A Damned Long Four Years!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Steve Bannon is a seventy-one-year-old political operative and blogger who served as the chief strategist at the White House during the first Trump administration until the boss ingloriously removed him from that role after only seven months on the job.  But they kept in touch and Bannon reportedly continues to act as an unofficial adviser to the ex-and-future-President to this very day.

Four years after he left the White House Bannon was subpoenaed by the congressional committee investigating the January 6th, 2021, riots at the Capitol.  They wanted him to testify about Trump's activities on that day, but he refused saying that to testify would violate his former boss's executive privilege.    Bannon was later charged with contempt of Congress for his refusal to come before the committee and testify, and a jury found him guilty of that charge.  Last summer he entered a minimum security (aka "country club") prison where he served four months for his crime.

But Steve Bannon is out now, having completed his incarceration in late October, and he is back to casting his pod and trying to hold sway over the MAGA movement.  He has lately managed to single out Trump's new right hand, Elon Musk, as a target of his rage.  Musk, Bannon says, is involved in the MAGA movement solely to benefit himself as he rushes to become the world's first trillionaire.  Bannon and Musk are at odds over the H-1B visas which allow highly skilled immigrants into the country to work in American industries - primarily tech companies.  Musk and America's oligarchs support the programs saying it allows the best and brightest in to help our industries grow, while some ultra-conservatives like Bannon argue that the special visas are simply a tool that corporations use to bring in cheap labor, and that the visas work against the interests of American workers.

Bannon reportedly harped last week that South Africa, the birthplace and boyhood home of Elon Musk, is the most racist country on Earth and that Musk should go back there.  He has vowed that he will have Musk removed from his perch of influence next to the incoming-President's ear prior to Inauguration Day.  There are other Republicans who also regard Elon Musk with disdain, particularly due to his stance favoring the special visas.

Bannon has his detractors in the GOP fold as well, people who do not hold fond views of Bannon's time working in the White House and would like to see him kept away from the new President.

Donald is going to have a real mess on his hands as he tries to keep the family fuss from impacting his golf game - and it couldn't be happening among a more deserving group of people!

The knives are out, the corn is popping, and there is beer in the cooler!  Might as well sit back and try to relax because it's going to be a damned long four years!