Charles P. Pierce has an update on Bannon’s latest set of buddies, and it’s a doozy. He’s not just out to join with Vladimir Putin in a crusade against the Islamic Threat he see everywhere, he’s also allying with forces working to undermine Pope Francis.
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. I do not know if a sword and a falcon goes with that office.
Pierce connects a few dots, not the least of which is laid out in a New York Times article on how Bannon is lining up with the “rad trads” — the radical traditionalists in the church against a Pope who Bannon has called “...a “socialist/communist.” Read The Whole Thing — it says volumes about who Bannon really is and the dark world view he is promoting.
Cardinal Burke has become a champion to conservatives in the United States. Under Mr. Bannon, Breitbart News urged its Rome correspondent to write sympathetically about him. And at a meeting before last month’s anti-abortion March for Life rally in Washington, Cardinal Burke received the Law of Life Achievement, or Nail award, a framed replica of the nail used to hold the feet of Christ to the cross. According to John-Henry Westen, the editor of Life Site News, who announced the award, the prize is awarded to Christians “who have received a stab in the back.”
Pierce pulls no punches about what Bannon is up to.
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.
emphasis added
Among other things, I’ve read a lot of what is referred to as pulp fiction from the 1930s, Doc Savage and the adventures of The Saint, Simon Templar. The power behind thrones and petty dictators engaging in plots against world order is regular theme in Doc Savage tales. A number of Simon Templar adventures, especially in the 30’s, dealt with would-be dictators, plots, and Fascist threats.
Bannon would fit right into these tales. Unfortunately, it’s real life and we seem to be short of heroes who can take him down.
Looks like it’s up to us.