Steve Bannon, Former Senior Trump Advisor, Arrested For Defrauding Trump Voters
It is likely that U.S. President Donald Trump will soon say that he hardly knew his former campaign manager and senior advisor Steve Bannon and that he had always suspected that Bannon was a crook.
Starting in approximately December 2018, BRIAN KOLFAGE, STEPHEN BANNON, ANDREW BADOLATO, and TIMOTHY SHEA, and others, orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors, including donors in the Southern District of New York, in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign ultimately known as “We Build The Wall” that raised more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. In particular, to induce donors to donate to the campaign, KOLFAGE repeatedly and falsely assured the public that he would “not take a penny in salary or compensation” and that “100% of the funds raised ... will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose” because, as BANNON publicly stated, “we’re a volunteer organization.”Those representations were false.
The four indicted persons who ran the "We Build The Wall" campaign funneled donations into their own pockets:
[STEVE] BANNON, through a non-profit organization under his control (“Non-Profit-1”), received over $1 million from We Build the Wall, at least some of which BANNON used to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in BANNON’s personal expenses.
Bannon and the other three accused persons are now under arrest.
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Interestingly the indictments come from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York which in June was involved in a spat with Trump:
Geoffrey Berman, the powerful U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said late Friday that he had not resigned after Attorney General William Barr said he would be stepping down. Barr sent a letter to Berman on Saturday saying he had asked President Trump to fire Berman, and the president had done so."I was surprised and quite disappointed by the press statement you released last night," Barr said in a statement. "Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so."
Berman's office had investigated some of President Trump's associates, including the president's former personal attorney Michael Cohen.
There were at that time several known cases in the Southern District that involved people somewhat associated with Trump. But it still is not known why exactly Trump intervened in that office.
Could it have been because of the case against Bannon which was not publicly known at that time?
Probably not. Bannon and the others defrauded people who want to build the wall and are thereby on Trump's side. Trump is not probably not stupid enough to intervene in such a case.
Then again ...
The advisory board of We Build The Wall includes several other pro-Trump figures including mercenary salesman Erik Prince.
CBS reports that Bannon was taken into custody by US Postal Inspection Service agents. In the announcement of the indictment Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, explicitly praises the USPIS for its support. In light of the recent dust up over alleged Trump moves against the Postal Service that deserves a chuckle.
Bannon had recently worked with the Chinese crook Guo Wengui to build up a media company. As we noted a year ago:
Miles Kwok aka Guo Wengui is a disgruntled Chinese oligarch. He is one of the men who finances the Hong Kong protests. Here he appears with Steve Bannon Miles Kwok & Mr Bannon: The 5 principles on Hong Kong’s matter (vid).
The Bennon-Guo media venture is also in trouble:
A media company linked to former Trump political adviser Steve Bannon and exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui raised more than $300 million in a private offering this spring that is now being investigated by federal and state authorities, say people familiar with the matter.JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. have frozen accounts tied to fundraising for the company, GTV Media Group, some of these people said. Bank of America Corp. also closed an account for GTV Media's parent company shortly after it was opened in recent months, another person with knowledge of the situation said.
...
Soon after the fundraising, some investors began pushing for refunds after they said they never received official documentation verifying their investments in GTV Media, among other issues that led them to distrust Mr. Guo.Mr. Guo, a former property tycoon who is now one of China's most-wanted fugitives, and Mr. Bannon were two of the key people behind GTV Media's launch this spring, according to a company fundraising document and interviews. The document identifies Mr. Bannon as a company director, while Mr. Guo served as the public face for its fundraising. Associates of Mr. Guo are listed as GTV Media executives, while Mr. Guo is described as a company adviser.
The FBI is on the case:
The FBI had been examining Mr. Guo's work with Mr. Bannon even before the private placement this spring. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported last month that FBI agents had been investigating Mr. Guo and the money he used to fund his media efforts in the U.S. for more than six months and that prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn had been involved in the probe.
...
Earlier this month, Mr. Guo said in an online video that he had been subpoenaed and that he welcomed authorities' probes. A lawyer for Mr. Guo didn't provide comment on what information the subpoenas were seeking and whether Mr. Guo had complied with them.
A 2017 Vice News clip has some background about Guo, his lies and his luxurious lifestyle in New York.
Together with Bannon Guo ran a strong anti-China campaign. How that was or is related to Trump's anti-China campaign is not yet known.
Posted by b on August 20, 2020 at 15:55 UTC | Permalink
Interestingly the indictments come from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York
The same office involved with Anthony Weiner.
And Epstein.
Go figure.
Bannon is an odious prick and I hope he gets some sort of punishment.
Posted by: Skeletor | Aug 20 2020 16:30 utc | 2
Maybe I am overly jaded but doesn't this way allow Trump to pardon Bannon whereas if this occurred after Trump left office then who would pardon Bannon?
Thanks for the posting about more of the cesspool b that is outside of the so-called Deep State. I don't think one can draw a line between any of the putrid faces of global private finance.....doing God's work, of course.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 20 2020 16:35 utc | 3
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. Crooks helping crooks against crooks.
Posted by: bjd | Aug 20 2020 16:38 utc | 4
Ford pardoned Nixon before Nixon had been indicted for anything. Pardons can be issued before any indictment.
Posted by: lysias | Aug 20 2020 16:42 utc | 5
Are we to understand that democrats wouldn't dream of doing something like that?
Posted by: padre | Aug 20 2020 16:53 utc | 6
I posted this about one of Guo's anti-CCP campaigns, on July 1. In the video I link to at the end there, you can see Steve Bannon.
Posted by: Helena Cobban | Aug 20 2020 16:55 utc | 7
"Together with Bannon Guo ran a strong anti-China campaign. How that was or is related to Trump's anti-China campaign is not yet known." -b
LOl! Come on B, Guo is a member of Mar-a-Lago.
Posted by: O | Aug 20 2020 16:55 utc | 8
It is likely that U.S. President Donald Trump will soon says that he hardly knew his former campaign manager and senior advisor Steve Bannon and that he had always suspected that Bannon was a crook.
FYI, Trump just had a presser in the Oval where he's meeting with Iraqi PM and full on threw Bannon under the bus saying he hasn't had anything to do with him for years and stopped short of calling Bannon's project shady and third rate.
🤣🤣🤣 No honor among thieves!
Posted by: Circe | Aug 20 2020 16:57 utc | 9
In the meantime happening live in the USA but hardly on this blog...
https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/why-us-lose-power-storms/
US has more power outages than any other !!! developed country. Our grid is outdated and rundown, but utilities aren't willing to do much about it... oops (Generator-Indusries bribes, lol ??!!)
