Steve Bannon Says U.S. Has to ‘Increase Taxes on the Wealthy’ Even if They ‘Start Squealing’

"This is a 1932-type realignment, if we do this right,” Bannon explained. “Look at the demographics that got us here – black, Hispanic, white, working class, all of it. If we deliver for these people, and I mean deliver in a big way economically, then this is a coalition that could last for 50 years.”
He added that loyalty to “crony capitalism” and “tax breaks for the corporations” could “squander” a unique moment in history.
Making the economy better is how Hitler got into power too. The irony in saying this could be a 1932 style realignment is not lost on me. Trump has also said he wants to go after his political opponents and put them in prison. Also something Hitler did.
- To expand on this for the unaware: Hitler came back into power for his second term in 1932. His first term, similar to trumps, was rife with turmoil and political/administrative blunders. One of the first things he did, upon returning to power, was a German version of The New Deal. They massively invested in their country's infrastructure and provided tens of millions of jobs for the young working class, who had been suffering the worst unemployment crisis in an age. For the first time in their lives, young Germans had good jobs (with great benefits) and were contributing towards building a better, cleaner, safer Germany, all facilitated by "the national socialist party". This was the part of nazi history that actually included socialism, and it's how the nazi party duped an entire generation into becoming their foot soldiers. They actually delivered substantive, positive change for the people, allowed people to get comfortable with the new status quo while they further built propaganda machines, then turned that status quo into a carrot on a stick. Young nazi's were very fearful of a backslide, so when nazi propaganda started saying all these bad people were trying to take away their newfound financial freedom, it was very easy to convince these young, relatively ignorant, working class people to "defend" the country they proudly built with their own hands.
  If the GOP did a 180° on all of their economic policy, of the last 60+ years, to follow a similar story arc, I would be extremely concerned. With how down-trodden our 3 youngest generations are, the conditions for an American copy of nazi Germany couldn't be more perfect than they are right now.
  I'm not a historian. I just read a book on this subject recently. Feel free to correct or add to anything I got wrong/missed!
  
  I'd be interested to hear which book this was!
  
  If they flipped on their last 60 years of policy though... I'd be much happier with the status quo though. A new new deal and a thriving economy that helps the working class would be great. It would give far fewer issues that we need to address at once. Shit, if you got them flipped, since Republicans tend to fall in line they'll take it as a win and celebrate it as they believed he would be good the entire time ignoring all of his policies changing. And it lands the Republicans left of the Democrats. Meaning when the Democrats lean towards the pubs to get voters .. they'll be moving left as well. If we somehow got healthcare and fair wages and taxation better through this... Then we only have to focus on ensuring they don't subjugate populations like minorities, and get policing under control which all would be easier with a thriving economy and workforce. Less people are scared when more people are doing well. Whether someone is racist or not, they stereotypes become harder to push on people. A few other huge things like climate change, but with high taxes on the rich pushes companies to invest their money into their companies to avoid paying those taxes which in turn will churn out good things. (Either more quality, efficiency, research and expansion). Maybe we could finally catch up on battery tech and secure our own energy sources and grid for the future. That would be a great way to put America to work. Building an upgraded grid with storage and modularity for natural disasters.
  Don't get my hopes up on this shit just to
  
  The difference being that the Nazis were often competent people, and there was not the same massive base of crony capitalism with its fingers firmly enmeshed around every single area of government like there is in the US currently.
  I won’t say it’s impossible, and I think they might be able to leverage social media to construct the exact same mass movement of loyal followers with the exact same horrifying results, but I don’t think the type of economic populism that did it for the Reich is feasible for the MAGA people to pull off. Definitely not with Trump at the helm.
- And just like that, Steve Bannon learned about all the structures of liberal democracy that have thus far been stopping crony capitalism from squishing him like a worm on the sidewalk.
  There’s a reason he isn’t hosting his little podcast in Russia or Algeria. He’s not 1% of strong enough to survive without the cushy protection afforded to white men in America who are broadly aligned with the rich people.
- Thank you, this is the real lesson to take away from this, not some bass-ackwards universe shift again.
  Edit: Stray thought about this again, this is why right wing populism is both effective at getting elected and devastating on countries as it shifts to fascism. Appeal to the masses while conspiring to retain power and increase wealth accumulation at the top.
- None of this matters. Bannon is still useful to the media when they want a headline but he doesn't have enough influence with Trump to actually action anything like this anyways. Trump's cabinet is nothing but billionaires lol.
- He’s talking about FDR not Hitler.
  
