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€1,000 a day while "holidaying" in Europe must surely be peanuts for him? He is 65, many people that age (not even wealthy) spend lavishly and he will have made quite a bit in Hollywood I guess (with Seinfeld etc.), I mean he must surely have a few millions in savings.
He mentions "infrastructure" in that recent ST interview but doesn't elaborate (ITW (available online). The British New-York-based journalist, Josh Glancy, notes that his replies "are a little vague" or something of that nature. I think the infrastructure he alludes to in the ITW is probably a Breitbart Europe but given that he's been talking about it for about 3 years and nothing has materialised so far, let's just hope that he is just full of shit (as far as Europe is concerned anyhow) like so many of these attention-seeking gobshites, and that his effort tp Trumpify Europe will come to nada.Comment
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We are talking past each other.
It's not that he doesn't have money, it's that he doesn't spend money.
And his Seinfeld royalties are nowhere near as munificent as he claims.Last edited by ursus arctos; 21-07-2018, 15:25.Comment
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OK, he is a complete skinflint, I get it, plenty of rich people are as tight as they come, so it's not terribly surprising. But my main point is: is he actually spending any money in Europe apart from holiday expenses? (as per my previous posts). I'm not sure, there is no evidence of him having spent anything so far other than a few nights in European palaces. He is tight but surely, he doesn't mind spending a bit on himself, does he? (or who knows, maybe he gets his stays at the Principe di Savoia paid for by the Lega Nord).Comment
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As you note, there is no real evidence that he is, which means that he hasn't been able to find a Euro Mercer for three years.
And that is interesting in and of itself.Comment
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Quite, I think otherwise he would have bragged about it, intentionally or not.
You wondered earlier who could be funding Bannon in Europe but thankfully, and I hope I'm right, for all his media exertions when he visits us, he has come a cropper financially and his Breitbart Europe fantasies will hopefully remain piped dreams. I would imagine you need millions for that sort of network to take off and flourish, as well as excellent contacts in Europe and a solid pan-European strategy with advertisers, sponsors behind you etc, and I'm not sure he's got either.
I can't speak for Italy or Hungary, but certainly in France I get the impression that the Le Pens have used him (superficially, once or twice a few months ago) to bounce back after a shit year for them since last June, he got them a little more airtime and attention but I'm not sure that's who they would want to put forward, he is foreign, well-known but the grassroots aren't that familiar with him, he's probably seen as too "exotic", too trumpian even for the Front National who would much prefer to use a proper homegrown celebrity bastard rather than some distant "emmet" as they say in Cornwall (non-native) that nobody is too sure about. They (FN] are "flattered", it gives them a semblance of international dimension etc. but that's all. (and they connected with him also possibly because they were under the impression he was loaded and they direly need a sugar daddy, as we've discussed in the French thread a while ago. Particularly Marion Le Pen, she needed money for her "school of politics" that I talked about in February - oh, it's been launched BTW, in Lyon, fucking hell...)Comment
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Can't he have a car accident, or fall down a flight of stairs?Comment
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Salvini has endorsed the invasion of Crimea.Comment
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The Russians will find a way to funnel money to him.Comment
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One doesn't need advertisers, sponsors or any sort of real network if you can find wingnut billionaires willing to throw you 25 million a year or more.
I imagine that Bannon, who knows very little about the world outside his bubbles, is quite surprised that he hasn't been able to do that yet.
Salvini and the Lega have been getting Russian money for years.Last edited by ursus arctos; 21-07-2018, 16:32.Comment
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Yes but you asked the question of who was funding Bannon in Europe, so we’re talking about the here and now. At the moment, Bannon evidently hasn’t found any such benefactor, and hasn’t found a way to replicate his Breitbart success in Europe, he hasn't found those elusive Russian benefactors otherwise there would surely be some sort of Breitbarty structure in place and there doesn’t seem to be, even an inchoate one (I hope I'm right on this one).Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
Yes, it's established. Do we know how they get those Russian funds exactly, it is via loans (as per the Front National model, loans from Russian banks) or otherwise?Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostComment
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We don’t know for sure, because the Lega’s finances are famously opaque.
However, at the time of the elections, there had been hope that many questions would ultimately be answered by a long-standing investigation into the “disappearance” of 45 million euro of party funds that had already resulted in the conviction at first instance of former Lega officials.
I am sure that it will surprise exactly no one here that very little appears to have happened on that front since the Lega came to power.