AP-NORC poll: Nearly half say job lost to virus won’t return
https://apnews.com/ba6ea32e7a5ee4b79c7aed945e4d25b7
Millions(not exaggerated) will fear eviction !!!!!
Mortgage Delinquencies Spike in the Second Quarter of 2020
https://www.mba.org/2020-press-releases/august/mortgage-delinquencies-spike-in-the-second-quarter-of-2020
Evidence of the on-going "Dining-Disaster"
300 Pizza Huts are closing after a giant franchisee goes bankrupt
https://www.marketplace.org/2020/08/18/pizza-hut-close-300-locations-bankruptcy/
Big City Blues -- For Example: New York
New York Times had reported that 420,000 New Yorkers had moved out of the city between March 1st and May 1st.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/15/upshot/who-left-new-york-coronavirus.html
According to Schmierblatt(German) aka tabloid DailyMail
>>Our community is terrified, angry and frightened': Upper West Side residents fury as homeless junkies and sex offenders are moved into three luxury hotels and turn the area into a spectacle of public urination, cat-calling and brazen drug use.
>>The sanitation budget was cut by more than 100 !!!!!! million dollars, and at this point giant mountains of trash are starting to pile up around the city.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8603433/Upper-West-residents-fury-homeless-junkies-sex-offenders-moved-luxury-hotels.html
NYC crime spree knocks on the doorsteps of America's ultra-rich
https://www.foxnews.com/us/nyc-crime-spree-americas-ultra-rich-robbery
New York City’s Upper East Side is seeing a 'significant uptick' in robberies, police say
>>Homelessness and poverty are both exploding, and crime rates are shooting into the stratosphere.
>>The number of shootings in July was 177 percent higher than for the same month last year.
>>Governor Andrew Cuomo lamented that this mass exodus is hitting tax revenues really hard.
“Look at everything. Everything’s boarded up. Even the hotel. Boarded up,” the video’s narrator, who is obviously fed up with how the city looks, says."Post-Apocalyptic Manhattan" Video Drive Tour
https://twitter.com/tadgermania/status/1291717913980747776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%
7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1291717913980747776%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%
3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fghost-town-shocking-dystopian-video-nyc-shows-abandoned-and-boarded-5th-avenue
And... at last...
Nearly half of the U.S.’s homeless people live in one state: California
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-state-is-home-to-nearly-half-of-all-people-living-on-the-streets-in-the-us-2019-09-18
Posted by: Ashino | Aug 20 2020 17:00 utc | 10
Together with Bannon Guo ran a strong anti-China campaign. How that was or is related to Trump's anti-China campaign is not yet known...
That is the question.
Another relates to Bannon's international connections, for example to the UK Tories and the right wing in Europe.
If this indictment just takes the steam out of Bannon's campaigns it will have a significant impact.
And not because Bannon's allies are particularly effective or clever but because they are operating in a vacuum where there used to be a functioning left, socialist and communist.
Bannon's power can be judged by the proliferation, on this site, of weird claims that the pandemic is a fraud and other paranoid effusions.
Bannon is a genuinely American phenomenon- huckster, imperialist, anti communist conspiracy theorist and political illiterate in the way that right wing catholics are.
Posted by: bevin | Aug 20 2020 17:03 utc | 11
Badolato has been running shell companies for this palm beach mafia centered around mar-a-lago for years.
This is just kayfabe nonsense to get these clowns all pardoned before Trump loses the ability to do so like how he commuted Roger Stone's sentence.
Posted by: O | Aug 20 2020 17:04 utc | 12
A high-profile Chinese fugitive — who belongs to President Donald Trump’s exclusive South Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, and has railed against China’s communist government — is accused of being a spy for that very regime, according to new documents filed in a federal court case in New York.
Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who also goes by Miles Kwok, fled to the United States four years ago after learning an associate had been arrested on corruption charges. He is now one of China’s most-wanted, accused of myriad crimes by the Chinese government, including paying bribes and sexual assault. He maintains his innocence, saying the charges are politically motivated.
Guo, who made his money in real estate, has long promoted himself as a dissident being hunted by the Chinese government for his opposition to the ruling Chinese Communist Party. He is currently seeking political asylum in the United States, where he reportedly avoided deportation by the Trump administration after the president learned Guo was a member of Mar-a-Lago.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article232973237.html
Posted by: O | Aug 20 2020 17:13 utc | 13
That's the far-right in a nutshell: a bunch of bandits.
That's also the logical end of liberalism: individual gains above everything else is incompatible with any kind of self-sacrifice, thus with any revolutionary conception.
Ah yes, Ashino @12. Let's do talk about California and New York.
So you say they have high homeless populations and that people are leaving.
Yet your links and claims don't seem to mention a few other important details.
For example, what state do you think has the most billionaires? How about millionaires under the age of 35? That's right - California.
Washington D.C. also has a big homeless problem. And that area of VA, MD is second on the list for millionaires under 35.
Meanwhile, in second place for billionaires and high up on the list for younger multimillionaires is New York, specifically New York City.
The state of Florida also has a high homeless percapita percentage, and guess what - also a high ranking for billionaires and young multimillionaires.
So what picture begins to emerge other than the tired, red vs. blue political one you want to paint? Could it be that extreme wealth inequality and a large number of multimillionaires and billionaires are correlative if not in fact possibly causative of things like low paying jobs, high costs of living, disappearance of manufacturing, lack of mental health and substance abuse care facilities in general and homelessness.
Thanks for that.
Posted by: _K_C_ | Aug 20 2020 17:24 utc | 15
I will be shocked if Trump pardons Bannon over this offense. After all, Bannon was scamming Trump's most ardent supporters. Even those folks, who eagerly leap into bizarre beliefs and conspiracy theories, don't like being cheated.
Posted by: Rob | Aug 20 2020 18:39 utc | 17
Question integrity of non-profits.
Setup non-profit for supposed good cause and then set a nice salary for yourself and your friends.
See commercials for non-profits everywhere asking for donations.
Seems like just another way to scam others.
In a properly functioning society where basic rights were addressed would be no need for charity or philanthropy.
Just signs of a poorly functioning society.
Posted by: Joe | Aug 20 2020 18:55 utc | 18
Nothing to be surprised about in the country of capitalism par excellence ... only the moment in which this happens is suspect ... however do not worry ... that the winner is blue or red the future will be black.
