April 15, 2017

"If they get rid of Bannon, you know what’s gonna happen? The motherlode. If Bannon is removed, there are gonna be divorces..."

"... because I know about the mistresses, the sugar babies, the drugs, the pill popping, the orgies. I know everything. If they go after Bannon, the mother of all stories is gonna drop, and we’re just gonna destroy marriages, relationships — it’s gonna get personal.... I have more stories that I haven’t released. I haven’t released every scoop that I have. I release my scoops strategically. I’m sitting on way more stories.... I will go TMZ on the globalists. I will go Gossip Girl on the globalists. I will go Gawker on the globalists.* So you mother-effers going after Bannon, just know I broke two of the biggest stories before anybody else... If you think I don’t know the pills people are popping, the mistresses, the sugar babies—I know all of it. So you better be smart. Because the mother of all stories will be dropped because I don’t care.... Fabricate things about me. I don’t care. You can’t kill what is already dead. What is dead cannot die."

That's Mike Cernovich, the "alt-right ringleader," as The Daily Beast puts it, giving him the attention he seems to crave.

He was ranting on Periscope. But who the hell is he? I don't have a tag for him. Am I supposed to care?

Wikipedia calls him "an American social media personality, writer, and conspiracy theorist. Usually described as part of the alt-right, he describes himself as 'new right' and an 'American nationalist.'" And:
In 2014, Cernovich was a self-proclaimed "champion" of Gamergate, the campaign against feminists in the video-game industry, goading opponents with tweets such as "Who cares about breast cancer and rape? Not me."
Maybe that's why I don't know him. I chose not to invest my time in understanding Gamergate. The word "Gamergate" only appears once before in this blog, in a post that ends "This interests me even though it's partly about 'Gamergate,' the controversy that I refuse to get up to speed on."

I see that The New Yorker did a story on him — "Trolls for Trump/Meet Mike Cernovich, the meme mastermind of the alt-right" I read The New Yorker, but missed that somehow. It was right before the election. Sample paragraph:
Cernovich sat at the kitchen table, facing a mirror, and placed his laptop next to a teapot full of flowers. (Shauna is in charge of decorating.) “Right now, a hundred and twenty-eight people are reading Danger and Play,” he said. “What’s fun is when you get a hot story and watch the number tick up into the thousands, like a video game.” Nowadays, the blog is mostly a platform for pro-Trump spin, but at first it was about how to pick up women. Its name comes from Nietzsche. (“The true man wants two things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous plaything.”) Early posts included “Misogyny Gets You Laid” and “When Should You Compliment a Woman?” (Answer: “During or after sex.”)
________________________

* He might want to read up on what happened to Gawker.

81 comments:

Anne in Rockwall, TX said...

If I'm not mistaken, he was the guy also pushing the pizza parlor sex ring story.

Danno said...

I hadn't heard of him until Inga got all excited on one of your posts yesterday. And I won't spend any time to start following him.

Michael K said...

The Trump hatred is what guys like this feed on.

Inga and her cult are what created jerks like this.

I linked to a good Peggy Noonan column on Bannon yesterday here. That made good sense.

This does not.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Let's hope it's true. Things have been a bit slow in Trump Town recently.

Kate said...

Even the alt-right doesn't care much about Cernovich anymore. His brand of misogyny is so stale I pity him. Please, you've already given him more airtime than he merits.

JohnAnnArbor said...

He sounds like he's full of himself.

Jose_K said...

He published about the Syria bombing 2 hours before it happened

Birches said...

How does Cernovich know any of this? He lives in California and doesn't have any connection to DC, except that he championed Trump. And I'm sure Bannon is just dying for his "help." Right. The media fawning has made this guy delusional. So you have a big Twitter following. Big deal. That doesn't make you relevant.

Anonymous said...

The "hero" Cernovich. Trump does one teensy weensy little thing wrong and they stab him in the back. How's that for loyalty? Sheesh.

"The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted just last week that Cernovich deserved a Pulitzer for his recent coverage of Susan Rice’s efforts to better identify Trump campaign officials in intelligence reports.

“Congrats to @Cernovich for breaking the #SusanRice story,” Trump Jr. tweeted. “In a long gone time of unbiased journalism he’d win the Pulitzer, but not today!”