This translation from L’Espresso summarises some of the work they have done on this and there have also been calls for investigations in Germany and the European Parliament.
This FT article notes some of Savini’s links to Putin, including the official cooperation agreement between the Lega and United Russia.Last edited by ursus arctos; 21-07-2018, 19:15.Comment
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Thanks for the links, interesting.
FT: "President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party has signed a co-operation deal with Italy’s far-right Lega Nord, deepening Russia’s ties with Europe’s populist movements." Shit, Putin has gone much further with Salvini than he did with the Front National, he must have sensed that Italy, because of its governance system, is far more likely than France to be impacted by this populist shite.
€45m gone missing, che casino… It was like that too in France until a string of high profile corruption and politico-financial scandals in the 1980s-1990s (Urba-Gracco, Carrefour du development, Elf scandal, etc.) forced the authorities to pass a series of laws over a decade (the Loi Rocard, 1990, being the first one ever in France to tackle this area of financing and political campaigns) that regulated things and totally overhauled party funding. Not perfect (more scandals under Sarkozy, but of a different nature) but it certainly has made the financing of parties far less opaque.
Right on cue, announced a few hours ago while we were posting:
Steve Bannon announces plan for European foundation to back Right-wing political groups
No details of course on the funding of this foundation based in Brussels. The fucker is going to spend half of his time in Europe now (cheers mates... FFS, please try harder to keep your white trash at home).Comment
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I was just going to post that.
Here's another story with a bit more detail.
That will cost more than a few nights at the Principe Di Savoia (which I never liked, though many of my partners do).The Movement’s headquarters are expected to be located in Brussels, Belgium, where they will start hiring staff in coming months. It is expected that there will be fewer than 10 full-time staff ahead of the 2019 elections, with a polling expert, a communications person, an office manager and a researcher among the positions. The plan is to ramp that up to more like 25 people post-2019 if the project has been a success.Comment
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Meanwhile, the Sunday Times reports tonight that 24% of UK voters would vote for an "explicitly far-right, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam" party.Comment
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Well, UKIP scored nearly 27% at the 2014 Europeans so that sort of figure above shouldn't come as a surprise.Originally posted by Diable Rouge View Post
@ursus: thanks for the link, very depressing but they will need a lot of money and time I think to really upset the political order on a Europe-wide basis. But yeah, it's worrying of course. Fuck, before long there won't be a safe place to escape to. I was reading a feature on south-east Asian countries in a recent Le Monde (1 and 2 July) - Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia - and fuck, it's grim over there after a series of "parenthèses démocratiques" (democratic periods).Comment
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I get the feeling this isn't likely to go very well.Britain will refuse to pay its £39 billion divorce bill to Brussels if the European Union fails to agree a trade deal, the new Brexit Secretary pledges today.
Dominic Raab told The Sunday Telegraph that he would make the vast payment formally conditional on the EU “fulfilling its side of the bargain”.
The promise will be welcomed by leading Brexiteers after the Government said in May that there were no plans for a legally enforceable link between the bill and a future trading relationship.Comment
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Kev, do you have a digital subscription to Monde?
I'm thinking of getting one, but then I already don't read a lot of what I subscribe to.Comment
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I am intrigued to see how this works on the UK's ability to make all these spectacular trade deals, a public reneging on commitments to pay money that has been promised. "You can trust us, honest"Originally posted by Tubby Isaacs View PostComment
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Marr's just shown Raab an EU-wide IMF graph (no-deal case) with the UK economy tanking compared to most other EU countries who would hardly be affected (except for Ireland). Raab’s reply (approx.): "No, it’s the other way round, the economies of EU countries would suffer more than ours." and then he swiftly moved on to something else (shame Marr didn't ask him to elaborate on this one). I stopped watching at that point (about 20 mns ago).
No, I don’t, I spend enough in subscriptions (~£250 a yr) as it is and like you I only read a fraction. I’m actually going to stop a few subs I’ve got as it's getting a little out of control, like Country Walking mag, as I hardly read them even if they’re great, just not enough time. I subscribed to France Football, Marianne and a few others for many years but stopped through lack of time, I need to be ruthless again comes subscription renewal time. I hate reading the press digitally anyway, I know I wouldn’t read 10% of the content. My relatives regularly send me French papers & mags and Le Monde is widely available in England, although in Newcastle the options are dwindling (you can no longer get L’Équipe, Libération, France Football and a few others AFAIK - just Le Figaro and Le Monde) but I buy Le Monde whenever I’m in town or elsewhere in England. I try to get sent Le Monde Diplo (diplomatique, a monthly) as often as I can too, it's excellent.Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
But one thing Le Monde that I'd advise anyone to get is their yearly Le Bilan du Monde hors-série (€12, 220 pages), it gives you the economic and political lowdown on nearly 200 countries, + maps, tables, photos etc. I only buy it every 4-5 years but it’s an excellent read. Comes out every January but you can order it anytime (and back issues too) via Amazon, Fnac.com or from the online Le Monde boutique. They do other Bilans hors-séries (regular publications or one-offs), such as Le Bilan du Monde Junior, Le Bilan du Monde géostratégique etc.