Posted by: LuBa | Aug 20 2020 19:05 utc | 19
Joe,
I agree with your comments about the need for charities. There is another function not for profits service. They are nonunionized entities that are used by states to perform functions that unionized state workers previously performed. I work for a not for profit whose purported purpose is to assist the mentally ill in transitioning to community life. The state has subcontracted a function that had previously been done by unionized workers to lower costs. The people who do the work aren't paid a living wage. The agency's director makes $460,000 a year, twice what the governor makes and three times what the Commissioner of MentaL Health, to whom he is accountable, makes. Being the director of a not for profit can be very rewarding.
Posted by: David J Valachovic | Aug 20 2020 19:26 utc | 20
Ha ha ha! Sleazy wife-abusing, pseudo intellectual opportunistic parasite. Just like his host. No bail out for this bozo!
Posted by: jadan | Aug 20 2020 19:44 utc | 21
David,
Would guess majority of those working for non-profits are mostly volunteers who want to do something positive in their spare time. Just more free labor enriching those running the non-profit. Realize there are some positive non-profits but need to be highly regulated and do not believe that is the case today.
Posted by: Joe | Aug 20 2020 19:49 utc | 22
@11 bevin
"Right-wing Catholics?" What? Why throw that in at the end without qualifying it?
What do you know of the ongoing political struggles within the Catholic Church? And how are you so sure that those Conservative Catholics are the ones playing politics? What about left-wing Catholics? Are you just throwing shade at Catholics as a group?
Lame comment.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 20 2020 20:10 utc | 23
Most people working for not for profits are paid employee. "Not for profits" are big businesses. Many of their CEO's are paid millions yearly. I wonder how it would impact giving if every solicitation for money was required by law to be accompanied by the CEO's salary.
Why should the heads of not for profits like the World Wildlife Foundation and Cyctic Fibrosis Foundation make more than five times what the president of the US makes? The money that pays the salary of the CEO of my agency is all tax payer dollars. The money comes from the Social Security payments of clients and Medicaid. It's scandalous that it is used to enrich the the CEO while workers are not being paid a living wage.
Posted by: David J Valachovic | Aug 20 2020 20:13 utc | 24
A couple years ago, Trump disassociated himself from Bannon. There was some bad blood and some choice digs at the former advisor.
Bannon peeled off and sought to keep the income coming with his media outlet and his newly adopted neoconservative viewpoint on China. Where it once was "America First" period, it became the "Chinese need to be liberated from the CCP." It was a dead giveaway that Bannon was truly unhinged from his prior messaging when he was associated with Trump.
I don't think there will be anything else to this. Book 'em, Danno.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 20 2020 20:15 utc | 25
@10 also california is facing another bad fire season, we're probably going to have monster hurricanes this year, round 3 of Covid is coming via schools, and the Trump admin will soon kick it into high gear leading up to the grand finale. (And don't expect Biden to fix whatever Trump breaks next, expect complaints that "we can't afford this" and "we can't afford that" because we spent it all on weapons and gold plated contracts to the Treasury Secretary's cronies). Drink up!
Posted by: ptb | Aug 20 2020 20:20 utc | 26
Banner associates:
Simone Gao
J. Kyle Bass Hayman Capital Management
Guo Wen Gui, Guo Haoyun, Miles Kwok,Guo Wengui
Gordon Guthrie Chang. Gatestone Institute
Chris Chappell China Uncensored
Falun Gong offshoot of qigong
The Epoch Times®
Joshua Philipp Epoch Times®
Jennifer Zeng Epoch Times®
New Tang Dynasty TelevisTimes®ion.
Not the last: AARP senior scams
Posted by: JC | Aug 20 2020 20:34 utc | 27
oh yeah bannon. xenophobe nationalist turns out to be a fraud too. zero surprises.
Posted by: ptb | Aug 20 2020 20:43 utc | 28
What is with the money of Bill Clinton Foundation, for Haiti, Hillary Clinton Foundation and this crime family steal much more money
Posted by: W.E. | Aug 20 2020 20:56 utc | 29
thanks b... we'll see how this unfolds..
@ 19 joe and @ 22 etc - david....
25 years or more ago, i first found out about non-profits (so called non profit) when i found out the guy at the head of it was making close to 100,000 a year... it meant i had to look more closely at what this concept of a ''non profit'' organization was! it is indeed a nice little trick and a lot of organizations are using it... most people remain ignorant about what 'non profit' organizations are..
Posted by: james | Aug 20 2020 21:02 utc | 30
What about Yemen?
Enough of these scumbags already. The U.N. is reporting that the member states not only cut back on their aid (at war criminal Pompeo's urging), they are not even meeting their reduced promises. https://ktar.com/story/3494761/un-funding-crisis-cuts-aid-to-yemen-as-it-slides-near-famine/
Again sour mood, I had the misfortune of reading a Mintpress article where they quoted the king scumbags Mike Pompeo bragging that, 'he did everything right on Yemen ... the military aid we give the Saudis saved lives' https://www.mintpressnews.com/oxfam-saudi-arabia-attack-yemen-hospitals/270554/
WTF how does this piece of garbage walk the earth without it swallowing him up?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since Pompeo's high status is proof that there is no God, how does one give to Yemen?
I am not picky at all, I don't care if some money is wasted as long as something gets to Yemenis. Is there a way to give to the UN, are there Muslim groups, other? Thanks.
Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Aug 20 2020 21:02 utc | 31
Joe @19
We have an app for that.
He should have used GoFundMe.
No harm. No foul. /s
Posted by: Young | Aug 20 2020 21:10 utc | 32
Funny that at the end of Obama we got the Clinton Fraud that was never prosecuted thanks to Trump(!) and now at the End of Trump we get the Bannon Fraud in which arrests were actually made. Arguably, the Clinton Fraud made her stink even more alienating many voters in key states; so, what remains to be seen is if Bannon's Fraud will make Trump stink even more than he already does and causes some of his base to stay home in November.
Again, it's extremely difficult to gauge whether Trump or Biden is worse for the average Joe within the drowning Outlaw US Empire, although I'd say D-Party domestic policies are superior and thus better in that area. Internationally, the entire foreign policy establishment is totally outclassed and outgunned by those of Russia, China and Iran. The self-inflicted torpedo hit caused by Obama/Clinton/Kerry taken below the waterline of the Outlaw US Empire's ship-of-state has worsened with Trump's antics and a list is now quite visible, yet policymakers are acting as if nothing negative has occurred. As I commented earlier this week, China's economic velocity is 10X that of the Outlaw US Empire's; and despite Trump and Pompeo's childish attempts to shove a stick into the spokes of China's wheels, China is doing very well as this relinked Dilip Hiro article illustrates.
And I see more developments harmful to TrumpCo are coming out as I type.
