One trait of imperial decadence is untrammeled hubris. Given the increasingly arrant arrogance on display by United States’ officials, public figures and news media we can safely conclude that this empire is accelerating into decadence.
A recent spectacular example comes with separate visits to Europe by US defense secretary James Mattis and Steve Bannon, the former aide to President Trump.
From Parallax Views
On this edition of Parallax Views you’ll hear the second part of a conversation with Pearse Redmond of Porkins Policy Review and the Open Minds Foundation on the sordid saga of disgraced billionaire and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Political strategist Steve Bannon, a founding member of the far right-wing news website Breitbart News and former chief advisor to United States President Donald Trump, will be an advisor to Brazilian Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro fo
Who gives Trump his political advice? I mean the day to day stuff? Whoever it is is definitely an amateur. See that tweet below? You won't see the generic one-size-firs-all endorsement on Trump's Twitter feed. He took it down when someone mentioned to him that though Steve Stivers' district is also in the Columbus area, he isn't the faceless candidate Trump is going to flying into Columbus to back this weekend.
Trump always seems to make sure that there are people in his circle who are bigger morons than he is. It probably makes him feel smart. So is he ready to get rid of the nightly TV shows' clownish oaf? Also the morning shows'. It probably takes the psychic pressure off him that it's Giuliani getting lambasted on CNN and MSNBC in primetime everyday. Don McGahan, on the other hand, is an actual lawyer, not a p.r. flack.
At 87, Billionaire George Soros is pledging another $18 billion of his fortune to his neo-liberal Open Society Foundation (leaving Soros with a personal wealth of $8 billion) to further “support” European Union initiatives that continue to destroy and destabilize the nation-state.
In May, Soros addressed the European Council on Foreign Relations, issuing a warning that “the European Union is in an existential crisis. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.”
Europe’s existential danger is “no longer a figure of speech… it is the harsh reality,” said Soros.
The weekend's Koch brothers biannual 3-day conclave of wealthy right-wing political donors, featured a video of Charles Koch blasting Trump's trade agenda. In Colorado Springs they got to hear Charles explaining that "the urge to protect ourselves from change has doomed many counties throughout history.
President Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon has announced plans to start a conservative-right foundation in Europe.
Bannon wants to create a new foundation, promoting the conservative values and ideology, that will rival the impact of radical left Open Society Foundations, set up by George Soros.
Bannon’s idea take on Soros in Europe with his very own NGO to support Europe’s conservative-right parties has caused quite shock and fear among liberals left politicians.
The Best People by Chip ProserI'm old-- and for all my life I've heard the corporate media (and the Republican Party) pushing this equivalence between the extreme right and some mythical "extreme left." With a couple of short-lived exceptions, there's never been any "extreme left,"-- and certainly not in Congress. Which Democrats are as far left as, for example, the Freedom Caucus?
US President Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court will likely forever change America.
Any nation-shaping decision that comes down to the discretion of Trump and his loyal consultants and allies is a terrifying prospect indeed. Ultimately, we will see if this decision is simply an unfortunate bump in the road, or a disastrous and nation-altering one.