From http://boutique.lemonde.fr/hs-bilan-du-monde-2018.html
Description
Bilan du monde 2018
Géopolitique, environnement, économie
l'Atlas de 198 pays
UN ATLAS EXHAUSTIF
Pour chacun des 198 pays du monde, les chiffres-clés (population, PIB, parité hommes-femmes en politique...), une carte et une analyse politique et économique de l’année par les correspondants du Monde.
UN PORTFOLIO
16 pages des meilleures photos d’actualité de l’année, sélectionnées par le service photo du Monde.
INTERNATIONAL
Les foucades de Donald Trump contraignent Européens et Asiatiques à redéfinir leur stratégie face à la renaissance des puissances russe et chinoise ; au Moyen-Orient, la marée de l’organisation Etat islamique se retire, réactivant les conflits entre les protagonistes de la région.
PLANÈTE
Après le retrait américain, comment tenir les objectifs de l’accord de Paris contre le réchauffement climatique, alors que les émissions de CO2 augmentent à nouveau, que les catastrophes climatiques s’aggravent ?
FRANCE
La victoire surprise d’Emmanuel Macron laisse le champ des partis politiques français en ruines, mais ne lève pas les incertitudes sur les orientations des réformes en cours.
IDÉES
Françoise Héritier, JMG Le Clézio, Barrack Obama, Achille Mbembe... les textes publiés dans Le Monde qui ont marqué l’année 2017.
€12, 220 pages. Date de parution : janvier 2018.
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I concur on the Bilans, they are great.Comment
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Le Monde has seriously perked up and improved in the last few years, since the so-called "BNP" trio took over basically, now sadly a duo (the late Pierre Bergé-telecoms billionaire and visionnaire Xavier Niel-banker Matthieu Pigasse), it was on the brink of bankruptcy. They've brought a more modern outlook, more variety, plenty of fresh blood (younger journalists) and a new editorial director in 2015 (Jérôme Fénoglio, who replaced Natalie Nougayrède, now a tenured Guardian journalist – she resigned from Le Monde after only a year and bit at the helm; I know, from a couple of Le Monde writers, that she wasn’t terribly popular, considered divisive, I’ll leave it at that) and new futuristic bridge-like headquarters in 2019.
http://parisfutur.com/projets/le-monde-nouveau-siege/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2...a=gdpr-consent
The building, Snohetta’s first Paris project, aims to act as a bridge between the publication and its readers with public spaces that include a visitor center, auditorium, café, seating, and green areas built to welcome the public and serve as a stage for public gatherings.
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I was just about to make a similar comment. I think that the Mediapart breakaway also helped convince them that they needed to get to their act together.
We certainly benefit.Comment
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<insert some bollocks about wearing different hats>
[/quote]Somerset Capital, the UK boutique manager part-owned by Jacob Rees-Mogg, has launched a second Irish-based fund as the politician, famed for favouring a hard Brexit, continues to reduce his stake in the emerging markets specialist.
The $8.6bn company said the fund was created to meet demand from international investors. The UK’s withdrawal from the EU has forced many asset managers to set up replica product ranges in European investment hubs such as Dublin and Luxembourg in order to continue to serve foreign clients.
“The structure we use is only ever relevant to client or technically specific considerations,” said Dominic Johnson, chief executive and co-founder. “The fact that we manage billions of dollars in UK structures should give you reassurance that we are not embarking on an offshoring spree.”
The new fund, which is focused on frontier markets such as Argentina and Nigeria, is seeded with $50m from AP1, the Swedish national pension plan.
AP1 requested that the fund be domiciled in Ireland, a location that also made it more attractive to other international investors.
The $37bn pension fund would not be drawn on whether the reason for setting up a fund outside the UK was related to Brexit.
https://www.ft.com/content/d615b792-...d-0181731a0340Comment
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