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 20 2020 21:18 utc | 33
China acting as Sheriff tells Outlaw US Empire "it has no right to demand re-imposition of UN sanctions on Iran after Washington left nuclear deal," an order that was quickly echoed by the EU-3. It's been quite awhile since the Empire got slapped for its lawless behavior. Hard to say how much Deep State support for Trump remains, but I'd estimate it's even less now.
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 20 2020 21:38 utc | 34
and... also widely predicted, another Iran escalation
Pompeo notifies UN of "snapback" sanctions per JCPOA (despite US having unilaterally abrogated the treaty), and Iran announces some missiles.
Posted by: ptb | Aug 20 2020 21:39 utc | 35
karlofi @ 36
Again, it's extremely difficult to gauge whether Trump or Biden is worse for the average Joe within the drowning Outlaw US Empire...
It's a choice between arsenic and cyanide.
Posted by: Lawrence Miller | Aug 20 2020 22:28 utc | 36
Christian J. Chuba | Aug 20 2020 21:02 utc | 33:
At this point, it's probably best if you create your own organization to provide aid directly to Yemen. The problem is getting past the naval blockade and any financial barriers to moving money for purchases of necessary aid and services. Another way is to contact trusted organizations like UNICEF for advice.
Posted by: Ian2 | Aug 20 2020 22:33 utc | 37
No, it's simple:
"D" victory will make every political creep in the US and EU pretend everything is back in order and on the right track. The US will be lauded for rejoining JCPOA, then the US will have the "legality" in place in order to call for and get snapbacks and then it's war. Hell maybe they'll give Biden a Nobel Peace Prize too just before he attacks Iran.
"R" victory will ensure there's still a hell of a lot of complaining, ridicule, and derision while the US keeps tripping over itself and continues to alienate even the most obtuse inhabitants of the planet who can't say or think much beyond "Orange Man Bad!".
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 20 2020 22:56 utc | 38
It's a choice between arsenic and cyanide.
Posted by: Lawrence Miller | Aug 20 2020 22:28 utc | 39
that is so 2016
please get something fresher....like that is so Covid 19 with no healthcare and no job and no home and no postal office.
Posted by: Sabine | Aug 20 2020 22:57 utc | 39
jr. too, and his 180.000 dollar squeeze lol
please quickly tell me how this is less offensive then when women do it. lol please pretty pretty please i need to know. Endorsing of course standing from 'received a cut from the donations'.
Posted by: Sabine | Aug 20 2020 23:01 utc | 40
Barr wanted Berman out (appointed by Trump himself) so that he can dismiss or short-circuit all of the pending cases in Manhattan that implicate Trump or his associates.We know those are many. We know that Trump’s various organizations, including his inauguration committee, are under investigation. We know that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is under investigation. We know that Trump’s bank, Deutsche Bank, is under investigation. Berman had recused himself from the Cohen matter, which is mot closed in the SDNY for reasons that have never been explained. For Trump, its like Attorney General Sessions recusing himself from the Russia investigation — he makes himself unavailable to Trump for quashing an investigation.
And lets not forget the Epstein case and Ghislaine Maxwell, who knows what Ghislaine might be able to disclose. She has known Trump since 1987
The acting head of the SDNY is beyond Trumps/Barrs control. She actually defeated Trumps mentor Roy Cohn in a court case against the mafia and came out of retirement to work under Berman. They can live with this for a few months.
The Deutsche Bank case has been stalled after the judges family got shot by a former Kroll Associate that worked in Moscow for them in the 90’s.
Lots of interesting things happen when Billy the Kid Barr is around (his Dad hired Jeffrey Epstein to teach kids in 1974 while he was at the CIA and he buried a lot of skeletons for Poppy Bush)
The long plan is to wait until after the election. The Trump nominee to replace Berman permanently will be SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. Clayton has no prosecutorial experience at all. He has been a Wall Street lawyer who represented, among others, Deutsche Bank. Deutsche Bank’s ties to Trump are too extensive to summarize. It is the one bank that stood by him in his pre-politics days, it gave him loans which may have been forgiven, and its Russian money-laundering made it a channel to Moscow that may have been good for Trump.
He wont dare try to push for Clayton before the election. Once Clayton is in after the election all those investigations go away. The most important is Deutsche Bank. They have all of Trumps skeletons in their closet and only the SDNY can pry them open seeing as Barr has everyplace else under control
Posted by: Kay Fabe | Aug 20 2020 23:44 utc | 41
karlof1 @Aug20 21:38 #37
China acting as Sheriff ... an order that was quickly echoed by the EU-3 ... Empire got slapped for its lawless behavior.
This exaggerates China's role and the rebuke to USA. China is not "acting as Sheriff" but as a permanent member of the security council. Russia, Iran, and EU have expressed similar concerns as China. Also, "slapped" is a bit premature as USA haven't yet been formally denied. The EU poodles have previously fallen in line after complaining.
=
Hard to say how much Deep State support for Trump remains, but I'd estimate it's even less now.
Since Trump is their spokesperson, and Deep-Staters have been agitating against Iran for two decades, I'd say there's still a great deal of support for him in the Deep State.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 20 2020 23:49 utc | 42
Posted by: Patroklos | Aug 20 2020 21:03 utc | 34
b, did you write this? The style is not yours and is full of idiomatic phrases that I don't associate with your writing.
Can you give an example?
Posted by: hopehely | Aug 20 2020 23:53 utc | 43
I said on Zero Hedge:
"The true American Dream will never be fulfilled until every single human being is arrested and placed in prison."
That got 1 up-vote, and 2 down-votes. And somebody responded "Whuuhhh?".
But I wasn't actually pandering to them. What I said was true. So I just let the Hedgers to do their magic. And sure enough, they turned on Bannon. If I had put him down, they probably wouldn't have done that. It's just a strange different world. It takes years to get used to it.
Bannon is just a typical repug---
If you can't rip people off, why bother?
Noting out of the ordinary.
Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Aug 21 2020 0:16 utc | 45
"Bannon is just a typical repug". Not exactly typical. I don't play the two-party game. Is he scum? Look in any frog pond and you will instantly recognize his strange face. But let's not kick the boy when he's down, y'all, no?
Patroklos 34
Have you even thought that maybe b is using grammarly from google?
So his verb is more English than would be the case if it were of a German using a second language English.
However, where is your beef? Do you pretend b is being dictated to?
Obviously not by your side, if I am not mistaken.
Posted by: CarlD | Aug 21 2020 1:03 utc | 47
Thanks b. I'd say this is a big hit on the color revolution op., in that it puts a spotlight on the shady backing of the protest movement and gives lie to the wholesome image that the usual scumbags have been pushing. I only got a basic understanding of the extradition bill that caused the sheise to hit the fan; it sounded totally reasonable, mainly for use against triad higher ups (rather like this Guo fellow).