  He’s definitely talking about Hitler. He might have FDR in mind for reasons of plausible deniability.
  
  One would like to think so. The problem is that imagining a right-wing Republican willing to jackboot some motherfuckers is easy; imagining one who wants to out-FDR FDR? Come on.

Bannon is an anger salesmen. Anger salesmen don't sell you somene else's anger, though -- they can't. Instead, they package up your own anger, and sell it back to you.
Bannon sees the the reaction people are habing to CEOs right now, slapping a big ol' bow on it, and selling it back to people.
- Nail on the head

- He knows exactly what he's doing. It's multiple groups of shitheads using each other to gain power, not just one big group of elites who are all trustworthy buddies.
  My guess is that Musk will need to buy a merc army before he's able to establish his own nation in space. Might already have one.
  
  There's a reason he's been having Tesla divert more resources to their Optimus robots. The man intends to have a machine army that he could use in a coup. We play our cards right and get behind cloning research, we could have a Grand Clone Army. 200,000 units now, with a million more well on the way. Begun, the Clone Wars have.
- Or maybe, just maybe, you don't know as much about others as you thought you did.
  
  Lol, this is one the most entertaining news video I've seen in awhile from 2020 (foxnews on youtube warning). He had a confederate flying yacht, what's not to guess.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boMfSUUD1Bk
  That dude wants to control the millionaires so he's warning them.
  
  Lol the guy says one thing I agree with and I'm supposed to throw out everything else I know about him. Get real.
  
  Bannon literally compared this to the time period of the Nazis coming to power.
  
  Glug glug glug

https://clickhole.com/heartbreaking-the-worst-person-you-know-just-made-a-gr-1825121606/

This reminds me of a manifesto I was reading for a proposed proletarian-run state. Comes from early 1900s, before the world went to shit because of the rise of fadcism. Particularly a few key points from their 25-point plan stood out to me:
Abolition of unearned incomes [passive income, in today's terms]. Breaking of debt (interest)-slavery.
In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice of life and property that each war demands of the people, personal enrichment due to a war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. Therefore, we demand ruthless confiscation of all war profits.
We demand nationalization of all businesses which have been up to the present formed into companies (trusts).
We demand that the profits from wholesale trade shall be shared out.
We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.
We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality.
We demand a land reform suitable to our needs, provision of a law for the free expropriation of land for the purposes of public utility, abolition of land rent and prevention of all speculation in land.
We demand struggle without consideration against those whose activity is injurious to the general interest. Common national criminals, usurers, profiteers and so forth are to be punished with death, without consideration of confession or race.
[...]
The state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program, to enable every capable and industrious citizen to obtain higher education and subsequently introduction into leading positions. The plans of instruction of all educational institutions are to conform with the experiences of practical life. [...] We demand the education at the expense of the state of outstanding intellectually gifted children of poor parents without consideration of position or profession.
The state is to care for the elevating national health by protecting the mother and child, by outlawing child-labor, [...]
Oops, wait, that's excerpted from The National Socialist Program
Yeah, it turns out Nazis have always been willing to use socialist rhetoric to appeal to the working class. They know what they're doing, but it's only a matter of time before what's determined to be for "the good of the workers" is coincidentally aligned with genocide and war and the greed of the ruling class..
TL;DR Nazis were always on board with taxing the rich... Until they didn't have any more competition, at which point it's back to oligarchy (and genocide, lots and lots of genocide).
- I was wondering with a few of those. Particularly number 18 is dropping fucking anvil sized hints. And knowing what to look for the rest fall neatly into line with their position against reparations and American government loans; their stance on veteran's care; and their conspiracy that corporations cost them world war 1, (this handily turned into Jews the second they needed corporate money).
  So yeah I guess what I'm saying is you should definitely look the gift horse in the mouth. I learned this lesson as a kid in the 90's watching Newt Gingrich talk about how we need to do more to help poverty stricken and homeless children. I was nodding right along and then he got to his solution, workhouses. He even used an updated "Dignity of Work" line about how they'll learn useful skills and be proud of themselves.
- Sooooo, current day russia?
  
