It is getting ugly, extremely ugly.

It is increasingly looking like a war – at least a new ‘cold’, ideological war.

But in the shadow of COVID-19, it goes almost unnoticed.

The blind horseman, who hates China intuitively, without knowing hardly anything about it, is leading the pack, pushing his president into a confrontation with the most populous country on Earth. His name is Peter Navarro.

Not that the president is ‘innocent’. Under him, the White House has become a haven of bigotry, of anti-Chinese racist sentiments. Here, not only China, but also Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and Russia are hated. It was already converted into the global headquarters of the combat against the much more logical and humane, socialist, systems.

Red warning lights are blinking. All indicators are pointing downwards; economic ones, social ones, as well as medical. More disastrous is domestic policy of the Empire, more aggressively it behaves towards the world. U.S. warships are repeatedly being deployed, near Taiwan and the South China Sea. They are right near the territorial waters of Iran and Venezuela.

And the insults, terrible insults, are flying.

Trump and Navarro are abusing China publicly, with no shame. There is no diplomacy, and no restrains. Nation which just a few months ago stood alone, facing an unknown enemy, battling and at great cost but rapidly defeated the pandemic, all over its vast territory, is now smeared day after day.

All this is being done shamelessly and arrogantly.

The world is watching. Part of it in disbelief and outrage, and the other part lethargically and submissively, as always.

On April 19, 2020, the New York Post reported:

“White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Sunday called on China to prove that a Wuhan laboratory played no role in the coronavirus pandemic — and accused the nation of hoarding personal protective equipment and profiting off the outbreak.

Navarro took aim at China on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,� accusing the country of taking several actions that worsened the ongoing crisis and “led to the deaths of many people worldwide.�

“First of all, the virus was spawned in China. Second of all, they hid the virus behind the shield of the World Health Organization. The third thing they did was basically hoard personal protective equipment and now they’re profiteering from it,� Navarro said.

U.S. President Trump, perhaps taking Navarro’s advice, has already cut all funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), something until recently unimaginable, considering that the Planet is in the middle of a war with the virus, and the WHO is at the frontline of it. But the WHO is being accused of “colluding with Communist China�, which this administration increasingly sees as its greatest enemy.

One day later, on 20^th April, 2020, Reuters carried a report about Peter Navarro’s accusation of China for withholding data on COVID-19:

“One of the reasons that they may not have let us in and given us the data on this virus early, is they’re racing to get a vaccine and they think this is just a competitive business race, it’s a business proposition so that they can sell the vaccines to the world,” Navarro told Fox Business Network.â€�

“But we’re going to beat them. We’re going to beat them because of President Trump’s leadership. We’re going to beat them because HHS has already got a five-company horse race,” said Navarro, referring to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.â€�

The attacks against China are bordering on hysteria. Trump and his advisors appear to be thoroughly desperate.

And this extreme desperation, this fear of losing a grip on power, all over the world, is extremely dangerous for the survival of humanity.

China, but also Russia, have been extremely patient. They use diplomacy, instead of threats and insults. They are observing the behavior of the U.S. leaders with certain amusement, as if it was the behavior of a spoiled child who is throwing a tantrum. But their patience has boundaries. Once the U.S. attitude begins harming the lives of Chinese or Russian citizens, two big and independent countries will be forced to act. And the U.S. is pushing, as if, paradoxically, the confrontation was the only chance for its survival.

It is pushing, provoking, on all fronts: from the South China Sea and Taiwan to Hong Kong, from Venezuela to Iran, from insulting China and Russia, to a bizarre battle already being fought on the COVID-19 front.

One scratch, one tiny error in the Iranian territorial waters, or in the South China Sea, and the fragile peace may go up in flames. Nerves are stretched.

The world had been tolerating, uneasily but tolerating, the aggressive behavior of Washington, for years and decades. But now, with the COVID-19 confusion, and with the imminent global economic and financial collapse, almost all countries are extremely edgy. This is not the same world as we knew it to be just a year ago. Trump, Navarro and the others in their ‘camp’ should pay close attention, if they want to avoid a global tragedy.

