By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –
The interview that emerged on the internet of practicing Catholic Milo Yiannopoulos expressing approval of some instances of priest pedophilia with boys has perhaps ended his career as the most flamboyant voice of the neo-KKK in suits. But those remarks are hardly the most objectionable things Yiannopoulos has said; at least he seems to have been talking in part about his own experience. What is really monstrous is the lies he told, and which he was encouraged by his boss Steve Bannon to tell, about Hillary Clinton being involved in a pedophilia ring.
Steve Bannon, now sitting on our National Security Council (and perhaps in control of which of its recommendations goes to Trump), hired Yiannopoulos as an editor at his alt-NeoNazi rag, Breitbart, and helped unleash him on the United States. Bannon’s choice of proteges tells us everything we need to know about him and his agenda in the Trump White House. (Yiannopoulos himself has spoken about how Bannon hired and promoted him).
Newsweek reminds us that last fall
Milo Yiannopoulos, who lost his Twitter access earlier this year after one too many online insults against women and minorities, was on the campus of Miami University in Ohio, scheduled to talk about “PIZZAGATE: The deep Dish on Liberalism and Pedophilia.”
Yiannopoulos pushed the fake news that Hillary Clinton, her campaign manager John Podesta, and others in her circle were involved in two scandals. One was “spirit cooking” or witchcraft. The other was involvement in a pedophilia ring run out of a Washington, DC, pizzeria (an establishment that has suffered reputational damage and actually was shot up by a Bannon-Trump acolyte). I don’t understand why they never sued.
Yiannopoulos said he was not surprised at Secretary Clinton’s alleged involvement in “spirit cooking” because he had long been aware that witchcraft and Lesbianism go together.
Bannon cleverly used far rightwing narcissists like Yiannopoulos to spread around the most ridiculous and yet sinister charges against Secretary Clinton, which were apparently actually believed in the far right circles he cultivated.
So it is especially ironic that, having falsely charged the Democratic Establishment with pedophilia, that Yiannopoulos himself should have been revealed to be a proponent of it. Indeed, it is hard not to conclude that his charges against Clinton were form of projection, in which he transferred his real feelings incorrectly to her.
Given that Bannon hired and relentlessly promoted Yiannopoulos to spread hate speech and dark conspiracy theories, and given that his protege has been revealed to be so deeply flawed, is it really appropriate (was it ever really appropriate) to have Bannon in the White House? What kind of judge of character can we depend on Bannon to be?
Shouldn’t Bannon have to tell us if he ever discussed pedophilia with his close associate Yiannopoulos?
Bannon should resign. Or he should be fired.
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As someone born and brought up a Roman Catholic, I am intrigued by how many of the wingnuts in and around the Trump administration are not just political extremists, but also extremist Catholics (Pence, Gorsuch, Bannon, Yiannopoulos, Gorka).
Pence has left the Catholic faith. He’s a born-again Christian.
To be more specific, Pence is a “Seven Mountains” Dominionist, a faux-Christian political movement which attracts those who want our country to be a theocracy with them in charge.
He wants to deny the least of us anything. Pence is no Christian if he doesn’t recognize the spirit of God in his fellow living creatures, animal and human, on this planet. That’s not me. That’s the Old and New Testament.
Born Again Christians are really just Social Darwinists on the Right. The Left really does have the correct side – one the tends towards social justice – on this argument. Pence and Trump are patently un-Christian (as are Republicans and their supporters in general).
You realize as the days go by that Trump is surrounded with scum, and that these low life elements play a huge part in the Trump administration corrupting our system, challenging it, and trying to shape it to their twisted ways. If this was part of the Hillary Clinton administration, the right would be howling with outrage, playing the part of indignant Americans who are besides themselves at how immoral the Clinton administration is, but here you are, the Republicans seem to be uncharacteristically open minded, accepting racists, disturbing connections to Russia, tweeter wars, the feuds with Australia and Sweden, and Bannon, all in their stride. There is no hope for this country. It is run by rotten eggs with disturbing connections be it Russia or a man named Milo who seem to approve of pedophilia.
“the Republicans seem to be uncharacteristically open minded”
That phrase is so far removed from reality it merits becoming one for the ages.
An open-minded Republican: what a contradiction in terms.
“open-walleted”?
I had not made the association between Bannon and Milo…interesting. According to “Fake News” there is a small group ready to turn in their resignations if Milo is not fired. This comes on the heels of his book deal being canceled as well as his invitation to speak to the “Family Values” Protestants at CPAC, a group that is fine with pu$$y grabbing but not so much with pedophilia.
Here’s a thought:
How does one get their head completely around the prospect of 4 years of this, ranging from daily deranged tweets to painful incompetence to a deliberate strategy of self a destruction.
Bear in mind that all of this stuff compounds and takes on a life of its own. Not to mention actions have consequences that cannot be undone.
Here’s a guy, Richard Clarke, who we know from Bush II’s administration, talking about the amateurism and upheaval in Trump’s NSC from the perspective of 9/11
link to theatlantic.com
The point is that all this stuff now coming out of the Trump administration is setting us up for a nightmare of inconceivable proportions, apart from its simple foolishness.