  Ya, explains a lot tbh.
- Except in the US it will be the corporations calling the shots. In Nazi Germany the corporations got whatever they wanted as long as they were in-line with the government. Otherwise the government would take over. In the US that wouldn't happen.
  Edit: I find it rich that they wanted to outlaw child labor when they literally sent children to fight in the front lines. As young as 10 fucking years old.
- Why are you reading Nazi manifestos? Most of those bullet points look terrible either way though.
  
  Because I believe in learning from the past, and not making information forbidden either formally via regulations, nor informally via social pressures.
  
  Because reading the enemy's playbook is useful.

I’ll tell you wants going on. He is saying the quiet part out loud.
He is admitting that conservatives have always known what would make the country better but refused to admit it, instead have always played “dumb” by claiming their free market and deregulation approach is what they honestly believe is best for the country.
I might be reading too much into it but imo this shows that decades of democrats playing fair and true to the process is why we got here. Because selfish people realized that they can take advantage of the benefit of the doubt and just ruin the government while pretending they don’t know any better.
Pretty evil, more than I actually expected from him tbh.

This is a 1932-type realignment, if we do this right
Guys, he's not talking about the re-alignment in America in 1932...

Rule of Acquisition #76: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.

He's just talking nonsense though. There is zero chance Trump will tax the billionaires overall. They paid him off, they own him.
But possibly of he's feeling particularly pesky, he might target people he doesn't like and target only them and pretend he did something meritorious.
- Absolutely correct. Trump already told them if they help get him re-elected, he'll cut their taxes.
  
  And when has Trump ever kept his promises?

What the fuck is going on?
edit: this question was not literal
- It's the fiscally liberal but socially conservative strategy. Produce a coalition of christofascists, conservative leaning unions, religious minded immigrants, the subset of naturalized immigrants who want to pull the ladder up behind them, socially conservative elites, and low SES voters.
  And he's right, that combination is a powerhouse of voters that would give them the south, the mountain west and most of the midwest. It leaves out a class that could easily be pigeonholed as "elites" in the big cities on the coasts - and would align our political structure more like Turkey or India's.
  In other words, DT peeled off a layer of disenfranchized democratic voters that were ripe for the taking, Bannon wants to build a strategy that keeps them.
  
  Fucking DNC gave them this opportunity
- Right?
  
  I've checked for the Azure Gate Bridge and whether green lights mean go, and so far I don't think we Slid anywhere but keep your eyes peeled.
- Lenin watches Danton and decided his big losing moment was preaching reason to revolutionaries, losing his head in the process.
  He studies hard the play book, decides to push hard with the revolutionaries and upends the Tsar and half the world.
  100 years later Banon watches Lenin...
  Its criminal what we call history in the States.
- They might seem like they work together, but there are different grifters with slightly different goals. Banon wants to bring fascism back.
- It's another grift

Oh snap the broken clock was right for once.
- He's talking about rich Dems / libs
  
  he's talking about The Jews
- Broken clocks still need replacing.

"four months in prison and he's already starting to sound like a god damn liberal. we should ban prisons before more people are indoctrinated by the left."
- There's really no limit to using this kind of logic in this manner. They've been conditioned to accept any reasoning as long as it's presented as anti-woke or along those lines. If Trump said exactly what you did Republicans would be lining up to abolish the private prison system the next day.

steve bannon says something he knows will never happen because that's what populists do.