Unfortunately, they do not seem to be trying to avoid a conflict. They are trying to provoke one, by all means!

�

This has to be repeated, again and again: You cannot call China, a country which was first attacked by the coronavirus, and which defeated it, alone and with great determination and sacrifice, “a country which infected the world�, or “a country which is profiteering from the crisis�. That would be insane, incorrect, and thoroughly vulgar.

If anything, China has helped almost the entire world to fight this pandemic. It also quickly shared expertise, and helped those nations which have been hit the most, with both advice and invaluable medical equipment.

Statements such as those of the White House trade adviser Peter Navarro calling on China to prove that a Wuhan laboratory played no role in the coronavirus pandemic, are extremely irresponsible and dangerous, and could easily lead to dire consequences.

Many experts worldwide, actually believe that it was the U.S. that brought the virus to China. Earlier, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted one of the theories, which says that it was the US military that brought the new coronavirus to the central city of Wuhan.

But in the end, the Chinese officials decided not to point fingers in the direction of Washington, at least for now, as these are extremely explosive topics and exceptionally volatile times.

The United States, however, has misread these wise and conciliatory moves of the Chinese government and the Communist Party, as weakness. It has turned the tables around, and began the lowest imaginable set of ideological attacks, obviously convinced of its invincibility.

Eventually, Washington crossed all the lines. And now it has become almost certain that its propaganda salvos will not go unanswered.

�

The attacks against China are unjust and racist.

They smell of cultural supremacy and of a superiority complex.

The Western world in general, and the United States in particular, have brought death and destruction to hundreds of millions of human beings, all over the world. Washington has no moral mandate to lecture any country on our planet, particularly not China, which has no history of imperialism or harming humanity.

“Hiding facts�, or using chemical and biological warfare is something that is in line with Washington and its ‘foreign policy’. China has no chronicle of such behavior.

One should just recall Indochina, Iraq, Cuba and many other places, to see what Washington is capable of.

It has all been evolving in accordance with the script penned in Washington, London, and other Western capitals: pro-Western militants were first identified, then recruited. Riots were financed and supported; society, at least to some extent, destabilized. When the government could not just stand by and watch, when it finally acted, the Western media went into overdrive, attacking it ferociously for ‘violating rights’ and for ‘acting undemocratically’.

Nothing new, really. Tens, perhaps hundreds of governments have already been overthrown, all over the world, with the help of this ‘libretto’.

It is always done “in the name of freedom and democracy�, at least on paper. In reality, the burlesque and cheap tragi-comedy is performed for one and only reason: to keep power in the hands of Western governments, particularly Washington. It goes without saying that the West never really cared about the lives of non-Westerners. In virtually all parts of the world, including China, the lives of ‘The Others’ have been continuously sacrificed for the mercantile and other pragmatic interests of Western empires.

Hong Kong is no exception. And it takes great discipline not to see and understand it.

All that has been done in 2019 and 2020, is to harm the most populous and greatly successful socialist country – China. And the reason why China is, among a few other nations on Earth, singled out for smearing and continuous attacks, is because it has managed to develop and implement a much more prosperous political, economic and above all, social system, than the West. It puts its people first, and it is relentlessly searching for novel concepts which bring benefits to its population of 1.4 billion, and to the entire world.

The more successful China gets, the more endangered the Western regime becomes.

Washington, London and others, have already tried to infiltrate Mainland China with propaganda, with countless hostile NGOs and an entire army of ‘academics’ and journalists. But they have squarely and patently failed. Subversions and interference in China’s domestic affairs have been detected, confronted and finally stopped.

Hong Kong was identified as the “soft spot� or “Achilles Heel�.

The West has thrown tremendous resources into the territory, first in 2014 (during the so-called “Umbrella Revolution�), and later in 2019. On both occasions, it recruited mostly young people who have been frustrated with the fundamentalist capitalism, corruption and prohibitive cost of living. Highly professional Western propagandists made sure of totally twisting the reality, directing the wrath of some uninformed and unsatisfied people towards socialist Beijing, instead of at the reminiscences of the perverse regime which had been injected into Hong Kong by the British colonialists.

