The new Chief of Staff. Plus: Steve Bannon and the mage

Reince Priebus has finally been pushed out; he'll be succeeded by General John Kelley, currently the head of Homeland Security. Kelly has said that a major act of terrorism in the U.S. is inevitable, and that the threat is so severe, people "would never leave the house" if they knew the truth.

Do you smell smoke? Someone may be planning to start a Reichstag fire.

CNN has said that the Priebus resignation actually occurred on Thursday. The NYT offers this interesting tidbit:

The announcement capped a fraught 24 hours in which the president’s advisers waited for a change they had long anticipated. Mr. Priebus accompanied Mr. Trump on Air Force One for a day trip to Long Island as his fate was being decided. Making for a tense flight, his rival, Anthony Scaramucci, the communications director who had publicly vowed to force Mr. Priebus’s resignation, was also on the plane and in the motorcade.

First: That kind of humiliation is so Trump. Why on earth would anyone work for that man?

Second: Long Island? Do any readers know why he went there? Is there a connection to the Mercers?

Third: This move signals Trump's continuing divorce from the Republican establishment. The  separation gives Republican congressfolk more room to vote contrary to Trump's wishes, more room to support Mueller's investigation -- and more room to support impeachment, should things come to that.

Bannon. Many journalists have not known how to report the Mooch's rather colorful description of Steve Bannon. Faithful reader b has suggested the phrase "The Ouroborean metaphor," which I love -- although the term may be a little too Hermetic for the Trumpists.

Speaking of Hermeticism: The hippest thing on the internet right now is this episode of Trumpcast, in which Bannon biographer Joshua Green delves into Bannon's reliance on esoteric fascist Julius Evola and his metaphysical mentor, René Guénon. I first learned about those two eccentric thinkers via Gnosis magazine; the old Bodhi Tree bookstore on Santa Monica Blvd. carried their works, which were otherwise unavailable. It's a little odd to see those names mentioned in polite society. Just a couple of years ago, Evola and Guénon were names known only to aficionados of the odd -- like me.

Guénon was a Freemason and occult dabbler who, during his time on the Sufi path, referred to himself as Abd al-Wāḥid Yaḥyá. Freemasonry, occultism and Islam: Shouldn't Alex Jones be at least a little bit alarmed by Bannon's intellectual descent from such a personage?

No. He won't complain about Bannon's rather dubious philosophical influences. Republicans may do what Dems may not. 

The right-wing conspiracy cranks are always quick to link the Democratic party with the occult, despite a complete absence of evidence for such a link. Actually, Fascism -- not liberalism -- is the political movement which grew out of the 19th century occult revival. Before you pooh-pooh the idea, consult James Webb's masterful The Occult Establishment and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke's The Occult Roots of Nazism.

(I can't recommend most other volumes exploring this terrain, because the field attracts many sensationalistic and unscholarly writers. And yes, I'm well aware of that garbage book by Trevor Ravenscroft which you were just about to recommend. It's a hoax.)

Joshua Green also delves (though not deeply enough) into the links between Bannon and Alexander Dugin, described as Putin's Bannon. We are getting a glimpse of a hidden world -- the world of (for want of a better term) esoteric fascism.

Incidentally, there have long been rumors of a dangerous cult operating on Long Island -- a cult whose membership is said to include some well-heeled individuals. I'm not saying that these rumors are true; stories of this sort are usually baseless. Still, fun-seekers may want to check out this NYT piece from 1993 and this NY Post article from last year, as well as this piece published ten days ago. Pleasant dreams!