I'm wondering if we're in the process of seeing the parties flip tbh. It seems like D's are becoming more conservative and R's are now trying to make systemic changes. Granted it's not a perfect flip and R-progressiveness is more like going backwards at times (abortion) but things feel weird now.
D: Trying to maintain (aka conserve) the status quo. Haven't been truly progressive for decades. Doesn't seem to have learned anything from losing in 2024.
R: Got suddenly forced into populism by Trump's surprise win and staying power. Their status quo rich politicians are all being forced out. "Anti-Elites" and big chaotic changes are now their calling cards.
If R's realize that voters will strongly support them for attacking the rich, it might happen imo.
- One key thing is that the Republican party has very much now become the party of the working class. In 2024, Kamala won those making less than $30k, and more than $100k. She won the poor and the professional class, but Trump won the working class, (and I assume) the extremely wealthy.
  The Democrat's real base right now is the professional class. Those with college degrees working white collar jobs. The poor also vote more for Dems, but they vote in fewer numbers based both on their poverty and their lower than average age.
  We always assumed it was the rich vs everyone else, but it need not be that way. It could easily turn out to be the rich and the working class vs. the professional class and the poor. When someone like Bannon suggests raising taxes on the "rich," he may not mean the actual ultra-wealthy, but the professional class.
  And there is a form of taxation that could be implemented to fall on the professional class the hardest - targeting the tax advantages of 401ks and IRAs. That seems the most obvious target. Just raising income taxes would have to also hit the rich, but taking away a lot of the tax benefits of retirement accounts would mostly hurt the professional class, the white collar workers with bachelors and graduate degrees. The doctors, the lawyers, the engineers, the college professors, etc. The truly wealthy don't really rely on these accounts much, as they have limits on them that make them useless for storing tens of millions or more in. And the working class? Well if you have a household income of $60k, odds are pretty low you're going to be maxing out your 401k contribution.
  The retirement accounts seem the most likely targets of this. The poor and working class don't usually make enough to put substantial money away in these accounts, while their asset protections are a rounding error to the wealthy. Raiding 401ks and IRAs would be a way for them to raise taxes in a way that zeros in on the Democratic electorate and hurts them the most.
  We could even see a very weird political landscape where 401ks and IRAs were raided to pay for social programs like health insurance subsidies, expanded subsidies for new parents, subsidized daycare, and other social spending meant to increase birth rates. They would sell it as "raising taxes on the wealthy to give to the working class," while they would really be raising taxes on the professional class to pay for subsidies for the working class and tax cuts for the wealthy.
  The white collar college educated workers are the heart of the Democrat's current power base. They are the most likely targets of any Republican tax increases "on the rich." And the easiest way to raise taxes on the professional class without also taxing the wealthy is to come after the retirement accounts.
  And while some might say, "that would never happen, people wouldn't stand for it. It would be the government going back on its word, people would be infuriated!" Well, I just come back to the end of Roe v. Wade. Republicans stripped civil rights from half the country, and the electorate responded by giving them full control of government. If you can strip the civil rights from half the population, stripping retirement account benefits, which far fewer people are actually able to really take advantage of, is minor in comparison.
  401k and IRA protections are just tax policy. They can be changed at any time. A law could be passed tomorrow that said, "401k accounts are being wound down. All 401k accounts must be liquidated within the next five years and transferred to regular taxable brokerage accounts. This liquidation will be taxed like any other 401k or IRA withdrawal." Then, everyone has to liquidate their accounts, and the full balance would be taxed as regular income. Not only would this give the government more long term revenue, but it would represent a massive short-term windfall. The treasury would bring in trillions as the government effectively seizes 20-30% of every 401k account in the nation. It would be a temporary windfall, but in the years of this one-time liquidation, it would likely even allow Trump to claim he actually balanced the budget. Anyone with sense would know it was a short-term stunt, but his base isn't known for having a lot of sense.
  
  trump's core voting bloc was those making 70,000 and up. that's not the working class.
- republicans aren't for systemic change.. they're literally about the status quo.
  