But even this approach and strategy, which has been so ‘successful’ in countless countries worldwide, has failed again.

With great determination, China (including Hong Kong), defeated COVID-19, all over its vast territory. While the West has clearly failed its people, and instead of fighting the virus, resorted to ugly propaganda and the cheapest imaginable disinformation tricks, snapping at China, Russia and other confident and socialist countries.

But the West has never really given up: Hong Kong, until now is still designated as the place to be destabilized.

�

This is how Reuters began its report, reprinted by The Globe and Mail, and many other publications, on 19 April, 2020:

“Suppressing Hong Kong’s democracy movement is a priority for China, even in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, a top pro-democracy leader said on Sunday, a day after police arrested him and 14 others in a surprise crackdown.

The United States and others criticized the arrest of the 15 on charges of organizing and participating in anti-government protests last year, the biggest crackdown on the pro-democracy movement since the outbreak of the protests almost a year ago.

“This is all happening while we are in midst of a pandemic,� pro-democracy activist Avery Ng told Reuters by telephone.�

This is how propaganda works. Instead of reporting the news first, or quoting official Chinese or Hong Kong sources (as would be the case if the arrests, including of such dissidents like Mr. Assange, took place in London or New York), Reuters opens its piece with some quote from a militant. Not only is this bad journalism, but it goes against all norms of ‘objective’ reporting.

But all gloves are obviously off, and reporters seem to be paid not just by the number of words they produce, but by how much they succeed in smearing China.

The logic of such articles is obviously pitiful. It can, and should be thrown back to its source, and read:

“Suppressing democracy all over the world is a priority for Washington, even in the midst of the coronavirus crises, which so far has infected 755, 533 people in the United States (by 19 April, 2020), while claiming 33,903 lives.�

On top of it, the proposed Hong Kong Extradition Bill (from 2019) has never clearly been explained to anybody by the Western mass media. The Bill was actually designed to protect the people of Hong Kong from the oligarchy, corruption and the safeguards erected exclusively for the elites, at the expense of the ordinary citizens. This point will be addressed by me, as well as documented, in detail, during and after my next visit to Hong Kong.

The 15 people who were recently arrested, actually broke the laws of Hong Kong, interfered in the due legislative process of their own territory, and helped to ignite violence which threw their amazing city onto its knees. All this was done under the British and UK colonialist flags, and under the banners of the U.S. and Germany. All this, while the National Anthem of the United States was blasted from the portable speakers of rioters. Public property was destroyed and people were injured, some killed. The Police which reacted in extremely restrained, mild manner, was shamelessly smeared by countless Western media outlets. I witnessed this violence, reported on it, and documented it.

As was noted above, the script has already damaged countless countries. But it is an old script. And it no longer inspires almost anyone, except those in the old and new imperialist countries of the West.

Now what? President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines is outraged. He wants an end to the U.S. military presence in his country. He wants to curb all cooperation with the U.S. armed forces. He hits hard, talks big. And his people seem to be behind him, no matter what – his popularity rating is high and rising, now around 87%, which is something unimaginable anywhere else in Southeast Asia, or in the world.

Under a colorful headline on February 7, 2020, ‘End that son of a b*tch’: Duterte confirms US-Philippines military collaboration agreement is toast’, RT reported:

“Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is “terminating� the Visiting Forces Agreement, which provides legal immunity to US military drills, in retaliation for the US canceling the visa of a political ally and fellow drug-warrior.

“The president said he is terminating the VFA,� Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told ABS-CBN News on Friday. “I asked for clarification and he said he is not changing his decision.� The agreement provides legal immunity for US soldiers conducting military exercises in the Philippines.

Enraged by the US decision to cancel the visa of former police chief and Senator Roland dela Rosa last month, Duterte had given Washington a month to fix its ‘mistake,’ refusing to back down even as other members of his government urged him to reconsider.

