Michael Green: "IMO, the allegation that the deep state is out to get Trump needs some serious deconstruction. Except for the Russophobia, Trump himself is a card-carrying member of the deep state. What he isn't is a card-carrying member of the administrative state (see OP), which virtually no one except Steve Bannon and his people are talking about these days.
...
Whereas I was a staunch supporter of Russia in the Ukraine and in Syria -- my biggest complaint was that Putin was weak and overly conciliatory, and that he consistently double-crossed his allies -- in this case, there is sufficient reason to suspect Trump of treason and to suspect Putin of plying Trump with offers that Trump couldn't refuse.
Whereas I was a staunch supporter of Russia in the Ukraine and in Syria -- my biggest complaint was that Putin was weak and overly conciliatory, and that he consistently double-crossed his allies -- in this case, there is sufficient reason to suspect Trump of treason and to suspect Putin of plying Trump with offers that Trump couldn't refuse.
For those two reasons, I don't really give a fuck anymore about the deep state's intentions with regard to Russia. There, I've finally said it. Putin appears to have bet the farm and lost, as did Trump. Now let them live with it."
Further Michael Green also wrote: "For Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions, deconstructing the administrative state means absolving corporations and government of all responsibility and accountabilities -- Scott Pruitt and the rest of the Trump cabinet on steroids -- while defining the state through executive orders, ad hoc policies and far-right judgments from SCOTUS, even as they hold over people's heads the ever-present threat of poverty, prisons and death camps. Legally allowing the chief executive to declare himself dictator would absolutely open that door."
Further Michael Green also wrote: "For Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions, deconstructing the administrative state means absolving corporations and government of all responsibility and accountabilities -- Scott Pruitt and the rest of the Trump cabinet on steroids -- while defining the state through executive orders, ad hoc policies and far-right judgments from SCOTUS, even as they hold over people's heads the ever-present threat of poverty, prisons and death camps. Legally allowing the chief executive to declare himself dictator would absolutely open that door."
The destruction of the administrative state--the services for the people provided, supported and enabled by the state--was, indeed, formulated openly by Steve Bannon as the main program, meaning and objective of Trump and his presidency. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPFpTergAGQ
Steve Bannon himself characterized Trump, his patron, in a very peculiar, one may say, Machiavellian way. He told Vanity Fair in the summer of 2016 that Trump is a "blunt instrument
for us ... I don't know whether he really gets it or not." That's how it
looks. Shall a blunt instrument have a self-consciousness of being a blunt
instrument? Very Aristotelian, BTW.
In the context of the Vanity Fair interview, the above is, moreover, presented in terms of Trump's own public persona, his role and the "genuineness" or the lack of it behind the facade:
Bannon, he expressed a wariness about the political genuineness of the Trump campaign persona. Trump is a “blunt instrument for us,” he told me earlier this summer. “I don’t know whether he really gets it or not.” It is likely that Bannon’s political calculus here, if not Trump’s, will be less about winning an election that seems a bit out of hand and more about cementing an American nationalist movement.
I must also admit that, until Michael Green's repeated mention of this cardinal issue, I myself have not paid attention to it, as I have been focused more on exposing the criminal and corrupt character of the Putin oligarchic regime in the wake of the surrender and defeat of the originally anti-fascist "Novorossiya" uprising.
Looking at this, it becomes clear that Bannon's crusade against the administrative state is not new--for example, in Oklahoma, it has been already going on for some ten years at least. https://www.thedailybeast.com/before-bannon-the-destruction…
As such, the destruction of the administrative state appears like the next "logical" phase of neoliberalism--the negation as well new development of neoliberalism of the 1990s.
This also begs a question of how essential or indispensable Trump himself is for the program of the destruction of the administrative state and what exact role the whole charade around him and the resulting crisis of his presidency is meant to play in transforming the state and the government away from what they need to be doing for the people.
Moreover, upon reflection, Putin, his regime and Russia may be, indeed, playing in this another and more important role than what one may otherwise think. For the destruction of the administrative state is exactly what Putin and his cronies have been doing to Russia. Today's new Russian legislation, which effectively violates even the Russian Constitution and which raises retirement ages by 8 years to women and by 5 years to men (to 63 and 65) with pensions only slightly over $100 a month is a case in point, as are the 20,000+ hospitals, thousands of kindergartens, and over 4,000 libraries shut down by the Putin regime.
Thus, when thinking of the destruction of the administrative state, one can see that Putin's Russia has been its experimental forerunner--together with its cultural barbarization and progressing Nazification. In this light, Trump's unconcealed admiration for Putin, the thug and gangster, starts to look also differently and not merely as an odd personal chemistry.
Has anyone even tried to critique or challenge in any fundamental way the Trumpesque or Putinisque destruction of the administrative state (by means of the deep state)?
