Have Bannon & Trump missed their chance? Oscars, Nerd Prom: False Flag Still Possible?

The BBQ Pit
1

We all know that Trump admires authoritarians and authoritarian rule; he’s expressed wistful envy of Kim Jong Un’s ability to have people killed:

5 Controversial Dictators and Leaders Donald Trump Has Praised - ABC News

We can be fairly certain, based on all we know of Trump’s actions over the years, that he’s not particularly hampered by much in the way of a conscience. Steve Bannon might be similarly described (though we know less about his life and works than we know of Trump).

IF these guys wanted to dispense with all the irritations of having to deal with Congress, having their plans thwarted by federal judges, and most of all, having to listen to criticism (from anyone, but especially from The Media)…then of course they’d need some HORRENDOUS act of terrorism to take place. Then they, our Dear Leaders–American Heroes!–could step in with some real leadership and finally get tough on all these Enemies.
But the problem may be that too many Americans would be skeptical of any Horrendous ‘terrorist’ attack. At this point, we’ve had a bellyful of Trump & Bannon’s proclivities—the travel ban, the attempt to keep the Russian connections under wraps, the pirate-ship Cabinet picks, the deportation of moms with no criminal history (other than the technical one of using a fake Social Security number), and of course the millions of taxpayer dollars spent to let Trump spend most weekends on vacation playing golf in Florida.

Trump’s rabid fans are still rabid. No doubt they will swallow anything Bannon feeds them about a potential terrorist attack. But millions of other Americans–the non-fans–might be…
suspicious.
Take the Oscars. Blowing up that building would certainly be an outrage that would resonate—They killed Tom Hanks! They killed Scarlett Johansson! They killed Spielberg! Seizing power after such a horror would be possible, IF the patsy they find to take the blame can be given a background that would be convincing enough. (They’d choose a Muslim person, of course–probably a kid with some online history of criticizing Hollywood Licentiousness and such. Then you get the kid to the Oscars–tell him he’s won a contest or such. The bomb goes off and he’s dead and can’t contradict any of your story—it’s Patsy 101.)

Or, take the White House Correspondents’ Dinner: Trump would be tempted by that one. Imagine taking out all those famous reporters and editors, who have been saying mean things about him!

But in any case, the false flag operation would have to be well-constructed, and carried out by true believers (so that they wouldn’t expose the plot). The patsy and the means the patsy supposedly used to create the destruction would all have to be convincing…and some of us would take a LOT of convincing.

Personally, if a major attack happens in the USA, I will immediately suspect Bannon & Trump…and I bet I’m not alone in that.
-------This entire post has, of course, a revolting premise: that an American President and his handlers might connive at the death of human beings. I don’t suggest the idea lightly: I believe they are genuinely capable of doing it. And I don’t treat the deaths of movie people or media people or any people lightly, either—this is a hypothetical which I hope will never come to pass, because (in part) I am hoping that Bannon is in-touch enough with reality to realize he wouldn’t get away with it—that he would get caught and would face capital consequences. Trump, on the other hand, isn’t intellectually capable of thinking through the possibility of being caught.

The more people who give thought to the topic, the less likely it is that it will happen.

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I really don’t think so. In the movies these things are easily possible.

In reality, pulling something like this off would have to involve a not-insubstantial number of people who would have to be brought into the plot and then keep quiet about it. At this point, the chances are that the operational people around Trump who *could *do something like this wouldn’t do it. They would blow the whistle.

If Trump stays in power for a very long time he may corrupt the values of those around him to an extent sufficient that he could propose something like this and be sure that those around him are loyal enough (and assholish enough) to go along with it. Not at the moment.

3

No.

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I don’t doubt that Trump and Bannon would want such an event to happen. I seriously doubt their ability to undertake such action.

They people that surround them are, on the whole, fuckups. The chaos and idiocy that resulted from the travel ban EO is an example of what happens when fuckups are put in charge of things. Who the hell are they going to get to orchestrate such a complex plot? James “fuckup” O’Keefe ? How will they effectively cover their tracks so that those in the intelligence agencies who are not “in on it” will be fooled? (and there are more than a few people in the various intelligence agencies who hate Trump’s guts at the moment). How are you going to shut the press up? The ones that Trump has mightily pissed off?

