If Salvador Dali was to characterize the current Washington hellscape as the Garden of Eden, Jared Kushner would appear as the serpent, hands down. Kushner has been touted as “the de facto president of the United States,” and Trump turned over all the day to day functions of government to unelected-official Kushner early on, which infuriated Steve Bannon. Bannon got himself a seat on the National Security Council, as you may recall, and it was he, not Kushner, who was supposed to be in charge of the realignment of world power. After all, Bannon had read “The Art Of War” when not busy in Hollywood penning screenplays about Shakespearean crips and bloods, so he had the greater claim to knowledge of these matters over Kushner, you see.
Jared and Ivanka bopped Bannon, along with Reince Priebus, John Kelly and many others, and they reign supreme in the White House, raking in the cash and disgracing themselves and America in the eyes of the world. Both Jared and Ivanka believe themselves to be masters of the universe and they are oblivious to the fact that they are both twits without substance, and that whatever they’ve done in life has been on daddy’s dime — before it became the taxpayer’s dime, to the tune of $82 Million a year.
This video is a good encapsulation of how hubris and failure is ingrained in the Trump family culture.
I do hope that pugnacious little prick goes to prison with trump and the rest of the gang.
What a great headline that would be “Pugnacious Puny Prick Goes To Prison.” HA! What I wouldn’t give to be the one to write the story!
he’s one of the few I’d prefer capital punishment for.
Ivanka as well. I hope Ivana is prepared to take in her grandchildren.
I hate that smirking little son of a bitch. If this is success, I’d really hate to see his failure.
The way this guy fails upward is simply mesmerizing. But you can do that when you have inherited wealth. People who have to earn money have a different situation going on altogether.
Like you I’d love to see Jared wind up in jail. Ivanka too for that matter. I still say the pair of them are the reincarnation of Juan and Evita Peron. As for their driving Bannon out I’ve got mixed feelings. Bannon after all didn’t want us cozying up to Russia or North Korea, even if in the case of the former he was willing to accept their help to get Trump installed. He had his own ideas about National Security and his securing a spot as one of the “Principals” on the NSC was a dangerous thing. There was bullshit floated then and since that due to his time as a Naval Officer Bannon was qualified for such a role. I called bullshit then and call it now. In fact, his time in the Navy is something Bannon himself hasn’t talked up. I don’t think he wants too close an examination of it, even though he seems to have served quietly as just another officer who decided to move on to civilian life. I do recall a piece (I think by WaPo) which talked to a couple dozen or so who served with him, and there was a mention of him (despite his denials) haven’t mentioned serving in the Navy would burnish his political resume down the road.
What Bannon has gone on the record about is being upset enough over the botched attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages (on his second tour at sea his destroyer was part of the support for the Nimitz which carried the choppers for the mission to the Gulf) to later make the claim Carter fucked up the Navy so badly he became a Republican (after being non-political – which appears to be true) and a fan of Reagan. He especially loved Reagan for that defense spending that went on which included a huge buildup of the Navy – ignoring the fact that the Naval buildup Reagan took (and still gets) credit for was actually planned and set in motion by Naval Academy graduate Jimmy Carter! Anyway, Bannon found himself attached to the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations in the early 1980s where he mostly worked on budget stuff. Actually, not a bad job for learning some useful stuff.
However what’s telling to me is that since Bannon seems to have performed his duties in a competent manner and therefore set himself up for rapid promotion through the officer ranks that didn’t happen. One other thing I remember from reading about his Naval Career is that he was an obnoxious asshole even then. If I had to bet I’d say he got into the zone for consideration for promotion from Lt. (0-3 or Captain in the other branches) to Lt. Commander (0-4 or Major) and it flopped, CNO staffer notwithstanding. That would have been a huge blow to the ego of someone like Bannon and seeing the handwriting on the wall, that he wouldn’t rise up to flag rank and maybe even CNO himself one day he resigned his commission and moved on.
But he never got over learning the Navy didn’t consider him the stuff top leaders are made of, and hoped the day would come when he could get some payback. That would expand to the entire fucking military and even National Security apparatus over time. Bannon’s isolationist views were very much in line with Trump’s vision and if you recall from the get-go Trump has been fucking up relationships with our allies. Bannon might not have liked Trump cozying up to Putin, Kim and others but he gloried in our trashing the international agreements both written and unwritten that have been established since WWII and which left us as the world’s only true superpower and in fairly firm control of policy around the world.
The world is a far more dangerous place now and Steve fucking Bannon is a big part of why that’s the case. If he is the frustrated wannabe that I believe he is then he’s gotten his payback, albeit with some unintended consequences thanks to Jared. IOW we are rapidly becoming as isolated as Bannon hoped we’d become, but at the cost of authoritarians he can’t stand having for too much power now and their sometimes effective (for their interests and against ours) use of it.
So where does that leave things? On the one hand Jarvanka’s getting Bannon kicked out of the WH had some benefits even though he was in place long enough to do a helluva lot of damage. On the other hand if Bannon was still in the inner circle I don’t think Kim would have gotten his meetings, nor would there be no records at all of just what in the hell Trump and Putin have talked about in so many phone calls and face to face meetings.
I’m left with mixed feelings. As my old jarhead buddy from Berea, Kentucky liked to say “Like watching your mother-in-law drive over the cliff in your brand new car.”