“I’m warning you… if you won’t do the correction on this, I will terminate the… Visiting Forces Agreement,� Duterte said last month, daring the US to call his bluff.�

Then few days later, on February 13, 2020, a letter was sent to his country’s tormentor and former colonialist master: ‘The Philippines has notified the United States that a major security pact is over.’“

Some say, all this is nothing new. The United States, the European Union, and even the United Nations keep attacking President Duterte. He hits back, insults his counter-parts, regularly threatening to kick out the U.S. and its military forces. He personally insults the leaders of Western countries, international organizations and even the Catholic Church which, in the Philippines, used to be untouchable.

Making Western leaders desperate, he calls China “the kindest nation on earth�, and he admires Russia and its President Vladimir Putin. In Manila, the Russian leader is now a masculine idol.

President Duterte is a self-proclaimed socialist. Critics say that many of his economic policies are still capitalist, even if his social policies are left-wing. But he has done precisely what most of his fellow citizens wanted him to do: he introduced free medical care and free education all the way to university level; something unthinkable in most of the Southeast Asian countries.

“Not enough has been done to improve the state of the nation,� says the academia, as well as the NGOs. But the poor love him, and so does the middle class. For them, what he has done is enough; much more than enough. Nobody did more for them in the past. 87% is an unprecedented level of support! The majority of Filipinos do not just support him – they love him, unconditionally.

Western mainstream media trashes Duterte left and right. Pro-Western NGOs are calling him a mass murderer, because of the war on drugs, which allegedly has taken thousands of lives.

His supporters reply:

“But before Duterte was sworn in, millions were rotting alive in desperate slums and enormous crime-infested cemeteries. Drug lords were murdering innocent people, and no Western NGOs were protesting.�

I listen to both sides of the story. For three years, I have been all ears.

The criticism and attacks from the West, all this seems to matter nothing to Duterte – he is moving forward like a tank. And his long-suffering country is improving, year after year. It is moving up, even according to the Human Development Index (HDI, compiled by the UNDP).

“I will kill you, you son of a bitch!�

Western media loves such statements, blasting them all over, as if they were some sort of proof that the President of the Philippines is a mafia-style murderous maniac.

But I am told by many in his restive home base in the south; in Davao City:

“No way; this is how we speak on Mindanao Island. President is Visaya – he says what comes to his mind. Tagalog people are polite, but their actions are often brutal. Talking dirty means nothing bad where Duterte comes from�.

*

But for the Southeast Asian region, the most important topic is how President Duterte is handling foreign policy.

All over Asia Pacific, the United States, desperate to keep its global hegemony, is antagonizing Beijing on all fronts. It is pushing China from all directions. The South China Sea is constantly in the spotlight, through the international courts (often controlled by the Western countries and interests) as well as through the Western mass media. The dispute over the Spratly Islands has been poisoning the relationship between Beijing and Manila for decades.

However, after Duterte became president, things changed, dramatically. The rhetoric significantly softened, and both China and the Philippines clearly stated that they are willing to talk, negotiate and compromise. To the great dismay of the West, any military conflict between two countries is now out of question.

This approach is having an enormous (although grossly under-reported) influence on the entire region’s policy towards China. The country that is watching particularly closely is China’s historic rival, and a fellow Communist state – Vietnam.

For quite some time, President Duterte expressed a desire to diversify his foreign policy, extending a hand towards both Moscow and Beijing.

In January 2020, in an exclusive interview for the RT, he stated, rebelliously:

“I want to open new fronts with Russia and China as US lived off the fat of our land… America is not the Philippines and the Philippines is not America. It ain’t that way anymore, and I refuse to dovetail under American foreign policy…â€�

But then again, his statements and actions do not seem to be adequate for everybody. Like in the West, many Marxist Filipino intellectuals are “purists�; they demand utopian Western-style Marxist, or even Anarcho-syndicalist methods of ‘governance’.