Cernovich cited the Rice story and another piece about Trump National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, which were both scoops later picked up by Bloomberg’s Eli Lake, as proof of his sourcing inside the White House."

Jose_K said...

True, he was responsible for Pizzgate

Birches said...

I should add it doesn't make you relevant in real life.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Cernovih was actually the first to break the Susan Rice story - he did it the night before the story by Bloombergs Eli lake.

Cernovich also claimed the NYT's Maggie Haberman also had the story but sat on it to try and protect Rice.

Stephen Taylor said...

Isn't he the one who broke it off in Scott Pelley a few weeks ago on "60 Minutes"? I read the transcript, and he did make Pelley look very foolish. Whatever else he is, he's bright and fast on his feet.

Anonymous said...

Trump may keep Bannon on just to keep the dogs off his heels.

"Cernovich and many other alt-right leaders famously split from the Trump administration’s party line last week when Trump signed off on a 59-missile strike on a Syrian airbase. Alt-right and conspiracy websites like InfoWars echoed both Russian public officials and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s claim that the attack was a “false flag.” On Thursday, Assad floated to state media that the attack was entirely staged.

Fox News ran an article on Friday commending Cernovich's recent stories, however, saying his "two recent scoops have been anything but fake.""

Big Mike said...

Ban on is going to go. Item #1 is that Bannon was given the job of lining up the Freedom Caucus behind the AHCA. He failed utterly and left relations between them and the White House somewhat strained. Item #2 was that Trump spent political capital getting Bannon on the NSC, but he never even attended its meetings. Trump has a famously low tolerance for people who don't perform. Bannon should resign or find some assignment he can do to get bsck into Trump's good graces. And that could be tough.

And Cernovich is about to discover that no one cares about his threats.

Bob Boyd said...

Maybe the whole Bannon-Trump falling out is fake news. For all we know, this is Trump using the media's meme that Bannon is a far-right, extremeist, nationalist villian to make himself appear main stream, middle of the road and not scary. Maybe this is to be Bannon's public role for now.

rhhardin said...

Blackmail isn't a great form of argument.

As if there weren't easy arguments you could use instead. It's not like you're a liberal and have to go to any means necessary.

Anonymous said...

Bannon is a powerful man with a history of vengeful behavior. Trump better tread lightly.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/donald-trump-steve-bannon-breitbart-215026

"“It’s not like it’s definitely going to be ‘Apocalypse Now,’ but it could be, and that’s the point,” said a close Bannon ally. “Do you really want to gamble with this in your first 100 days?”

“He’ll have his minions eviscerate you on Twitter and write articles with fake information. You will be attacked and lied about,” said Republican operative Cheri Jacobus, who was the subject of critical coverage in Breitbart in 2015 after saying Trump was popular with “low-information voters” and who blames Breitbart for a campaign of online harassment she has endured since then.

“Bannon can launch something, and there’s an army of people who are part of the alt-right that will then pick up on it and they know what to do,” Jacobus said. “It’s like a chain reaction.

“The hit pieces on Breitbart will increase, for sure,” said Loesch, who clashed with Bannon after leaving Breitbart to work for his nemesis Glenn Beck at The Blaze.

“I don’t believe that he ever really stopped being at the helm of Breitbart,” said Kurt Bardella, who quit his job as a spokesman for the news organization last spring in protest of Bannon’s handling of an assault allegation lodged by then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields against then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. (Breitbart recently released a letter showing that Bannon formally resigned from the news outlet shortly after Election Day.)"

chickelit said...

Shorter Inga: In a stunning reversal, Breitbart is vilified and CNN is restored to its former glory. Bring on Hillary in 2020!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

because I know about the mistresses, the sugar babies, the drugs, the pill popping, the orgies.

Awesome! Lets hear it...

Trump has mistresses, sugar babies, he's a druggie, and he pops pills. There - all out in the open.

Meade said...

"The motherlode"

Sentimental and very personal. He should have said "fatherlode" to obscure his Russian connections.

Original Mike said...