  Trump took over GOP. It's not the same party as before.
  Tariffs and deporting millions of people are both quite radical changes of the status quo. Illegals have been a fundamental part of our labor market for decades. GOP historically has been pro-illegal immigrants even if they've kept mostly quiet about it. It's good for business. Reagan, the GOP quasi-religious symbol, legalized millions of illegals.
  Tariffs fly in the face of established free market capitalism economics. Milton Friedman would be turning in his grave. You are artificially repressing the market through strong government regulation. Again, a radical reshaping of American policy.
  I think Trump actually has a short window of action for very dramatic change. For example, if he comes out and says he believes we need universal healthcare because of the corrupt elites and whatnot, I think people will rally behind him. His popularity would jump up 20 points overnight. I think his voters are actually expecting some type of radical change.
  The country is hurting and when people elect populists, it means they're at the end of their ropes. Some of the class consciousness needs to be released with a pressure valve otherwise we're headed for some murky and potentially ugly consequences.
  People like Bannon understand this. I think they see the way the winds are blowing and want to be in a position to benefit
  
  Republicans do want to change the system, but only in ways that make it easier for the already wealthy to extract even more money from the rest of the country, and do it faster.
  Imagine how rich a small number of people can get if those pesky consumer protection and environmental regulations are tossed in the trash.
- Party of hate wants to become the progressive party.
  Yeah, fuck that, fuck those people.

Broken clock?
- Bannon is the cackling villain.
  He knows the system is fucked. He knows he's fucked. He knows you know it's fucked and there's no reason to hide anything.
  If Starscream slicked his hair back and had a thing for Johnny Cash's wardrobe, you'd have something close to Bannon.
  
  I hate how accurate your besmirchment of Starscream is.
  Carry on.
  
  ...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

They have no principles. They believe nothing except what is politically expedient. They will say this, do the opposite, and insist their plan worked. Don’t play along, consistency is only relevant for people acting in good faith.

Exept Musk I assume. Or Trump. Or any other fascist fuck.

People realize that he's just a propagandist saving face by playing both sides and now playing with the short attention span and memory of the idiots on the other side, right?

I've been hate listening to his podcast. A lot of what he says would be considered pretty eft leaning. But then a lot of it is conspiracy minded. Honestly Lauren to his podcast, it's pretty unbearable, but he hates the elites as much as anyone here. It probably goes some way to understanding why trump won
- But he and Trump are elites. Especially Trump. You really can't get much more elite than someone who owns a skyscraper in Manhattan with his name on it.
  
  Bannon is from an ultra-conservative Irish-heritage working class family. He has always - at least in public - been anti-elitist, although of course he was an investment banker for years
  
  Elite is a conceptual category. He's a human being like the rest of us and a small ornament on the tree of life.
  
  So is everyone they're competing against...

I'm so confused.
- IKR? I didn't think I'd ever agree with a word dude said

Props to the outlet for showing the picture of Bannon in criminal court.

Lmao it's like when the old white men become senile and slide to the right except Bannon is morally inverted.
- Maybe he doesn't want to get targeted by the adjuster. I mean killing CEO and the rich is hot right now with the 99%.
  
  It's not polling all that well, tbh. Only hot with 41% across the income spectrum among youths, lower in every other demographic.

You can increase the taxes. The hard part is making them pay it

He's talking about California and New York. You know, kind of like they did when Trump was president last time.

But what does President Musk think about raising taxes on the rich?
- I fully can see him being the type that makes an exception for himself and totally screws over his billionaire peers.
  He doesn’t look like someone that would get along with his peers.
- Our taxes should be paid directly to Musk instead of going through the government.

With a cabinet made of billionaires?
Yeah ok what else you want us to smoke

First time I agree with Steve Bannon on anything, ever.

