he forced his opponents to paint themselves into tighter and tighter crazier corners-the result-the present day GOP implosion.
Steeplejack
@Major Major Major Major:
Trigger warning for Omnes!
Nora
The reason I supported Hillary from the beginning of the primary season was because I thought she was so much tougher than Bernie. She’d been to this rodeo before, she knew what the players were like, she knew their games and she wasn’t going to take any shit from anyone. I like that in a candidate; I like that even more in a President.
Feebog
The question is whether there really is an audience for a far right news network. Fox is almost loony tunes right now. This would have to be supermarket tabloid right. Frankly, I don’t think the numbers are out there.
Anoniminous
@efgoldman:
Filing his briefs. That’s what lawyers do. Most of us chuck ’em in a drawer but they file them.
Lawyers are weird.
Schlemazel
@Feebog:
As if that would stop Trump.
I would expect Fox to moderate & end up more CNN-like while Trump TV adds Alex Jones & maybe a couple like minded loons
Schlemazel
@efgoldman:
Well, if rumors are to be believed BillOMG is going to have to be let go so they can keep Kelly.. He can be their ‘mainstream’ guy. We’ll see what they can do with Inanity.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@Schlemazel:
Thank God I cut the cable cord several months ago and won’t be indirectly subsidizing Chump TV and Fox.
I get my Maddow fix from teh Intertubes these days.
Achrachno
@Doug R: I’m not sure they’re imploding sufficiently — needs to be complete. We may require a change of strategy at this point. What would happen if the DOJ got after “just” the crooked ones? Would simple enforcement of the law thin the herd enough to do any good? I have a feeling that many of them are dirty, hence vulnerable. Roberts hasn’t completely legalized bribery yet has he?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Doug R:
It was partly that, but it was also a faithful representation of the people who elected him. What people at a place like Balloon Juice constantly fail to recognize is that a large majority of Democratic voters want someone who will engage in reasonable compromise. If you don’t, you’re the one who is out of step. You may be right (though I’m mildly skeptical), but until a majority of Democrats agree with you, you’re always going to be disappointed.
Adam L Silverman
@Carolina Dave: O’Reilly and Hannitty have escape clauses that release them with no penalty if Ailes leaves the network. Ailes has left the network. O’Reilly’s contract will be in competition with Kelly’s next Summer and neither James nor Lachlan Murdoch like him. Limbaugh’s contract is just about up as well and he’s been a money sink in his current one because of the boycott. All of them will want and/or need new homes. Bannon’s largest financial backer is Mercer. He is now also the largest single contributor to the effort – both campaign and SuperPACs – to elect Trump. The money man -Mercer – is in place. The biggest names – Hannitty, O’Reilly, Limbaugh – from TV and radio are in place. The print platform – Jared Kushner’s Observer – is in place. The Internet platform – Breitbart – is in place. And a whole group of commentators – Coulter, Lewandowski, Pierce, Omorossa, Epshteyn, Kingston, etc, etc – are in place on the other networks now, but can be brought into the fold as necessary. The audience has been primed.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: The money man, Robert Mercer, is already in place. He owns both Bannon and Conway and he’s the single largest shareholder in Trump for President. Video at the link:
http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/25/rachel-maddow-explains-money-man-behind-both-breitbart-news-and-trump-campaign/212685
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: I know Norm. Smart and good guy. Every speech starts with 15 minutes of Borscht Belt meets current events in DC. I have no doubt he is not amused. It is important to remember that Mike Allen is a John Birch Society kid. His dad was one of the Bircher ideologues and Allen was raised in the movement. Its why he won’t answer questions about his own political views, his background, and treats everything as if its cloak and dagger, including not telling anyone who knows him where he lives. He is a very strange and creepy (and I’m using creepy in the technical sense) man. If he thinks something is a good idea, it most definitely isn’t.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: She’s gonna need a lot of lube!
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: In place. In place. In place.
Where is that effing meteor?
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: And if Mercer and Trump come along and backstop him, he’ll skip on that understanding real quick.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: No meteor for you!
Elizabelle
@Adam L Silverman: Agreed re Norm Ornstein being good.
Co-author with Korologos on WaPo item is Richard Allen, who was some national security muckity muck.
Agreed about Mike Allen (formerly of Politico) being creepy. And strange. And creepy. Nothing about him shouts”prestige”, and he was a pretty good omen of what Politico is/was capable of.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@efgoldman:
Ah, he’ll be going for the same audience that sends money to Prosperity Gospel Televangelists and takes worthless get rich quick real estate courses.
PT Barnum called them ‘suckers’.
Adam L Silverman
@Elizabelle: Sorry, didn’t mean to confuse them. Richard V was Reagan’s National Security Advisor. So now I’m tracking on who wrote it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I thought Allies basically was one the way out of Fox since he old and ill now.
JR in WV
The alt-right and John Birchers are very strange, like the Sov-Cit folks. We share space with them, but they live in a very different world from ours.
Lots more hate for one thing.
Rikyrah, you’re so right about the Republican Congress committing treason, except that the Constitutional definition is pretty narrow. This is on account of accusations of treason being used against people not bending their knee to the Kings of Europe, and all of their families, too.
So they could confiscate all your property, and punish your children for your accused actions, using the old penalties of draw and quartered, etc. The founders didn’t want that BS being used in their new democracy.
But I’m with you, they caused untold pain and suffering for their constituents. To attempt to punish President Obama for “Presidenting while black”!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@efgoldman:
Yes! I mean how are they even going to keep their own base motived with the battle cry of “eight more years of us doing NOTHING!”? Being a negative isn’t going to fly out of the perpetually terrified 27%
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@efgoldman:
They said back in 2008 that ’08 would be Allies last election and there have been a series of articles on how Allies just stays in his office all the time and sleeps now do it his bad health. I mean the guy was born in 1940.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: So…TrumpMedia is essentially going to be NewFox + New Breitbart?
You can almost feel…(smell?)…the synergy…
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
The strange thing is, other than their encouraging more dead-ending (now on a weekly basis!) by the House, they’re kinda off in la-la land with their article…”a landslide is good!’…”the GOP is going to (somehow) re-write its primary rules so there will be no more Trumps!”…and so on.
redshirt
It’s grifters all the way down now.
MobiusKlein
@Doug R: Obama’s strategy was a bit of a fork.
If the R’s went reasonable, Obama could get something done and benefit the country. Perhaps get some sanity back into the R party.
If they go ApeShit, he and the D’s get to play the reasonable, sensible party.
Not bad strategy, given the environment.
M. Bouffant
@efgoldman: Very hard to get cable carriage these days. They’d probably have to buy an already-existing cable network to get on many systems.
artem1s
We’ve triggered a base of the population that hasn’t had a voice in a long time.”
have these assholes spent any time listening to talk radio in the last 30 years? Faux news? they have been the only voice. they are only now starting to lose absolute control of the mic so they are having a YOOOOOGE temper tantrum.