"That's Mike Cernovich, the "alt-right ringleader," as The Daily Beast puts it, giving him the attention he seems to crave.
He was ranting on Periscope. But who the hell is he? I don't have a tag for him. Am I supposed to care? "


Inga seems to think he's the most important figure in America.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The orgies are bigly. Especially on mega-death I haz cupcake warcraft.

Clyde said...

It sounds like he was channeling one of the priests of the Drowned God of the Iron Islands from "Game of Thrones."

khesanh0802 said...

The Gawker comment appears to be spot on. 15 minutes of fame for a noisy asshole.

Anonymous said...

It's like a reality show, the "White House Survivor".

Or if that's not exciting enough, we could go on to a "Nuclear Conflagration Survivor".

Anonymous said...

AA: He was ranting on Periscope. But who the hell is he? I don't have a tag for him. Am I supposed to care?

No. Rule of thumb - nobody who gets designated an "alt-right leader" by the media is worth paying attention to, aside from entertainment and analysis-of-media-bullshit purposes.

dreams said...

"I read the transcript, and he did make Pelley look very foolish. Whatever else he is, he's bright and fast on his feet."

It seems to me that is a guy who fights like the crooked Dems, in other words, he fights to win. Kind of reminds me of another guy, a very powerful guy. Beware!

CJ said...

For someone everybody says is a nobody, people seem to be quite interested in talking about him.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary was popular with people who lack any moral compass, and her hack-D press.

Anonymous said...

The Alt Right better watch out. I predict people will be dropping their Pepe avatars.

Michael K said...

I think the guy has hired Inga to do his PR. Has anyone seen Inga's tax return ?

Does it show a big fee from "the alt right "? Nobody else seems to care.

dreams said...

"Trump has mistresses, sugar babies, he's a druggie, and he pops pills. There - all out in the open."

Excuse me, but I don't think he was referring to Trump, more likely his message was intended for others who are vying for power in Trump's inter circle.

Anonymous said...

Let's see Trump's taxes first, then you can see mine Michael.

buwaya said...

His sources, like those that Drudge has sometimes, are apparently staff inside media companies. There is a right-underground in the technical/IT staff across all industries that are connected to the right wing media system.

This is one reason gamergate was significant. The left made a lot of enemies among gamers, among whom there are great numbers of IT professionals, and prompted them to organize a reaction which recruited many into a system which now exists for purposes larger than gamergate.

dreams said...

"Let's see Trump's taxes first, then you can see mine Michael."

You can see mine, $4200.00 will be deducted from my checking account on April 18.

madAsHell said...

Fabricate things about me. I don’t care.

Projection.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

As long as these people, let's call it the Bannon wing of this White House, are taking a piece of the attention pie, the democrats can't have more than what they are entitled to. That's a good thing in my book.

dreams said...

"I read the transcript, and he did make Pelley look very foolish. Whatever else he is, he's bright and fast on his feet."

And this.

"Unfortunately for CBS, it doesn’t seem like the country enjoys Pelley’s nightly lectures. A look at Evening News ratings from December to April show a massive slide in viewership."

https://heatst.com/politics/cbs-star-scott-pelleys-ratings-tank-as-he-goes-after-trump-is-he-a-goner/

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

He's one guy and he had some success taking shots at Hillary.

Sort of surprised he hasn't been Seth Rich-ed.

madAsHell said...

mistresses, sugar babies, he's a druggie, and he pops pills.

But, Obama had his phone tapped, and couldn't find a scandal. In some sense, Obama vetted Trump.

Last week, we found out that Pence won't be caught alone with a woman that is not his wife, and they tried to vilify that!

vanderleun said...

Lincoln on Grant, “I can’t spare this man. He fights.”

David said...

Another asshole trying to shout in my ear.

Fernandinande said...

"Gamergate was created to fill the void of an all inclusive and informative home for the ant keeping community."

Big Mike said...

Let's see Trump's taxes first, then you can see mine Michael.

I hope Trump exploited so many loopholes that he paid zero point zero zero. No, scratch that. I hope like General Electric after Jeff Immelt started sucking up to Obama he paid zero and got a refund. The sooner the Congress gets serious about tax reform the better, and I can think of no better motivation for the Congresscritters than a billionaire owing nothing on his tax returns.

Big Mike said...

If Trump has a mistress I think we'll see Melania up on murder charges. Do not mess with Slovenian women.