Heather Cox Richardson, a professor of history at Boston College, formulated well Putin's doctrine--the actual, in contrast to its PR, ideology of Putinism: It's a worldview that criminal orligarchy or few wealthy mafia men should govern the world without being not hamstrung by human rights. https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/19/opinions/americans-are-right-to-wonder-if-great-experiment-has-failed-richardson/index.html
Professor Richardson also thinks that Trump shares this Putin's worldview.
"The warning to Americans from the government is clear: your national defense will be well-funded and your security will be a priority, but for benefits beyond the most basic services, don't count on me. It's a kind of break-up note to taxpayers. Uncle Sam can still be your friend, sure, but that's it. Nothing more.
In Washington, the vogue term is the "deconstruction of the administrative state." That was coined by White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who used it during a rare public chat at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland last month.
In Washington, the vogue term is the "deconstruction of the administrative state." That was coined by White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who used it during a rare public chat at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland last month.
Chipping away
On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that called for a review of the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era policy that, though tied up in court challenges, would regulate fossil fuel emissions from energy plants. His signature also withdrew a moratorium on coal mining on US lands. More broadly, it urged federal agencies to "appropriately suspend, revise, or rescind those that unduly burden the development of domestic energy resources."
House Republicans on the same day voted to repeal internet privacy protections pushed for by the Obama administration, and approved by the Federal Communications Commission, just before the 2016 election. The regulations would have prohibited internet service providers -- like AT&T and Comcast -- from sharing or selling users' personal data, including browsing history and geo-location, without their permission.
Less privacy will translate to bigger profits for those businesses, who will have now be able to offer outside businesses more detailed information about their users, creating a lucrative market for targeted advertising. Trump is expected to sign the legislation, which has already been approved in the Senate.
On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that called for a review of the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era policy that, though tied up in court challenges, would regulate fossil fuel emissions from energy plants. His signature also withdrew a moratorium on coal mining on US lands. More broadly, it urged federal agencies to "appropriately suspend, revise, or rescind those that unduly burden the development of domestic energy resources."
House Republicans on the same day voted to repeal internet privacy protections pushed for by the Obama administration, and approved by the Federal Communications Commission, just before the 2016 election. The regulations would have prohibited internet service providers -- like AT&T and Comcast -- from sharing or selling users' personal data, including browsing history and geo-location, without their permission.
Less privacy will translate to bigger profits for those businesses, who will have now be able to offer outside businesses more detailed information about their users, creating a lucrative market for targeted advertising. Trump is expected to sign the legislation, which has already been approved in the Senate.
Citizens... or 'customers'?
There is no apparent role for Congress in the administration's other new venture, the creation of an executive office dedicated to applying private sector (read: profit-driven) standards to government. The "White House Office of American Innovation" will be run by Trump's son-in-law and trusted adviser, Jared Kushner....
Still, Kushner's idealized conception of government as a business and citizens as consumers of its product is perhaps the cleanest and most accessible explanation of what a depleted "administrative state" would yield.
That is, a fundamental remaking of the relationship between the people and the state ..." https://www.cnn.com/…/trump-bannon-administrativ…/index.html
Postscriptum
There is no apparent role for Congress in the administration's other new venture, the creation of an executive office dedicated to applying private sector (read: profit-driven) standards to government. The "White House Office of American Innovation" will be run by Trump's son-in-law and trusted adviser, Jared Kushner....
Still, Kushner's idealized conception of government as a business and citizens as consumers of its product is perhaps the cleanest and most accessible explanation of what a depleted "administrative state" would yield.
That is, a fundamental remaking of the relationship between the people and the state ..." https://www.cnn.com/…/trump-bannon-administrativ…/index.html
Postscriptum
US President Donald Trump's controversial former advisor Steve Bannon plans to set up a foundation in Europe called "The Movement" to spark a populist rightwing revolt, according to a report.
Bannon envisages the organization rivalling George Soros' Open Foundation, which has given away $32 billion to liberal causes since it was established in 1984, according to the report by the Daily Beast published late Friday.
The non-profit will be a central source of polling, advice on messaging, data targeting, and think-tank research.
He told the Daily Beat he was convinced the coming years will see an end to decades of European integration.
"Right-wing populist nationalism is what will happen. That's what will govern," he said. "You're going to have individual nation states with their own identities, their own borders."
He added he had held talks with right-wing groups across the continent, from Nigel Farage and members of Marine Le Pen's Front National (recently renamed Rassemblement National) in the West, to Hungary's Viktor Orban and the Polish populists in the East.
The organization will likely be based out of Brussels initially and has set its sights on the 2019 European parliament elections.
The architect of Trump's nationalist-populist campaign and his election victory, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was nicknamed the "Prince of Darkness" and the "Shadow President."
His economic nationalism became the lynchpin of Trump policies, even as many of his other ideas were rebuffed by policy rivals.
After new Chief of Staff John Kelly arrived, Bannon's constant clashes with other advisors became untenable, as did his ties to the extreme right, which drew accusations that Trump fostered racists. Bannon left the White House last August.
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