Day: June 30, 2020

Is Trump putting fascists in charge of the Voice of America?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Is Trump putting fascists in charge of the Voice of America?

But by far the most astonishing and chilling rapprochement recounted in Teitelbaum’s book is the one Bannon attempted with Aleksandr Dugin during at least one eight-hour-long meeting in Rome in November 2018. Dugin has come to espouse his own distinctively Russian form of Traditionalism through the intermediary of Martin Heidegger, the brilliant German philosopher who became a committed Nazi and continued to express admiration for a highly idealized form of National Socialism long after Hitler’s defeat in 1945. The concept that Dugin has developed most fruitfully from Heidegger is the idea that the modern world is on the cusp of “another beginning” in which its reigning ontological dispensation will fully give way to nihilism as a prelude to giving birth to a new form of being, knowing, and acting.

How does the modern world — and the United States in particular — appear in light of this apocalyptic vision? Just last week, Dugin let us know. In a brief statement posted to his public Facebook account, he gave us his interpretation of the Black Lives Matters protests sweeping the country. Dugin describes two “poles” at war with one another in the U.S. The first, dominated by BLM and Antifa, is “incompatible with the future existence of the United States of America as [a] strong and dominant country.” The other pole, represented by Donald Trump and his supporters, is “deep, strong, patriotic, and (relatively) sane.” The clash between these two Americas will lead to an “existential war.”

Alexandr Dugin, Facebook.

Related:

Pandemic and the Politics of Survival: The Horizons of a New Type of Dictatorship

[2016] Clinton’s Campaign & The Anti-Russian Roots of the ‘Cultural Left’

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Clinton’s Campaign & The Anti-Russian Roots of the ‘Cultural Left’

To understand the unique rhetorical style that Clinton has embraced, one must understand what happened at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel back in 1949. Despite the United States being in an anti-communist frenzy, with the House Un-American Activities committee in full swing, and many Communist Party members being sent to federal or state prisons, the Moscow-aligned Communist Party scored a key public relations victory.

On March 25th, 1949 the “Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace” opened in New York City, and gave voice to a loud, solid critique of US foreign policy. Albert Einstein, Will Geer, Arthur Miller, Aaron Copeland, Lillian Hellman, Frank Oppenheimer, Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Dubois, and many of the most well respected cultural and intellectual figures of the time took the stage at the conference. The speeches not only denounced the military build-up against the Soviet Union, but also defended Soviet military interventions, and presented the USSR as a friendly, socialist society, not the “Iron Curtain” or “Evil Empire” portrayed in US media. The US Central Intelligence Agency watched with anger as images of the Waldorf Peace Conference were distributed by media outlets across the planet, discrediting the United States and raising the prestige of the Soviet Union.

In response, the following year the CIA launched a project called the “Congress for Cultural Freedom.” Still today, the project is considered to be one of the agency’s greatest achievements of the Cold War era. The CIA brags about the project on its website saying it involved: “a cadre of energetic and well-connected staffers willing to experiment with unorthodox ideas and controversial individuals if that was what it took to challenge the Communists at their own game.”

Related:

Origins of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1949-50

Let’s not allow Steve Bannon and ‘conservatives’ to legitimize extremism in Europe

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Let’s not allow Steve Bannon and ‘conservatives’ to legitimize extremism in Europe (opinion)

Steve Bannon, the former adviser to US President Donald Trump, recently won a legal battle with Italy’s culture ministry to set up a far-right Catholic political academy, a “school of gladiators” in his words, in an 800-year old monastery. Although the Italian ministry said it would appeal the decision, for now the academy is moving ahead. Benjamin Harnwell, founder of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, which will run this nationalist academy, suggested in a recent interview that their intention is to shape the worldview of future populist leaders.

This Academy for the Judeo-Christian West, which will provide courses on politics, philosophy and economics (initially online and with US-based teachers), represents an additional far-right challenge to liberal and progressive values. The idea is to influence conservative thinking in the church and to counter Pope Francis’ pro-migrant — as well as what some have deemed a “liberal”—approach, as Bannon told NBC. But Bannon’s aim, it seems, is mainly to legitimize nationalism and right-leaning xenophobia, bolstering them with a radical, far-right philosophy.

Related:

Immigration and Islamophobia: Breitbart and the Trump Party

Stumbling Towards Catastrophe: The New Cold War With China

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Stumbling Towards Catastrophe: The New Cold War With China

In the early days of the Trump administration, Navarro and former White House strategist Steve Bannon fought hard to push President Trump to put tariffs on Chinese goods, a battle they won. Bannon, a self-described ultra-hawk when it comes to China, has been crusading against the CCP since he left the White House. In a recent interview with Asia Times, when asked if Washington should pursue regime change in Beijing, Bannon said, “I don’t think Asia can be free, until we’ve had regime change in Beijing. And I am an absolute advocate of that.”

Bannon denied rumors that he was joining the Trump campaign for 2020 but ensured many of his friends and colleagues will be on the president’s team. “One hundred and twenty percent of my time right now is spent on taking down the Chinese Communist Party, with the Committee on the Present Danger,” Bannon said. The Committee on Present Danger: China (CPD) is an incredibly hawkish think-tank started by Bannon and neoconservative Frank Gaffney in 2019.

Related:

Bannon aims to make a comeback in circle of Trump influencers ahead of election