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Robert B. Sklaroff
physician-activist

Electing ANY Democrat-POTUS Empowers Gomer-tose Biden – Part II: Bannon (1)

Biden may be the only “gomer” ever to have sought the presidency, as dramatized by this compilation c/o Reddit; the term is derived from a 1978 book “House of God” referring to chronically ill patients whom house officers would aspire to “get outa my emergency room.”

When noting the need to “define” Biden to facilitate defeating him, no one ponders this electoral strategy more intensely than Stephen K. Bannon; this two-parter encompasses his emergence and his ongoing labors.

Ostensibly, Bannon focuses on the China Threat (“War Room:  Pandemic”) M-F  for two hours in the a.m. [audio] and for one hour [video] that Newsmax rebroadcasts @ 11 p.m. E.D.T.; one of his side-kicks is Raheem Kassam, whom I met @ a ZOA Gala a few years ago (after shaking hands with Bannon).

Bannon and Kassam have been fighting globalism during the past half-decade (at least), starting with Brexit; Kassam had been the Breitbart-London editor (under Bannon), and then edited Human Events prior to starting The National Pulse (while Bannon launched myriad projects, particularly in Italy).

Kassam’s writings [The Media Had A Problem Covering 9/11; ‘DEPLORABLES DON’T HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN TRUMP AND BANNON’; and the Trump Transcript Showed Him only Trying To Stop Corruption] place him in lock-step with The Donald; although Bannon said (directly, @ the ZOA Gala) that he supported an independent Kurdistan, Kassam doesn’t.

{Kassam rejected publication in Breitbart of an article regarding Kurdistan (co-authored by Sherkoh Abbas, subsequently published) that dissed Sebastian Gorka [“We are encouraged by evolution of comments by controversial former presidential antiterrorism adviser Sebastian Lukács Gorka, Ph.D., who has supplanted lame excuses for ‘neutrality’ with recognition (listen @ 29 minutes) that America will reliably help friends – particularly Sunnis – who do not need nation-building”]; initially, Kassam was nondescript despite the “softening” of the attack (“I’m not publishing something that takes pot shots at our contributors”) but, subsequently (Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 4:03 PM), he conveyed his underlying view [“I support troop removal” (from Syria)].}

This encapsulates the ONE problem I have with The Donald’s “America First” postures; he must NOT abandon the fight against Islamism, and a reliable outpost for the manifestation of (legally justifiable) Islamic Democracy (not “Islamism”) is in NE-Syria; it wouldn’t be an “endless war” (note Korea) were he to ensure these forever-oppressed American ALLIES were afforded a homeland (as we have written in multiple essays during the past decade-plus).

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When Bannon accepted the 2nd Annual Orwell Award, his 50-minute speech was replete with insights and sufficient one-liners to compel the listener to research myriad backgrounders; just starting to listen @ the 30-minute mark yields both the importance of each individual “owning” his/her internet-search data [and how the sale thereof to marketers has enriched Zuckerberg (with Facebook to be probed in a future blog, herein).

He then touted a dense on-line tome [Unrestricted Warfare] published in China in February 1999, that proposed tactics for developing countries, in particular China, to compensate for their military inferiority vis-à-vis the United States during a high-tech war; it defined three levels of warfare that characterize what Beijing has been doing, two decades hence [kinetic, economic, information], and it seems to read as an explanation for conducting “Judo”-like international relations.

He noted that kinetic warfare (military) is less important than waging economic warfare (Covid-19, USA-outsourcing, etc.) and information warfare (WHO and Gates prompted to rationalize cover-up while attacking The Donald); Bannon feels this is the most important tome on warfare since that of Carl von Clausewitz.

Carl von Clausewitz was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the “moral” (meaning, in modern terms, psychological) and political aspects of war [“War is the continuation of politics by other means”]; in contrast to Antoine-Henri Jomini, he argued that war could not be quantified or reduced to mapwork, geometry, and graphs.

His work apparently was inspired by noting the impact of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 that ended the Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years’ War; these treaties provided the foundation of the modern state  system and  articulated the concept of territorial sovereignty.

Reference was made to “dialectics“ in these works, defined as discourse attempting to establish truth through reasoned methods of argumentation [invoking three stages of developmentthesis, antithesis, synthesis]; it isn’t  debate because it excludes subjective elements such as emotional appeal and the modern pejorative sense of rhetoric, and it isn’t Eristic argument (from Eris, the ancient Greek goddess of chaos, strife, and discord) which aims to dispute another’s points of view successfully.

Recalling these concepts (from college-level “Philosophy 101”) frames the approach toward disputation that Trumpsters must adopt when attempting to sway the “undecided/independent” voter; one must start by engaging in dialectics when debating before a buncha listeners (even if the opponent is a Dem) without appearing to engage in Eristic argument.

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Bannon’s precipitous departure left The Donald with no one to watch over Comey, in conjunction with departures of Flynn/McFarland and the Sessions recusal; it was triggered by a book sensation that had alleged Bannon had said he had been Trump’s Brain.

The Donald’s immediate reactions to his family having been impugned were de rigueur [Trump Tweet attacks Wolff book and characterized Bannon as “Sloppy Steve”Trump furious; Bannon “not only lost his job, he lost his mind”Trump lawyer sent cease-and-desist letter to Bannon].