Steve Bandwagon strikes again.
- Populist gonna Populist.

It won’t happen. He’s sayin this to avoid getting shot

Even a broken clock is correct twice a day

And hell just froze over.

What the fuck did I just read?

especially if they start squealing.

This just in: Trump just un-pardoned Steve Bannon (SCOTUS immediately says that's allowed now).

Sounds promising, except the “wealthy” he’s considering are probably in the 80k-250k bracket lol
Unless they’re targeting multimillionaires+, it’s not gonna work. The other half of this is that there needs to be an open and transparent process for keeping tracking of how taxes are spent
Edit but since it’s a bunch of kleptocrats in govt now, what to think of that? I guess rich progressives/dems/libs better make sure they’re using the same loop holes to conserve wealth that the conservatives will, otherwise it’s just playing a game rigged to kill you.

i love that shiteating grin on his face underneath this headline

https://youtu.be/kdhhQhqi_AE

Bannon might be a piece of shit, but he knows everyone else is too, and isn't afraid to talk bluntly and openly about it.
Something tells me that, if the white house was on fire, he'd be laughing.

It would be hilarious if trump did things that actually worked and became extremely well beloved by people because of it. Taking steps to reduce overhead to impact costs of doing business such as shop front rental coat's. If you cause healthy deflation, you reduce cost of construction materials, and rental costs, this directly impacts small businesses that will pass the savings on to their customers. This impacts prices more than tax cuts ever will. Taxes can only be reduced so much, prices can drop to rock bottom prices increasing your spending power to the point manufacturing has to kick up to keep up with demand! Just make everyone pay the same tax percentage. I have no money left over by the time my next paycheck hits typically, I pay 30%, if my job is required to keep the business running, the economy running, and to keep the work moving, then I am just as important as the CEO that decides what work the corporation will be doing. They should be paying 30% too. This is physics 101 if you need 3 gears to run a watch, then no gear is more important than any other because it won't run without just 1 of any of the gears! In terms of our government why is the biggest gears not providing the same input into the system? This is one thing that will stop it from ever being fixed. Reducing the load on the bigger gears and leaving it to the smaller gears messes up any geared system. You want even load across your entire machine. Until everyone is (apparently) forced to be a functioning member, this machine is going to keep having serious failures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory
- Given the basic implausibility of the horseshoe theory, why do so many centrist commentators insist on perpetuating it? The likely answer is that it allows those in the centre to discredit the left while disavowing their own complicity with the far right. Historically, it has been “centrist” liberals – in Spain, Chile, Brazil, and in many other countries – who have helped the far right to power, usually because they would rather have had a fascist in power than a socialist.
  Today’s fascists have also been facilitated by centrists
  https://theconversation.com/horseshoe-theory-is-nonsense-the-far-right-and-far-left-have-little-in-common-77588
  Same place happens to have a much newer article that concludes much the same.
  https://theconversation.com/are-the-far-left-and-far-right-merging-together-thats-what-the-horseshoe-theory-of-politics-says-but-its-wrong-234079
  Horseshoe models should be scrutinised for what they put in and what they choose to leave out. They emphasise values such as individualism, free markets and moderate policies, but register few of the social inequalities, exploitation and structural violence that often accompany them.
  So while the left–right spectrum isn’t perfect, bending it into a horseshoe doesn’t do much to explain the strange political bedfellows of our times.
  
  Well maybe the theory's wielders are wrong, but I still buy the basic premise.
  The extreme left and right are slowly gravitating towards similar conclusions about who thier real enemies are... basically, billionares.

It makes sense that Steve Bannon would be turn into a born-again communist. After all, them and nazis are like inches away from each other.
- Ok you've got me thinking, theres never been a Nazbol state to my knowledge but what was the most successful faction they ever mustered? Or is it just a hypothetical? Seems like a very unstable hybridization as they are so different, although they both believe in a strong, authoritarian state and hate capitalism...