President Duterte is neither of the above. He is a spontaneous, emotional leader. He is pragmatic. He often acts on the spur of the moment; he makes good moves and he also makes blunders. Sometimes, after he makes mistakes, he corrects them; he steps back, and tries again.

He is not a simple man; he is tormented individual. Sexually molested by a priest when he was a child, he holds a grudge against Christianity. He grew up in a complex family. His mother and father came from different political spectrums: a socialist and an official, a civil servant.

To the horror of some, he has a soft spot for the former dictator Marcos. So were several members of his family.

*

The legendary left-wing academic, Roland Simbulan, a professor at the University of the Philippines (UP) and a good friend of mine, is even increasingly skeptical about the direction of the Duterte’s foreign policy. He wrote for this essay:

Now it is becoming obvious who China’s friends are, and who her enemies are. In the West, many nations and individuals are celebrating the short-term difficulties that the Chinese nation is facing, pouring salt into the wound, while giving birth to anti-Chinese sentiments.

Even the WHO (World Health Organization) has been warning not to impose travel bans against the countries affected by coronavirus. And it is the WHO, which is praising Beijing repeatedly and loudly, for its performance during the fight against the new virus.

But no matter what doctors say, and what the objective data is, several Western countries have been maliciously smearing China’s determined and successful efforts to contain and combat the epidemy. They exaggerate the danger, spreading fear among the people all over the world. In a spiteful, manipulative and illogical way, they are connecting the epidemic to the entire Chinese system.

Whereas Russia, which is a close ally of China, but even Japan which is often politically antagonistic to Beijing, are keeping it relatively cool, feverishly working on developing an effective vaccine, the United States and many European countries are spreading fake news, issuing travel warnings, and effectively banning their citizens from travelling to Mainland China, even banning foreigners who have recently (within 14 days) visited China, from entering the United States.

Following bizarre logic, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar recently defended the actions of his government:

“The risk of infection for Americans remains low and with these and our previous actions we are working to keep the risk low.â€�

Anti-Chinese xenophobia in the United States is on the rise. Chinese people are banned from entering some restaurants, and racist punches are thrown everywhere.

Some statements are so racist, that they are actually illegal, even in the United States itself. One of the readers (with the handle name @melpol) of a large media site Unz.com, recently commented on my re-printed essay about the determined fight of China against the disease:

“The Chinese are DISGUSTING, souless frauds. I hope Coronavirus wipes out EVERY last one.�

Such declarations are shocking, but not really isolated.

Even the world-renowned Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, who is not always on the side of Beijing, recently snapped angrily at the West and its racist attitude against China, in his essay writer for the RT:

“Coronavirus is all over the news, and I don’t pretend to be a medical specialist, but there is a question I’d like to raise: Where do facts end and where does ideology begin?

The first obvious enigma: There are far worse epidemics taking place, so why is there such an obsession with this one when thousands die daily from other infectious diseases?

Of course, an extreme case was the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic, known as Spanish flu, when the death toll is estimated to have been at least 50 million. Around this time, influenza has infected 15 million Americans: at least 140,000 people have been hospitalized and more than 8,200 people killed this season alone.

It seems racist paranoia is obviously at work here – remember all the fantasies about the Chinese women in Wuhan skinning live snakes and slurping bat soup. Whereas, in reality, a big Chinese city is probably one of the safest places in the world.�

But medical specialists are far from desperate about the outbreak. Coronavirus kills, but at much lower rates than many other diseases.

An analysis by the renowned British medical magazine, Lancet, was mentioned in the BBC report, and they basically revealed that fears of the coronavirus in the West are exaggerated:

“A report on the early stages of the outbreak by the Lancet medical journal said most patients who died from the virus had pre-existing conditions.

The report found that, of the first 99 patients treated at the Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, 40 had a weak heart or damaged blood vessels. A further 12 had diabetes.

Most people infected are likely to fully recover – just as they would from a normal flu.

