“White nationalist? That’s supposed to be different from racist?”
❝ While we’ve all been watching the unruly vivisection of American democracy by a family full of spectacular grifters…there’s been a lot of strange goings-on at the Vatican. The knives are out for Papa Francesco.
At the root of things is the fact that the pope gave the boot to Raymond Cardinal Burke, a theological reactionary and a guy who was born 500 years too late to be the high cleric of his dreams. This touched off a major squabble with the Knights of Malta. They’re serious power brokers within HMC even though they dress like Albanian ushers and despite the fact that just talking about them makes me start hearing “Hail, Hail Freedonia” in my mind. Burke was their chaplain…
❝ In one of the cardinal’s antechambers, amid religious statues and book-lined walls, Cardinal Burke and Mr. Bannon — who is now President Trump’s anti-establishment eminence — bonded over their shared worldview. They saw Islam as threatening to overrun a prostrate West weakened by the erosion of traditional Christian values, and viewed themselves as unjustly ostracized by out-of-touch political elites. “When you recognize someone who has sacrificed in order to remain true to his principles and who is fighting the same kind of battles in the cultural arena, in a different section of the battlefield, I’m not surprised there is a meeting of hearts,” said Benjamin Harnwell, a confidant of Cardinal Burke who arranged the 2014 meeting.
❝ Just as Mr. Bannon has connected with far-right parties threatening to topple governments throughout Western Europe, he has also made common cause with elements in the Roman Catholic Church who oppose the direction Francis is taking them. Many share Mr. Bannon’s suspicion of Pope Francis as a dangerously misguided, and probably socialist, pontiff…For many of the pope’s ideological opponents…this angry moment in history is an opportunity to derail what they see as a disastrous papal agenda. And in Mr. Trump, and more directly in Mr. Bannon, some self-described…radical traditionalists — see an alternate leader who will stand up for traditional Christian values and against Muslim interlopers.
❝ If it wasn’t clear already, it should be now. Stephen Bannon, the last descendant of House Harkonnen, is not someone who wants to “disrupt the elites,” or whatever techie garbage he likes to toss around. He wants to establish himself at the head of a new, worldwide authoritarian elite that will reach into every institution and that will demolish any of those institutions that stand in the way of what he wants. The man is a political thug, and Burke is a theological thug. Marriage made somewhat lower than heaven.
Just in case you wondered how and where Trump began acquiring his new religious credentials, look no further than Bannon and his root-and-branch need for state religion.
“Bannon Cited Italian Thinker Who Inspired Fascists” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/world/europe/bannon-vatican-julius-evola-fascism.html “Those trying to divine the roots of Stephen K. Bannon’s dark and at times apocalyptic worldview have repeatedly combed over a speech that Mr. Bannon, President Trump’s ideological guru, made in 2014 to a Vatican conference, where he expounded on Islam, populism and capitalism.
But for all the examination of those remarks, a passing reference by Mr. Bannon to an esoteric Italian philosopher has gone little noticed, except perhaps by scholars and followers of the deeply taboo, Nazi-affiliated thinker, Julius Evola.
“The fact that Bannon even knows Evola is significant,” said Mark Sedgwick, a leading scholar of Traditionalists at Aarhus University in Denmark.”
Re: Evola (“described as “one of the most influential fascist racists in Italian history”) see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Evola
See also: “Steve Bannon Carries Battles to Another Influential Hub: The Vatican” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/world/europe/vatican-steve-bannon-pope-francis.html Re: Benjamin Harnwell of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute see http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/05/25/benjamin-harnwell-international-movement-reduce-global-population/ (Breitbart)
“Inside the Secret, Strange Origins of Steve Bannon’s Nationalist Fantasia : The chief strategist of Trump’s triumph reveals his strange brew of intellectual influences, including a French-Egyptian Muslim occultist guru, and his apocalyptic view of history.” (Vanity Fair 7/17/17) http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/07/the-strange-origins-of-steve-bannons-nationalist-fantasia Adapted from “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency” by Joshua Green (July 18; Penguin Press). See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditionalist_School
“How Trump remains untouchable as a celebrity rather than a politician” (Washington Post July 18, 2017) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-trump-remained-untouchable-as-a-celebrity-rather-than-a-politician/2017/07/18/0cb9f326-64dc-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html
Steve Bannon’s Bannon http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/13/becoming-steve-bannons-bannon
“As Tensions Rise, Steve Bannon and ISIS Get Closer to Their Common Goal: Civilizational War” https://theintercept.com/2017/02/11/as-tensions-rise-steve-bannon-and-isis-get-closer-to-their-common-goal-civilizational-war/ Re: Stefan Zweig, “At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most popular writers in the world” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig
“President Trump on Wednesday removed controversial White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon from the National Security Council, part of a sweeping staff reshuffling that elevated key military and intelligence officials to greater roles on the council and left Bannon far less involved in shaping the administration’s day-to-day national security policy.
Two senior White House officials said Bannon’s departure was in no way a demotion and that he had rarely attended meetings since being placed on the council. They and others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/04/05/steven-bannon-no-longer-a-member-of-national-security-council/
Re: “Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam” by then Major, currently National Security Advisor Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, see http://www.historynet.com/book-review-dereliction-of-duty-johnson-mcnamara-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-and-the-lies-that-led-to-vietnam-hr-mcmaster-vn.htm
“Trump Removed Bannon from the NSC —What About His Protégé?” https://medium.com/@moscowproject/trump-just-removed-bannon-from-the-nsc-heres-why-9cbfdc5a7dc5 “A friend of Jared Kushner who was hired by Michael Flynn, Cohen-Watnick was protected by Bannon when H.R. McMaster attempted to fire him in March. Last week, Cohen-Watnick was identified as the source behind the Nunes scandal who “sought to use intelligence to advance the political goals of the Trump administration.” See timeline
“Steve Bannon to head Trump’s Russia war room of legal ‘A-Team,’ street fighters and surrogates” http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/26/steve-bannon-to-head-trumps-russia-war-room-legal-team-street-fighters-and-surrogates.html
“Bannon’s back” https://www.axios.com/bannon-back-to-fight-russia-probe-2422102907.html “The escalating crisis surrounding the Russia investigation (with reports last night on FBI interest in Jared Kushner) looks like good news for somebody in the White House: Steve Bannon.
Nine sources in the West Wing and within Trump’s close orbit said the Russia situation is Bannon’s shot at redemption. He’s being described as a “wartime consigliere” relishing a fight against the “deep state,” media, Democrats and investigators.”
See also “The pseudoscience that prepared America for Steve Bannon’s apocalyptic message” https://qz.com/970646/the-world-has-already-bought-into-steve-bannons-apocalyptic-ideology/ and “The Engineering of Consent” By Edward L. Bernays (1947) http://www.mcnuttphysics.com/uploads/2/3/6/9/23694535/engineering_of_consent-edward_l_bernays.pdf
“Who is Steve Bannon? The View from Four Breitbart Staffers” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/who-is-steve-bannon-the-view-from-four-breitbart-staffers/ Over the course of reporting the new documentary, Bannon’s War, FRONTLINE sat down with four current and former Breitbart staffers to gain a fuller understanding of who Bannon is.
He’s back… http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/07/steve-bannon-is-out-of-trump-doghouse-leading-charge-against-robert-mueller.html