Thanks again, b.
Posted by: robjira | Aug 21 2020 1:12 utc | 48
"300 Pizza Huts are closing after a giant franchisee goes bankrupt"
OMG! No more pizza (except frozen store crap)!
I guess I'll have to join all the idiots begging for the economy to re-open... LOL
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 21 2020 1:30 utc | 49
Ahhh yes... Another day, another alt-right figure goes bust. But what will it change? They will scream conspiracy (as Bannon has already started doing so) and move on to supporting the next charlatan who leeches off of the despair of disgruntled white masses.
Posted by: Innocent Civilian | Aug 21 2020 1:33 utc | 50
Posted by: Ashino | Aug 20 2020 17:00 utc | 10 Nearly half of the U.S.’s homeless people live in one state: California
San Francisco has 17,000 of them. That's because San Francisco has the best welfare system - certainly as compared to the way it was run the last time I was on welfare back in the '70s. Also, aside from Southern California, of course, San Francisco has some of the best weather (although a number of homeless do die of exposure every winter when it gets done into the low 40s at night.)
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 21 2020 1:35 utc | 51
Most important aspect of today's drive by the US to elicit a snapback or reimposition of UN sanctions against Iran is that the US received zero cooperation from those they have been bullying and those they are antagonizing by their bullying ways.
Pompeo must be red in the face and DJT must be emitting smoke by the ears!
What a downfall for the US!!!
That the lapdogs would say NYET is the worst slap in the face the US bullies could get.
Never mind the expected vetoes of China and Russia.
Now, what needs to be done is to reverse North Korea UN sanctions, so these people can live a normal life.
Posted by: CarlD | Aug 21 2020 1:35 utc | 52
Just a minor point or two:
That sacred bastion of truth and enlightenment the NYT reports:
Despite the populist aura he tries to project, Mr. Bannon is known to enjoy the high life, and he was arrested at 7:15 a.m. on a $35 million, 150-foot yacht belonging to one of his business associates, the fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, law enforcement officials said.
The england equivalent protector of the sacred flame of truthiness The grauniad reports:
"When the men realized that they might be under federal investigation in October 2019, they tried hiding their scheme, using encrypted messaging apps.Last year, the campaign was seen by the Guardian building a private border wall in south Texas despite a court injunction that ordered the work to be suspended."
Trump & Barr knew about the investigation way back & it is likely that was one of the motives for attempting the Berman take down that got him Strauss, a much less controllable US attorney for the southern district of New York than Berman, a former partner of Guiliani ever was,
AS others have pointed out the behaviour of Bannon & Kolfage (project instigator) does bear a resemblance to the toxic antics of assorted dim politicians.
In fact I recently came a across a youtube presentation by Jimmy Dore , made back when Kamala Harris was being touted by dims Media as being the only viable competition for Bernie the sleazebag Sanders.
It details Harris' complicity in bank fraud and list some of her corporate donors. Just small folks like Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, AT&T, Monsanto etc are a fraction, watch it to see the rest.
It suggests to me that we could have got this scam back to front. Harris was big donors' anointed one but once she was called out for being a cop and died in the primaries, Biden was resurrected as a way to get Harris in through the back door.
Posted by: John Lee | Aug 21 2020 3:05 utc | 53
@57 John Lee - "..we could have got this scam back to front. Harris was big donors' anointed one but once she was called out for being a cop and died in the primaries, Biden was resurrected as a way to get Harris in through the back door."
That is one interesting speculation. I haven't yet finished the video you linked, but at 4:40 both Jimmy Dore and Lee Camp agree that Kamala made the pilgrimage to the donor class and became the anointed one (already back in 2018, before the Gabbard confrontation). Comedians being among the few journalists with any diligence left, I take that as pretty solid.
I look forward to the rest of the detailing in the video.
Great find, thanks.
Posted by: Grieved | Aug 21 2020 3:31 utc | 54
Ashino | Aug 20 2020 17:00 utc | 10
Yes, living in the indispensable exceptional most-normal nation in the world is all about MAGA -- Making America GRATE Again !!!
Posted by: kiwiklown | Aug 21 2020 3:49 utc | 55
Posted by: JC | Aug 20 2020 20:34 utc | 29 -- ".... Guo Wen Gui, Guo Haoyun, Miles Kwok, Guo Wengui...."
Woah.... an entire family of cockroaches !!!!
[ mansplainer 1: Hong Kong people call the few hundred US-funded democracy protestors cockroaches: they dress in black, move in swarms, easily crushed, scatter when the light shines on them, some hiding in Britain now ]
[ mansplainer 2: Kwok is an alternative spelling for Guo ]
Posted by: kiwiklown | Aug 21 2020 5:20 utc | 56
Not only were the donors of the $25M wall fund dumb as bricks, the money is also worthless for its intended purpose anyway, since the US no longer has the capability to build anything without costs rising into the stratosphere. In 2018, the feds paid $10400 for every meter of border wall construction. That's right, one fucking meter.
Posted by: J W | Aug 21 2020 5:47 utc | 57
b, did you write this? The style is not yours and is full of idiomatic phrases that I don't associate with your writing.
Posted by: Patroklos | Aug 20 2020 21:03 utc | 34
Have you got a screw loose?
How many people do you suppose come to MoA for English lessons?
b's use of "idioms" is incontrovertible PROOF that his interest in, knowledge of, and familiarity with the English Language is ongoing.
And it was GOOD ENOUGH 10 years ago.
It's English, you dope - the most bastardised, inconsistent and "flexible" language on the planet.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 21 2020 5:50 utc | 58
UAE - Erik Prince - Steve Bannon - EmerData
Bannon, banished from the Trump team, takes on UAE talking points
Fraude of $1m is peanuts for Bannon, rightwing Crime-in-Chief. Anything to take this shithole down is fine with me .
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 20 2020 21:18 utc | 36 -- "Again, it's extremely difficult to gauge whether Trump or Biden is worse for the average Joe within the drowning Outlaw US Empire...."
As a governed entity, the US died some 60 years ago. It is only now that the bright lights and the parade drums can no longer hide the stench from the rotting corpse. The US is a shithole country now.
Septicemia is now visible even in its far-flung extremities: the US is now not agreement-capable ( from Putin / Lavrov, being politese for 'dishonourable liar nation' ); the US is now not legal-capable ( politese for lying bastards trying to 'snapback' sanctions when they have already left the JCPOA ); the US is now not even spelling-capable ( spelling Australia as Austria ).
It is no wonder that Putin said that negotiating with the US leadership is like playing chess with a pigeon: the crazed bird walks all over the board, shits on everything, knocks over pieces, declares victory, then runs away !!!