An expert at China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said that one week was sufficient for a recovery from mild coronavirus symptoms.â€�

Some medical experts, in Asia and all over the world, are obviously on the same page with Zizek and Lancet. According to the recent figures, around 17 thousand cases were reported. 361 patients lost their lives. That is 2% – comparatively lower than the mortality rate from many other diseases.

My doctor-friends in Hong Kong have commented, for this essay:

“Certainly, it is a very infectious virus. But the severity is much less than SARS. It is understandable that any country would not welcome such a virus. But as usual, the West would like to smear and weaken China. This virus usually kills old people with other morbidities. The one in Hong Kong who died was only 39, but had other diseases. The good news is that they have found 2 very effective anti-viral agents to treat this. The local people in the yellow camp try to exaggerate the viral attack to achieve political gains. Disgusting, especially with some medical staff on strike.�

�

Several airlines have cancelled flights to Mainland China, to all or at least some destinations, including Air France, United, American Airlines, Delta and British Airways. Obviously, when it was time to cash in on growing Chinese market, these airlines were ready to dispatch its biggest birds, including the Airbus 380-800. But during the crisis, instead of standing by its new clients, they stranded passengers, unceremoniously. One of my good friends in Beijing, for instance, has not been able to join her important work mission in Santiago de Chile, because her Air France ticket had been converted into nothing more than a useless piece of paper.

Once again, the better China’s performance is, the more it gets smeared, the more colorful the lies against her are.

Commenting for this essay, Mira Lubis, an Indonesian academic recalled how she was quarantined in Wuhan, even several years ago. She is still impressed by the Chinese health authorities:

“I think China treats all virus cases very carefully. And it doesn’t mean that this latest coronavirus is more harmful than other viruses. I was quarantined in Wuhan just for having a normal flu. Meaning they have very strict procedural standards, compared to other countries, even those in Europe or the United States. And they do it in order to defend people’s health.�

However, it is very difficult to expect objectivity from the countries which have been, for years and decades, been indoctrinated by anti-Chinese propaganda!

�

[First published by China Daily Hong Kong]

Steve Bannon, a former White House strategist and Breitbart editor, was finally kicked out of an Italian monastery, which even Newsweek wittily described as a “far-right boot camp�.

This author, along with a few others, has been warning for some time that the former Trump’s top advisor had crossed all lines, and began directly interfering in the internal affairs of the European Union, by promoting and amalgamizing dangerous extreme right-wing alliances of all natures; political, philosophical and religious. The monastery was supposed to offer “classesâ€�, which Bannon described as “the kind of underpinnings of the Judeo-Christian Westâ€�.

Tactics? “A modern gladiator school”, according to Steve Bannon’s own assessment.

Journal NEO (New Easter Outlook) has already published one essay in 2019, analyzing Bannon’s activities in Italy and beyond: “Steve Bannon – a Profile of a US Apparatchik. From China to the Pope�. There, it was argued:

“Steve Bannon is a talented propagandist and promoter of Western supremacy and imperialist “culture�. He is extremely dangerous, mainly because he knows precisely what he is doing and what he wants to achieve: total control over the world.�

Last year, it was hard to imagine that Italy would dare to rock the boat, disturbing the activities of one of the most powerful and canny neo-cons in the world.

But the unimaginable suddenly took place.

Reported by Newsweek’s Rosie McCall:

“The Italian culture ministry has announced it evicted what has been described as a far-right political bootcamp from a thirteenth-century monastery, AFP reports. The bootcamp has ties to Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, through its Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI), which Bannon funds.

According to AFP, the bootcamp—which had been established to train students to “defend the West”—had been given a 19 year lease on Trisulti Charterhouse in the Province of Frosinone, central Italy, in February 2018. However, the ministry said on Thursday that the group had falsely tendered for the lease, and thus they were evicted. This follows reports from May that the ministry was intending to revoke the lease due to “violations of various contractual obligations,” according to The Telegraph.