Primarily, although Trump and his closest ilk may salivate at the possibility of blowing up the Oscars or the press dinner, they are quite simply too fucking stupid to have even the slightest chance of pulling it off.

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Sounds a little like the plot of this season of “Homeland”.

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Even “Scandal” wouldn’t try to pull that off.

Besides, even Bannon is not dumb enough to think it would have an effect on the public mind that would help him.

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Funniest line evah !

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So it’s possible that my question should have been “has their chance yet arrived” instead of “have Bannon & Trump missed their chance”…

I tend to agree that what we’ve seen of the White House operatives–Stephen Miller, as a shining example–would lead us to assume they don’t have the ability to pull it off. However, they might be stupid enough to think they could pull it off.

What we need now, to go along with the Stalin movie, is a Mussolini movie–ending, of course, with that lamp post. Just as a reminder.

(The thing with Bannon is that he’s a True Believer that Islam must be eradicated. And sadly he’s not alone. The worry is that enough of these mooks could recognize each other and get together, and talk themselves into the Righteousness of such an act…you know, For the Greater Good.)

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Well, okay, sure. Wars, declared and undeclared. Beard-destroying powder in Castro’s shoes. Drones. Etc.

But we actually *don’t *have a tradition of false-flag terrorist attacks on US soil. (Yet.) It may not be much on which to hang our hat, but it’s there.

10

Well, there is precedent.

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Agreed. The part where the OP lost me is when he said the Trump administration is capable of faking a major terrorist attack. I doubt the current administration, all working together, is capable of programming a DVD player.

12

It has proven to be unwise to underestimate their willingness and ability to engage in such blatant, obvious tactics despite being tactics that anyone with 2 brain cells would consider “impossible to get away with.” I wouldn’t underestimate their ability to get away with a staged terrorist attack now that they have seized power despite a majority of Americans instantly seeing right through it. That isn’t an obstacle to them anymore.

A majority of Americans already believe they are in collusion with Russia, are blatant racists and xenophobes, have financial interests they plan to pursue illegally, and plan to undermine decades of advancements in civil rights, environmental protection and corporate regulation. And yet they still assumed power.

Now they are hard at work undermining the credibility of intelligence agencies and the press, and purging the government of any critics and doubters.

Despite it being impossible to deny, they would simply deny it anyway. Despite it being obvious, their supporters wouldn’t admit it. They would just say that isn’t true, its fake news and fake intelligence, and use it all as a means to advance their agenda.

13

Yes, but even Mandy Patinkin is less of an asshole to deal with than Trump (they say).

14

I’m intrigued by your ideas but I think I’ll pass on your newsletter.

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No, I think there’s a difference here. Trump can say something ridiculous and untrue like Obama was born in Kenya or vaccinations cause autism or three million people voted illegally or terrorists attacked Sweden and his followers swallow his stories.

But there’s a difference between telling lies and committing felonies. If the Trump administration staged a terrorist attack, people would be killed. There would be actual investigations occurring with professionals gathering evidence. And there would be trials and people going to prison.

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There would be people given the death penalty.

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Yes, but are Trump and his merry band of idiots stupid enough to think that THEY would not be the ones going to prison?

18

Time to buy Alcoa stock.

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So far, IMO they’ve showed incredible incompetence at everything aside from running a Presidential campaign (which was a mix of incompetence, competence, and just plain weirdness and unpredictability). I see no reason to believe that they’d be able to competently pull off a major “false flag” terrorist attack, even if they had the inclination (which I don’t necessarily accept). They’re terrible and awful and doing incredible damage to the country and the world, making us far, far less safe, but even with all this I’m not buying that they’re at the level of faking terrorist attacks without actual solid evidence.

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The theory under discussion is that the administration could use an apparent terrorist attack to consolidate their power, right?

In that case, rather than carry out the attack themselves, couldn’t they just depend on a real terrorist organization to do it for them? Not by actually coordinating with them; obviously that would leave a trail. Instead, maybe they just get a little lazy about acting on credible threats. Maybe, when it’s time to follow up on some juicy piece of actionable intelligence, they suddenly find themselves real busy with something else. Next thing you know… well, you get the idea.