Regardless who is president, the US cannot be saved by rearranging deck chairs. The deplorables will now drown, but not so the elites, some of whom will fly to their bunkers in goode olde NZ.
And so, for the average Joe, it is less about whether Bidet Biden, Trumpeting Trump, Odious Obama, Hideous Hillary, Cocksure Clinton, et al, is worse.
It is all about learning to swim, with or without masks. LOL
Posted by: kiwiklown | Aug 21 2020 6:24 utc | 60
@18 joe, @22 david, DJV @ 20, 24,@30 james <== Deepstate active inside Non profits.
CJC @ 31 <= Deep state says Outside help to humans in Yemen off limits.
karlofi @ 33, 36 SRB @ 38 kiwiklown @ 61 <=Deep State platform for voters, Al Capone or Hitler.
Deep State support for Trump Karlof1 @ 34 Jackrabbit @ 43.psychohistorian @ 3, Rob @ 17,
<=== Deep state auction=> Pardons for sale
deep state involved in cell phone industry now confirmed non ionizing RF (900 Mhz)
interferes with bone marrow.. and DNA repair processes.. ..
clearly folks all our leaders are not just personally corrupt, good ole boys, but are part of system that uses the deep state to support global gangland activities in all places now sanctioned or listed as enemies. How many people will be required to die or have their lives ruined before global humanity rises to fix that problem?
Posted by: snake | Aug 21 2020 7:40 utc | 61
Good, presumably we'll be seeing some arrests in this fraud case from 2016 soon:
"DNC sought to hide details of Clinton funding deal"
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/dnc-leak-clinton-team-deflected-state-cash-concerns-226191
Posted by: Dave | Aug 21 2020 7:51 utc | 62
Karlof1 -- "As I commented earlier this week, China's economic velocity is 10X that of the Outlaw US Empire's.... despite Trump and Pompeo's childish attempts to shove a stick into the spokes of China's wheels, China is doing very well..."
Over the last 70 years China has grown steadily. Over the next 70, she will go right on growing. Having more than reached critical mass now, the coming growth will be at warp speed.
The world has never before seen such a huge population transform itself in so short a time.
For example, Shenzhen grew from rice paddies into a global city in just 40 years, with every one of their 12 million citizens in modern housing. At 4 persons per flat, that is a building rate of 205 flats a day for every single day for 40 years, together with schools, parks, hospitals, underground rail, airports, harbours, museums, theatres, etc. And there are scores of such super cities in China.
Even as we write, China is showing 10X the economic velocity of the US, because it has proportionately more young people, more new family formation, more rural-urban migration, more poverty eradication, more optimism, more of a savings habit, more of a sense of deferred gratification, more social discipline, more respect for the educated mind.
Just trading with itself is enough to generate most of that momentum, regardless of the occasional spoke in the wheel shoved by desperate degenerates.
And yes, thanks for the Franklin resources. I've bookmarked them all for intensive follow up. :o)
Posted by: kiwiklown | Aug 21 2020 9:23 utc | 65
"MoA, A geopolitical analysis site" (ZH)
Congrats to B and regulars. A well earned description of this blog.
Posted by: Alogon | Aug 21 2020 9:28 utc | 66
maybe this'll put the kibosh on Bannon's Dignitatis Humanae Institute, titular boot camp for christian soldiers, in the hinterlands of Lazio, southeast of Rome. a beautiful place, by the way.
now i imagine he'll be more concerned with procuring his daily libation...what is his favourite hootch, anyway, that keeps his cheeks so rosy red?
Posted by: john | Aug 21 2020 9:31 utc | 67
If he gets bail he will slip off to southern Chile to be at home with his kindred fascists who were domiciled there after WW2 to avoid war crimes prosecutions.
The Mercers will comfort him for a while.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 21 2020 9:35 utc | 68
Interesting to see if the attorney is prosecuting the mis-use of non-profit organisation to avoid taxes. CEO and advisors are paid hefty sums and the contributors can wash their money. Aipac and Clinton foundation should be on the top of his/her list. Problem is, most congresswomen use the exact same businesmodel.
Posted by: gary | Aug 21 2020 10:31 utc | 69
NemesisCalling | Aug 20 2020 20:10 utc | 23
Have you read "In the Closet of the Vatican" by Frederic Martel? A must read for all Catholics, left or right. Bannon is a perfect fit with the hypocrisy, misogyny, and antiquarian tendencies of the RCC.
Posted by: jadan | Aug 21 2020 13:27 utc | 70
@57 John Lee - "..we could have got this scam back to front. Harris was big donors' anointed one but once she was called out for being a cop and died in the primaries, Biden was resurrected as a way to get Harris in through the back door."
I do not see that so much as a scam as just how things work with modern politics: Harris was perceived as too far right to appeal to the Democratic primary voters but Biden is counting on her appealing to the general electorate.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Aug 21 2020 14:07 utc | 71
"KOLFAGE repeatedly and falsely assured the public that he would “not take a penny in salary or compensation”"
KOLFAGE's right - he wasn't on a payroll, and he didn't get compensation for expenses or work.
He just stole it.
Posted by: daffyDuct | Aug 21 2020 14:47 utc | 72
🇨🇳 CCP Cultural Revolution Destroying Four Olds ...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Olds
Explanation by a American with a Cuban style sigar on the yacht of a Chinese asylum seeker Guy Wengui.
"I guess I'll have to join all the idiots begging for the economy to re-open... LOL"
Posted by: Richard Moron Hack | Aug 21 2020 1:30 utc | 50
...
Join?
You have well established yourself as the leading idiot around here. "LOL LOL LOL"
re-open? Surely you are well stocked with Depends and cat food to keep you from mingling with all the "morons" out there?
Ever consider that your constant negativity and berating of others is just a reflection of your pathetic life lived? Knock it off with "them negative waves"...
Posted by: CitizenX | Aug 21 2020 15:28 utc | 74
The germans sent a plane to pick Navalny up, they can have him, seems it is all clear and ready to go in a couple of hours. We'll see if the follow up is Skripal style or maybe Merkel in her goodbye chairwomanship will be a bit more civilized than the brits, or invent a better fable.
Posted by: Paco | Aug 21 2020 16:46 utc | 75
@70 jadan
Why would I read such an obvious, judging by the title, work of denigration against my Mother Church?
It's teachings (catechism) is 100% right and true and the product of 2000 years of traced lineage led by those who Christ entrusted the keys to.
I am aware of many errors within the clergy over the years and am increasingly aware of the political bent the church now finds itself embroiled in, which many conservative Catholics disagree with, including myself, but who nonetheless walk a tightrope to not upset the applecart through heresy and online anonymous slander.