Never-Trumpers were elated, with a rogue’s gallery of reflexly-thrilled left↔right personages viewing the book “Fire and Fury” as too good to fact-check:  [1]—Chuck Todd: WH comments “Laughable and oddly, weirdly predictable”;  [2]—CNN’s Tapper:  “Nasty” Trump-Bannon fallout like nothing “ever before in U.S. History”; [3]—Claiming “I’ve wasted enough of my viewers’ time,”  CNN’s Jake Tapper suddenly cut-off Trump aide Stephen Miller after a heated interview (during which Miller both called Bannon “Grotesque” and eviscerated CNN), after which Trump (Anchor “destroyed”) lambasted Tapper; [4]—Scarborough mocked Bannon:  You only went to Harvard because you couldn’t get into Alabama; [5]—Howard Dean and Seth Rogen attacked SiriusXM over Bannon, as Center-Left Hosts Defended the Satellite Radio Platform; [6]—(the old) RedState promoted this Schadenfreudelicious war; and [7]—Steyer bought the Wolff book for every member of Congress.

Trumpsters considered this to be a book of fiction (containing innumerable obvious-errors), as the  author claimed to have “dozens of hours” of recordings confirming quotes); later, Wolff admitted he’s unsure it’s all true and that he “said whatever necessary to get the story.” Indeed, later, Wolff howled that his book will “finally end this presidency” because he hopes for “25TH Amendment” ouster, claiming this possibility (mental disability) was discussed daily by White House aides. {This latter claim is eerily reminiscent of what Rod Rosenstein “kiddingly” tried to accomplish; recall he “kiddingly” had even volunteered to wear a wire.}

Bannon issued a Statement [“ My Support Is ‘unwavering’ for Trump and His Agenda”], called The Donald “great,” and said Don Jr. is “A Patriot Who Did NOT Commit Treason.”

Recall that Bannon had issued tantalizing broadsides [George W. Bush Was the “Single Most Destructive President in U.S. History, Including James Buchanan” and McConnell should resign while dismissing NJ, VA, NYC Losses], prompting some House Republicans to be looking over their shoulders for 2018 despite the fact that Trump had washed his hands of conducting any insurgency against GOP incumbents.

His antipathy for the GOPe [“GOP establishment”] was legion, particularly when Very Fake News emerged, such as when the Associated Press retracted a false article claiming Bannon would not campaign for Roy Moore, prior to when Bannon enthusiastically campaigned with him; it is also alleged that a Bannon-Founded Group attempted to shop Anti-Trump research in 2015 [suggesting Bannon was against Trump, then for him, then against him, and now for him].

Also, Mueller was digging deep for “obstruction”, prompting whispers suggesting Bannon may have known of an internal-glitch [e.g., Source close to White House told Tapper that Bannon was “aware of the fact that WH counsel misled POTUS about his authority to fire Comey” and notes that the NYT story appeared after POTUS began attacking Bannon publicly].

Finally, after an Archbishop hit Bannon (“Laughable” to believe Catholic Church has economic interest in mass immigration), his anti-Invasion [DACA] perspective was again highlighted; Bannon kept reminding The Donald (and Ivanka/Jared) of the essence of Trumpism and how it’s misguided for Trump to have backed the House DACA/immigration reform bill that would exchange DACA-amnesty for mandatory E-verify and legal immigration cuts.

Such speculation as to the basis for this Trump vs. Bannon prompted Rush Limbaugh to posit that McMaster was a “swamp” elitist who wanted to get rid of “pure Trumpist” Bannon; his is congruent with my view that McMaster was motivated to fight neither the Islamic State nor Iran.

To place the Trump/Bannon “spat” into a proper context, recall the plot-twists in the longest-running Off-Broadway show, the Fantasticks; it parodied Romeo/Juliet when fathers created a false-conflict to prompt their offspring to marry in ACT I, and then satirized itself when this manipulation was reveled in ACT II.

In any case, Bannon was also out at Breitbart and Miles Kwok replaced the Mercers’ as its major multibillionaire-backer; reacting to this tumult, Breitbart’s Nolte noted the schizophrenic Media Flails as Trump’s Focus and Success Torpedo “Crazy” Claims.

Although Trump trashed Bannon, he signaled openness to reconciliation; meanwhile, Bannon proclaimed The Death of “Trumpism Without Trump.”

Trump probably is again obtaining input from Bannon (notwithstanding this incomprehensible ad hominem attack that claims if Trump wants more of Bannon, it’s because he lied about wanting civic peace).

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This may be perceived as a backgrounder for what Bannon had done until his departure from the White House; the next piece will explore what he has been doing thereafter.

About the Author
Robert B. Sklaroff MD is a physician-activist who is a radical, liberal, moderate, conservative, reactionary [depending upon the topic] who has developed many political stances that scrupulously attempt to identify the "nut" of "hot" issues; although predictions are notoriously deficient [as assiduously chronicled by my son], my insights are durable. I have also written about medical politics [particularly Vaping and ObamaDon'tCare] and have attempted to articulate the action-item [that I have often pursued absent support]. Aggressively followed is the discipline of capturing and then addressing all reputable perspectives; the reader is thereby maximally "armed" to critique the output.
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