When/if something bad does happen over the next 4 years, which these guys are practically begging for, we’ll be wishing for the good ol’ days of Dubya.
What the future has in store for the US is incomprehensible.
Travis I hear ya, but I think that’s why they invented ESPN and all those Desperate Housewives shows.
Oh and don’t forget to stock up on duct tape!
Or light up a fatty.
I have no idea Why, but somehow I expect mainstreaming will be allowed to proceed.
Should they? Yes. Will they? Of course not.
Resigning would be an admission of error, on their part and/or the part of the Authoritarian. And that just can’t be done, not if you want to build an authoritarian state.
Lower level minions might get sacrificed, from their pov I’ll bet that includes the Flynn guy, but the leader and his closest comrade will be privileged. I think that if Trump knows anything, he knows he needs Bannon to stay.
There must be something fundamentally flawed within the present security vetting process that allows persons such as Steve Bannon to have access to the critical infrastructure apparatus and information. That he is within an arms length of the nuclear football [launch code authenticator], has made a nightmare come true. Conversely, maybe I am finally officially crazy, as I am seeing these nightmares while I am awake!
According to what I have read, Bannon’s initial appointment does not require Senate confirmation. However, if he becomes a member of the NSC board, the membership which is spelled out in law, he should be required to get Senate confirmation. Since the Republicans control the Senate, the question then becomes if they bow to Trump or insist on their institutional right.
Perhaps they discussed the subject over a pizza?
Yes, these smears have been believed by the bottom feeders, that make Trump’s base.
In order to get a feel for this constituency I make a point of following the fake news site zerohedge.com where there is a fair share of those cretins.
Mr. Cole,
I wish you wouldn’t feel the necessity to use such a polite term as “deeply flawed”. “Lying bastard” would do just as well.
This and similar scandalous events reveal much that is deplorable about the main characters in the stories but also, probably much more seriously, a greater defect in the American people. In the long-ago past the careers of the principal figure or figures in a scandal would be finished. In extreme cases they would commit suicide. In our present era of decadence the perpetrators, when caught, engage in public relations campaigns. If successful, they continue to operate in high positions with power and commit similar and sometimes greater tragedies. This is made possible by the low moral and ethical standards of the American people and their attendant silence. If more people rose and spoke out in protest then we might see more resignations and firings.
Instead, a broad consensus of the American people agreed Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were two of the worst candidates ever to run for president. Nevertheless, more than 120 million people considered one or the other acceptable instead of voting “none of the above.”
Just to add a little bit more, Bill:
Even after hearing the conversation of “Pussy grabbing” & other revelations, women decided (Men too) to vote & put him in the White House, It clearly shows the:
“… the low moral and ethical standards of the American people…”.
Even if the people like Bannon resign. Milo & others like him are eliminated: they will still be handsomely rewarded like J Gordon Liddy & Col. Oliver North, to become TV talk show hosts & analysts.
Empty slogans to make America Great again is no more than a slogan, America is already GREAT.
Bill you have a point. After watching and hearing the reactions over Milo, and then listening to sound bites of Milo, I could not help but think of how Milo will now have a solid cult following. You ain’t heard the last from St. Milo he is now part of the twenty teens of this new century. The bad news is how will the world respond to what Milo is preaching?
Most of the world has no notion of him. I’d not heard of him until all this blew up, but wondering what all the fuss was about I looked him up and concluded he’s a latter-day jester. Bill Maher seems to get that and I find their exchanges very funny as clearly did much of his audience link to youtube.com .
But it was very much a matter of people on each side voting specifically to prevent someone they believed personally harmful to them, as individuals, from getting power.
The problem is, that also describes the German elections of 1933. Everyone could find some partisan media claiming the other guy would be the end of the world, but only one actually was. The judgment of history is that you don’t get to make up or embrace wacko conspiracy theories in order to claim to be voting in self-defense for someone who is openly campaigning to commit racial crackdowns or ethnic cleansing. Even “none of the above” is not a defense in that scenario… in the sense that it didn’t save Germans from concentration camps or from the Red Army.
Yes, drain the swamp of Bannon.
Apologies to swamps for the insult.
Keep on doing your good work, Juan. A quick fact check: were shots fired at the pizzeria?
Yes, the Washington Post reported that the man fired his gun in the pizzeria and traumatized children and families
At some point, we have to go beyond games of moral equivalence in conflicts between factions. “He said she said” means nothing when only she has bruises all over her body. “Reverse prejudice” means nothing when Blacks, but not Whites, live under the sorts of police behavior comparable to the Redcoats of colonial times. “Separate but Equal” is and always was bullshit.
You can’t go down a rabbit hole of rejecting as biased every form of institution that criticizes you, then collects eyewitness testimony against you, then gathers empirical data against you, by only claiming ever more vast and Satanic conspiracies against you. If we can’t even have agreed definitions for words, much less impartial forums to adjudicate our differences, then we have no society at all, but warring tribes. Only one tribe seems to demand the sole ability of waging war against all others behind the shield of the police and gerrymandered government forever, with no one else allowed to fight back.
Can we get back to the Middle East for a minute?