If the Vatican and its clergy are bad, that is one thing, and they will be dealt with eventually, in one manner or another. This does not change the reality of the perfection of the Catholic Church and its teachings.
No, I will not throw the baby out with the bathwater on this one.
Besides, anti-Catholic bias, as Bishop Barron in the L.A. diocese has said, is the oldest known bias in American history. Your suggestion to read another work about a sordid period of leadership is thus not needed from this Catholic. Thanks, anyway.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 21 2020 20:16 utc | 76
@76 addendum
I do not know why I fell into the trap of labelling myself a "conservative Catholic."
In reality, you can be a Catholic and accept its teachings, or you can decry its teachings and thus, whether you are aware of it or not, excommunicate yourself.
Liberal Catholics, if I could say, are those that find the pressures of the modern world to be too much to square with the teachings of the church and so thus yield to the world.
I would hope that most Catjolics realize the pull of Satan in their lives and choose Christ always in everything.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 21 2020 20:20 utc | 77
@76 and 77 NemesisCalling
Could not agree more, with all of it. You took the words out of my mouth, much better than I could have said them.
Posted by: Seward | Aug 21 2020 20:44 utc | 78
Oui #73
That was the best and most revealing video I have seen in a while. Bannon was definitely zonked, maybe opium, maybe hashish. The pair of them raving incoherently about every right wing button issue imaginable. The opulent yacht and the cigars and and...
I trust they will share the same cell for a decade. Watch it while you can barflies and maybe adopt a drinking game rule set first with a bottle of Arak or Tequila.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 21 2020 23:04 utc | 79
When the Empire of Lies collapses--which at this point is inevitable--which mob will come out on top of the trash heap? That is what it comes down to at this point. "The People" have no clue, even though in their hearts they know it's not just. But, the myths and propaganda hold them in thrall.
Posted by: Tower | Aug 22 2020 1:16 utc | 80
@ CitizenX | Aug 21 2020 15:28 utc | 74
You have a complaint against R.S. Hack? You want this blog to be dominated by Sh***-heads like you? (Asking for a friend.)
"Besides, anti-Catholic bias, as Bishop Barron in the L.A. diocese has said, is the oldest known bias in American history. Your suggestion to read another work about a sordid period of leadership is thus not needed from this Catholic. Thanks, anyway."
My grandfather had to carry a pistol in his milk truck for fear of the Klan back in the day. Not much of that anti-papist feeling left in today's world, though. The RCC is hoist on its own doctrinal petard. The Vatican is gay by and large. Francis is apparently not homosexual, but most of the hierarchy is. The journalist, Frederic Martel, simply reports the facts. The RCC remains in the closet, but the western world is no longer. Priests are not trusted. Celibacy breeds perversion, always has. Martel is not anti-Catholic.
Posted by: jadan | Aug 22 2020 2:43 utc | 82
(This could be annoyingly stupid or just annoying or stupid).
Names (eg. catholic, communist, alt-right, and everything else) opens the door to a large and only marginally off topic discussion (which as usual invites all the work of Wittgenstein since it's essentially about words and their misuse): if I don't differentiate between the names people call themselves (and others), and other people using and misusing those same names, and whatever those names signify or symbolize for a specific individual, then I'm most likely only adding to or being part of the problem(s).
But then everything gets insanely cumbersome :(
As far as I know no one has ever solved it, I sure haven't. I'm taking this opportunity to remind myself. Wittgenstein himself (gay or not, jew or not, Hitler's childhood bully or not —quite a character lol) at least once if not more changed his entire mind and his life's work when trying to figure it out. Not much seems to have changed since he died.
Humans are like books but not only in the Clive Barker sense; we too have to be read between the lines (and it seems impossible to without large and frequent errors, and here those who do not care enter into it).
[ And if I'm a philosopher —I doubt it— then I am at most only a lackadaisical one :) ]
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 22 2020 3:59 utc | 83
@82 jadan
I will say again up front that I will not read your book. It appears to be absolute trash written by a french man whose sympathy clearly lies with Pope Francis, who is currently seeking to rid the church of his enemies. His exhaustive research is clearly unsupported by names and dates and so can not be corroborated in any way.
His thesis that the Vatican is largely gay and that Pope Francis is surrounded by queens, that he IS NOT ONE, himself, and that they are wolves in sheep's clothing, clearly attempts to reverse what many Catholics suspect as its opposite: chiefly, that Pope Francis is a trojan horse who is attemting to steer the 1+ billion catholics, quite a large opposition group in the global scheme of things, away from the faith by eroding its tenets and welcoming in neoliberal anti-philosophy. It's mission is to neuter Catholics. But the Lord will draw all near and keep them who want Him.
The author's work could be construed as a preemptive strike, or at least a political hit job seeking to undermine the case of those who disagree with the direction Pope Francis is taking our Mother Church.
You make the claim that your trash book is for all catholics, left and right. What a laugh. Your book, lacking in corroboration for all of its amazing claims, is no uniting force except to make people doubt their own "lying eyes" and fall in line with the globalist takeover of our most precious Church.
It ends up validating the claims of many who feel like the questions they have concerning our current pope are actively being quieted.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 22 2020 4:15 utc | 84
I am sorry for having to seriously escalate the discussion at this point, but I've been waiting to introduce a certain topic here for years now, and this seems to be proper moment. - That said, I'll see to return to it from time to time, so there is no need at this point to address all open questions that are likely to come up.
I wish to tell you about the persian Prophet Mani (216-77), his teachings, and the fate of his church. In summary, the history is this: Mani said that he had had revelations and was tasked to finally get the full story about our strange existence across, after his predecessors like Jesus and Buddha had done fine, yet incomplete work in this field. He set out to systematically spread the word, wrote seven books [in aramaic - of which he dedicated one to Bardesanes, a famous scientist of his time], and build a church that spread from spain to japan for 1,000 years. Then, the last of his disciples are killed, and all of their writings are ripped into tiny pieces to be mingled into the soil of the Gobi desert, where they had taken refuge. It is only since a hundred years that archaelogical findings shed a better light on this true and yet forgotten "world religion".
His teachings are much more consistent with modern science, including theology, to a mind-bogging extent. A good starting point to unfold the whole thing is this one sentence: "Power IS evil!" - It refers to gnostic thinking and the idea that our bodies are not so much enablers of our complex awareness (as modern naturalism has it), but rather prisons for our souls; it necessitates the essence of Mani's "big picture", in which God is good, yet not all-powerful; and it gives a good hint as to why the manicheans fell to the prosecution by all power structures they encountered.
