Bannon Loves Him Some Apocalypse

Rapture Edition

 

Some further chilling background on Bannon: he's fixated on Armageddon fantasies. I'm afraid he and the other rapture-ready "Christians" will be working to make their end-times dreams come true. 

I find it puzzling that those who profess so strongly to being PRO-LIFE are obsessively focused on death. In the article it describes Bannon's certainty that we are at "the fourth turning", with world-wide death and destruction inevitable. The most disturbing thing is he seems eager to get on with it, surfing that wave of blood into the blessed alt-right future.

Authoritarian or Fascist?

So let's get this straight - (Christian) churches get special tax breaks, but they can ignore inconvenient Federal regulations? Now Trump wants to "destroy" the Johnson Amendment which prevents tax-exempt non-profits from political activity. Free from legal obligations but able to spend tax-free dollars on politics. In effect, this is the absolute opposite of the cry of 1776; it is instead "representation without taxation".

So we have a Trifecta! It's like a series of equations:

Government subsidy (no tax) + no rules! + tax-free money for politics = State Religion.
 State Religion + Strong Leader + Corporate Money = Authoritarianism 
Authoritarianism + Virulent Racism + Attack Media = Chisto-Fascism 

So many sad bloody lessons  were learned  at great expense by our forebears. The endless wars of Europe, both ancient and modern, the African genocides, both ancient and modern,  so many wars through human history. 

Until the ferocious assault of combined corporate and social conservative Big Money plus right-wing media, the post-WW II era has been remarkably stable. The institutions Mr. T mocks and berates: NATO, European Union, the U.N., have helped create a long stretch of world peace.

Yes, there is military conflict pretty much world-wide but at a historically low-level. For an extreme comparison, think of Game of Thrones.  In that world, you were a very lucky man if you made it to 30 years old.  The modern American world is so much safer and padded there is no comparison. You are waaaaay more likely to die of a heart attack than a sword. In terms of risk, you are many times more likely to be killed by lightening than an immigrant terrorist.  

All these painfully constructed rules we have constructed to make this world as safe, just and accessible for the greatest number of people possible are now under systematic assault. Small-minded individuals with deadened souls want as much as they can grab, steal, cheat, borrow, loot and finagle  for their special little tribe of insiders and  to hell with everybody else. We've tried this system of social organization before - it's called Aristocracy.  Historically it has led to mass misery among the peasants who periodically  revolt and string the Dukes and Earls and Kings from the lamp posts. Recall also this was Mussolini's fate. 

It seldom ends well, unless a true democracy like Britain or Sweden retains a ceremonial King. Notable in these countries, the Monarch is obliged to respect and respond to the people.  The Orange Menace's ideas about Royalty, which he of course considers himself to be, are of a distinctly older version - Donald the I, Sun King, holding the power of life and death for each and every one in his tiny, soft hands.