Alexander Dugin's dream of apocalypse: Is it coming true?

It was clear just from the garbled wording that Trump's warning to North Korea was improvised. Trump promised "fire and fire" if North Korea threatened the United States. Trump did not specify that action would bring retaliation. He said that a threat would bring retaliation.

North Korea's immediate response was the issuance of a threat.

No fire, no fury -- so far. Thank god. But it is undeniable that Kim Jong-Un called Trump's bluff. As NY Mag put it:

North Korea proceeded to test this warning by immediately issuing a new threat, to attack Guam. This forced the United States into the unenviable position of either instigating a massive war with horrific casualties or surrendering its credibility. The administration has wisely chosen Option B.

And it gets worse:

North Korea said on Wednesday it will finish a plan to attack the US territory of Guam by mid-August, adding that "only absolute force" would be the right approach for dealing with President Donald Trump.

General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army, made the remarks in response to Trump's statement Tuesday that the US would unleash "fire and fury like the world has never seen" on Pyongyang in response to its rapidly developing nuclear and ballistic missile program.

"The U.S. president at a gold links again let out a load of nonsense about 'fire and fury,' failing to grasp the on-going grave situation," the statement said, according to North Korean state news agency KCNA. "This is extremely getting on the nerves of the infuriated Hwasong artillerymen of the KPA."

"Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him," it added.

Rex Tillerson tells us not to lose sleep. Perhaps he has made arrangements to be out of the country...?

Back to NY Mag's piece:

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis have issued more normal-sounding statements intended to supersede the president’s improvised one. (Mattis’s statement redraws the red line, threatening reprisal in return for North Korean actions, rather than threats.) The message of this cleanup is that Trump’s statements do not necessarily represent the position of the U.S. government – a reality most American political elites in both parties already recognize, but which needs to be made clear to other countries that are unaccustomed to treating their head of state like a random Twitter troll.

It is humiliating for the world’s greatest superpower to disregard its president as a weird old man who wanders in front of microphones spouting off unpredictably and without consequence. But at this point, respect for Trump’s capabilities is a horse that’s already fled the barn. New chief of staff John Kelly has supposedly instilled military-style order and message discipline into the administration, but Trump is unteachable.

So the future of civilization depends on the mad leader of North Korea choosing to ignore the rantings of the mad leader of the United States.

Meanwhile, the far right is doing everything it can to undermine McMaster and everyone else in this administration who is not a screeching maniac. Why? Why on earth?

Perhaps they've been listening to Alexander Dugin.

Is this Alec's Apocalypse? Perhaps the people with real power in this administration are all disciples of Alexander Dugin, the neofascist "philosopher" and mentor to Putin who makes no secret of his yearnings for The End.

If you'd like to know more about this man's crazed belief system, start here. Be warned: It gets pretty wild, especially if you've never explored the realm where reactionary politics meets gonzo occultism.

Throughout his intellectual career, Dugin has repeated proclaimed his adherence to the bizarre tenets of ‘Traditionalism,’ and in The Fourth Political Theory, he reiterates that ideological dependence: “I share the vision of René Guénon and Julius Evola, who considered modernity and its ideological basis (individualism, liberal democracy, capitalism, consumerism, and so on) to be the cause of the future catastrophe of humanity, and the global domination of the Western lifestyle as the reason for the final degradation of the Earth.” And Dugin’s promotion of his fourth political theory is marked by the darker aspects of Traditionalism spiritual syncretism:

Thus the Fourth Political Theory may easily turn towards everything that preceded modernity in order to draw its inspiration.… When it returns, postmodernity (globalisation, postliberalism, and the post-industrial society) is easily recognized as ‘the kingdom of the Antichrist’ (or its counterparts in other religions — ‘Dajjal’ for Muslims, ‘Erev Rav’ for the Jews, and ‘Kali Yuga’ for Hindus, and so forth). This is not simply a metaphor capable of mobilising the masses, but a religious fact — the fact of the Apocalypse.

It gets even crazier after that. Now go here:

Dugin doesn’t stop there, however. His visions of what Trump’s victory means go into the apocalyptic and civilization-changing:

“We need to return to the Being, to the Logos, to the foundamental- ontology (of Heidegger), to the Sacred, to the New Middle Ages - and thus to the Empire, religion, and the institutions of traditional society (hierarchy, cult, domination of spirit over matter and so on). All content of Modernity - is Satanism and degeneration. Nothing is worth, everything is to be cleansed off. The Modernity is absolutely wrong -- science, values, philosophy, art, society, modes, patterns, "truths", understanding of Being, time and space. All is dead with Modernity. So it should end. We are going to end it.”

This certainly would not be the first time in recent history a Russian thought that everything is wrong and the world needs to be completely uprooted.

Dugin considers Steve Bannon his "soul mate," and Bannon seems to think that Dugin is just peachy. Bannon's people are the ones trying to oust McMaster and Kelly and everyone else in this administration who retains any sanity.

Years ago, Dugin went on the record as favoring North Korea's acquisition of nuclear arms. In America and elsewhere, neo-Nazis and other assorted fascists favor what Kim Jong-Un is doing.

Welcome to The Daily Traditionalist, a video blog by Matthew Heimbach, an American white nationalist who advocates dividing the United States into ethnically and culturally homogenous states.

“As long as [North Koreans] can maintain their blood, it will maintain their identity as a people,” he says. “It’s pretty amazing if you actually look at what they’re trying to do [there].”

“North Korea has much to be admired,” said Matteo Salvini, head of Italy’s right-wing party Northern League, in 2014. “They have a splendid sense of community. Children play on the streets and respect their elders — things that no longer exist in Italy.”

“American imperialism and American militarism cannot abide a country [like North Korea] that wants to be sovereign and that rejects the radical globalist agenda,” Heimbach tells The Diplomat, adding that North Korea has survived despite being a “pretty universal punching bag” among Western governments.

Even Russia’s Alexander Dugin, an ideologue for white nationalists, has praised Pyongyang as an “island of freedom,” arguing that Russia should provide it with weapons of mass destruction to protect its sovereignty.

“If their weapons take flight, we [the Russian people] should cheer them on!” he says. “To not understand that North Korea is a seed of humanism and democracy in the face of an American occupation is to demonstrate complete and utter ignorance.”

If Trump truly opposes North Korea, why does he keep Steve Bannon -- a Dugin admirer -- within his administration?

Events are being engineered by madmen who believe that our "liberal" civilization needs to be cleansed by fire. Keep that in mind when Rex Tillerson tells you not to worry about North Korea.

Added note: And here is Boris Epshteyn -- the likeliest "Source E" candidate -- on Trump and Kim Jong-Un. I haven't the stomach to watch. Literally. Earlier today, I ate some food that was off and my tummy is now doing all sorts of weird gymnastics, so asking me to watch that guy is asking too much. Can anyone give me the gist?