But one aspect still has to be clarified to really get the whole thing. Unfortunately, it is not easy to get this across; and this is not helped by the almost surreal history that surrounds this very idea. In short, it is about the nature of our awareness. While modern Zeitgeist has it that causal processes in stuff somehow lead to the emergence of cognition, this is for now only an unproven statement, which is almost forgotten these days (in fact, the statement is even demonstrably wrong, but that's another story). So what else is it? Put simply, it just is --
Edmund Husserl, a niche figure even in academic philosophy, developed his phenomenology around this question, and frankly, he's right, while everyone else (like Heidegger) is not. The idea is quite hard to swallow, so I have to just leave at that for now.
Instead, I'll tell you another spectacular history. Husserls discovery, it turns out, has not been the first time it had been realized how to solve Wittgenstein's riddle about the proper matching of words with the stuff ("things"). Before him, it was understood by non other than Aristotle himself, and we have just not realized what he is actually talking about ... I know this sounds crazy, but ask yourselves: could I make something like this up even if I wanted to?? --
So, what happened? The ailing roman empire of the 4th century turned christian and lived on as a pyramidal power structure up until now, though their time of total control lasted only a few centuries before the "renaissance". They had a monopoly on books, and they were not shy to use fire and sword to convince everyone of the "believe"(!!) into their god, who himself cannot (usually) be experienced by us mere mortals. To force such an idea into a thinking mind will need a convincing tool, and this is the metaphysics of substance, which views the world as the stuff.
Mani knew about this idea, and it plays a critical role in his teachings. ... that is the cliffhanger for now, dear barflies; I encourage own research and discussion. Especially the catholics in this thread might feel upset now, I reckon, for which I am sorry; but in truth, I am convinced that they will find what they are longing for much clearer and more complete in the revelations of Mani if they take it up from here and give him a chance.
Posted by: persiflo | Aug 22 2020 9:50 utc | 85
Bannon out over $5 million! bail...who would have payed such ammount? Goldman Sachs?
Notice how much the guy enjoys protagonism....
https://twitter.com/Ruptly/status/1296632235852931073
Posted by: H.Schmatz | Aug 22 2020 11:54 utc | 86
Not only were the donors of the $25M wall fund dumb as bricks, the money is also worthless for its intended purpose anyway, since the US no longer has the capability to build anything without costs rising into the stratosphere. In 2018, the feds paid $10400 for every meter of border wall construction. That's right, one fucking meter.
Posted by: J W | Aug 21 2020 5:47 utc | 57
I guess the cost can be reasonable if the concept is "The Great Wall of China". 4 yards deep into the ground, 15 yards tall (11 above the ground, i.e. 10 meters), 16 x 100 excavation cost, 60 x 100 concrete cost, 7600 per yard of the wall. And you must add decorative facing, crenellations, monitoring cameras, and in selected spots, high tech tunnels for wildlife crossing (to allow, say, Mexican wolves to cross, without allowing humans).
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 22 2020 16:22 utc | 87
I assumed 4 yard width of the wall, so border guards could ride on top.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 22 2020 16:24 utc | 88
Below is a quote from the Wall Street on Parade web site posting about Bannon
"
During an unrelated press conference yesterday, President Trump said he had no knowledge of the wrongdoing and wasn’t involved in the project. A YouTube video appears online, however, showing Donald Trump Jr. at an event for the project last summer where he praises it as: “Showing what capitalism’s all about. This is private enterprise at its finest – doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else.”
"
Posted by: psychohistorian | Aug 22 2020 16:27 utc | 89
Mmm…several posters. I don’t think Trump will pardon Bannon. Trump and Bannon broke up over rivalry between Bannon and Ivanka (and/or Jared), if I have my gossip right. In any case now Trump has thrown him under the bus (> Circe @ 9) - also in the past he has said Bannon “lost his mind!”
Backtracking is not something I reckon Trump would personally want to do in this case. Plus, politically and image-wise, there would be the horrific PR of pardoning someone who defrauded serious and generous donors to the cause of THE WALL. (Luckily the wall has faded from significance as Canada and Mexico are now the ones wanting to keep US citizens out..)
No. He will disown, maybe even condemn (in public speech) Bannon and leave him to his fate. Imho they never really got on, despite some ‘matching of the minds’ or whatever. Trump at heart is an opportunist, politically a centrist - for his own glory kind of thing. Meaning, he has no - or few, merely trivial - political, societal ideas and his actions are shaped by a ‘business’ mentality - a need to convince, and ‘win’, etc. which includes playing / negotiating with many ppl, sides, etc. to put it very briefly.
By contrast, Bannon is an ideological zealot, someone who presents as has having hyper strong opinions, stances, and even ‘radicalness’ on occasion. (I’m genuine! Come here baby! Woo hoo!) In a way, he is like Dominic Cummings, the maestro behind BoJo. The spin of special, particular, etc. stances and fakelorum ‘canniness’ can deceive inexperienced and uncaring (to put it *very* mildly) politicians. Nay, they embrace it, having nothing to put forward…
All these ppl are crooks of course, fighting it out sub rosa, with morsels thrown to the public to keep them distracted, the Epstein story is a prime ex.
As bevin 11 says, the anti-China bigt needs sorting out. (following b.)
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 22 2020 17:46 utc | 90
About right-wing Catholics.
I was under the impression that there had only ever been one Catholic president in the US and that he was assassinated. Kennedy. (Google seems to agree.)
Joe Biden is a practising Catholic, apparently this is left aside?
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 22 2020 18:54 utc | 91
@Bevin @ 11
"Right wing catholic" elites... Can Bevin or anyone else suggest good books or other materials on this topic ? On their worldview, involvement in politics, 1% status etc...asking because this seems to be a factor in the US ? The supreme court seems to be heavily catholic, the catholic 1% (like Michael dell? )seem to be intervening monetarily in public affairs, catholic intellectuals like scalia are active in conservative ?etc. The catholic factor in other areas like Latin america and Europe is significant ? Didnt bannon say recently that Benedict was his pope ?
Posted by: Anon | Aug 25 2020 7:11 utc | 92
The comments to this entry are closed.
A non-profit that "did not pay him" actually paid for services that benefited him. There was just a nominal cut out between him and the payment by his non-profit.
Bannon said this was wrong when the Clinton's did it. That is how the money got from their non-profit Foundation to them, and in much larger amounts than what Bannon took.
Bannon said it was wrong then when the Clinton's did it. Democrats say it is wrong now when Bannon did it. They are both correct.
And they are all hopeless hypocrites.
Posted by: Mark Thomason | Aug 20 2020 16:12 utc | 1