This will come as a blow to Benjamin Harnwell, a British conservative and the director of DHI, who had hoped to launch the first three-week course to a small group of students this year and was in the process of securing planning permission to revamp the venue. Harnwell is an associate of Bannon, who had reportedly promised to give $1 million to the project.�

Of course, the “boot camp� has been evicted on technicalities, not on ideological bases.

My contacts inside the ruling 5-Star-Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle) are hushed and cautious on the topic. Usually outspoken, they are reluctant to go on the record. I am only receiving bits and pieces of news. But what I get is telling. This are big, and extremely dangerous issues. Mr. Bannon has not been on Donald Trump’s team, for quite some time, but only few have any doubts that he is still working on behalf of the President’s neo-con crew.

What do I get from Rome? Barks of confused inside news, and requests not to use real names in my essays, when it comes to Bannon’s case:

“We have orders not to speak to the press, Andre… Until a decision is made by State Council… Here, inside the administration, it is a war; more than a war; a battle inside the government… and the Church. Pope Francis is against conservatives. The new Minister of Culture, Franceschini (PD) is linked to the Church… Things are uncertain until now. The Tar (Administrative Tribunal), threw its support behind Bannon and blocked the decision of the Minister of Culture. And now the State Council has to decide.�

Another source coming from Rome offered much more concrete analyses:

“There are parties in Italy, like the Northern League and “Fratelli d’Italia� [Italian Brothers] who are producing propaganda and take direct orders from Bannon, yielding to his hate towards China.�

Of course, this is big. The Northern League and “Fratelli d’Italia� are some of the most powerful political forces in Italy. The fact that they are under the boot of a U.S. right-wing extremist, is tremendous and scandalous news.

�

For a long time, Steve Bannon has been cheering right-wing forces in Italy and beyond.

According to La Presse (23 September, 2018), he praised Italian right-wing movements, claiming that “with them here in Italy the revolution works�:

“On the Roman stage of “Atreju”, the event of Fratelli d’Italia, Steve Bannon praises the parties of Salvini and Meloni: “In the elections the Italians spoke against the system, saying that it is time for a change. They are tired of the feeling of being told that they are racist and xenophobic, just because they want to defend their culture and their country,” said the former White House strategist. “Yours is the most important experiment, if the revolution works here, then it will spread,” added Bannon.â€�â€�

Unsurprisingly, Steve Bannon evokes wrath in those on whose behalf he is claiming to be speaking for; the modern-day Catholic Church, and even Christianity in general.

Pope Francis, whom Bannon has personally insulted on several occasions, is clearly against his politics.

I also approached one of the most important living theologists/philosophers, my friend John Cobb Jr., who clearly stated his point for this essay:

“Steve Bannon makes it clear that one can today renew Charlemagne’s kind of Christianity without embarrassment and gain significant support from other “Christians.” He makes little if any pretense to follow Jesus or the Hebrew prophets. His heroes are the gladiators. He is preparing people to fight in all sorts of ways including, it seems, violent ones. The war is in support of the West rather than any one nation, what we once called “Christendom.” From the point of view of the Bible, devotion to a nation state or to the West is idolatry.â€�

John Cobb concluded:

“Christians of the first sort, those who seek to be followers of Jesus are called to love even those who spread hatred. But one aspect of that love must be to identify those who make the defense of the West their highest priority as idolaters. Christians should go on to show the consequences of this idolatry. It is destructive of society. It also damages the idolater. If we truly love Steve Bannon, we are called to try to reduce the damage that his idolatrous thought and action does both to others and to himself. If his understanding of Christianity gives any place at all to the teachings and ministry of Jesus, we can point out how radically his work opposes that of Jesus. If he has any interest in the Biblical God, we can point out that he is profoundly failing to serve those whom God calls him to serve. If he really cares about the future of the West we can show that he is blocking paths to a flourishing future. Perhaps, just perhaps, he can listen.�

�

It becomes clear that for Steve Bannon, it is not going to be easy to sail through the turbulent waters of European politics. True, Europe has been moving, consistently and alarmingly, towards the right. Some would even say, towards the extreme right.