Boxty said...

Cernovich is a civic nationalist. He is alt-light. Bannon is alt-light. The alt-right are white nationalists. The difference is the same as national socialist and communist on the left.

The reason that Cernovich is willing to go MOAB if Bannon is ousted is it means the globalists (I hear Cohen and Kushner's name mentioned a lot) will have won. MAGA will be dead.

Gahrie said...

This interests me even though it's partly about 'Gamergate,' the controversy that I refuse to get up to speed on."

Well I mean why would you? It is just another case of feminists mistreating a bunch of splooge stooges after all.......

Michael K said...

"Let's see Trump's taxes first, then you can see mine Michael."

Neither of us is running for office. At least I'm not.

Trump was elected without showing his foot thick tax return.

Get over it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Rachel Maddow has Trump's tax returns, and Russians under her bed.
Scoop at 11.

Bill Peschel said...

Another no-name pumped up by the media into a boogyman! Glad to have this asshole around to distract us from IRS overreach, Obama's spy scandals, Syria and North Korea.

When's the new season of "Survivor" begin?

Chuck said...

If the alt- right bloggers and Bannon get into a fight with the Trump family, I hope the US military supplies both sides with lethal weapons.

tim in vermont said...

I don't think the guys who actually have to go out and risk life and limb defending our country hate Trump as much as you do, Chuck. I don't even think Lena Dunham hates Trump as much as you do.

YoungHegelian said...

the mistresses, the sugar babies, the drugs, the pill popping, the orgies.

In other words, just another night's work at IHOP....

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

The Left has already graciously scorched this earth for Trump to no avail. There's nothing the Right can reveal that will make the slightest impression on the mass of Americans.

Stephen Taylor said...

PELLEY: You believe it’s true today?

CERNOVICH: Oh, absolutely.

PELLEY: That story was sourced to an anesthesiologist who never met Clinton. It got so much traction, it had to be denied by Clinton’s doctor and the national Parkinson foundation.

CERNOVICH: She had a seizure and froze up walking into her motorcade.

PELLEY: Well, she had pneumonia. I mean —

CERNOVICH: How do you know? Who told you that?

PELLEY: Well, the campaign told us that.

CERNOVICH: Why would you trust the campaign?

PELLEY: The point is you didn’t talk to anybody who’d ever examined Hillary Clinton.

CERNOVICH: I don’t take anything Hillary Clinton is going to say at all as true. I’m not going to take her on her word. The media says we’re not going to take Donald Trump on his word and that’s why we are in these different universes.

Drago said...

"lifelong republican" and weapons afficionado Chuck: "I hope the US military supplies both sides with lethal weapons."

Which weapons would not be lethal?

It's a good thing you only "almost" joined the military.

Perhaps you should just stick to flacking for Rachel Maddow and her show.

Michael K said...

Drago, I read your comment as "fucking Rachel Maddow" and was about to call the rape hotline.

If there is such a thing.

Mary Beth said...

What is dead cannot die.

I prefer, "I drink and I know things." Tyrion Lannister has some of the best lines.

buwaya said...

To add a bit, it seems that Cernovichs' interview on 60 minutes had excellent ratings, and has moreover gone viral on other media. In a rational, business oriented mass media universe he would be getting job offers.

However, this situation is typical of the politically-oriented media. The talented people who are able to attract audiences are personae non grata to the owners. Because the media is a conglomerate of political assets, not normal businesses.

eric said...

I followed this guy on Twitter for about two weeks during the election. Then I unfollowed him as most of his tweets seemed to be of the, "Look how awesome I am" variety.

I think this guy is about to discover what 15 minutes of fame feels like. The crash and burn isn't fun.

traditionalguy said...

Cernovich has a good discernment between conspiracy teases and the smell of real conspiracies with the ins and outs. If you want to follow a conspiracy blood hound, he is probably the best one. But you have to come to terms with his ability of seeing an industrial strength deception as the way our politics is secretly done.
Some of his recent info is that the paedophile blackmail rings are CIA creations designed to have control over large numbers of middle level government officials who do as instructed for the rest of their lives or are ruined. Most are not perverts, but they have been. trapped in sexual play situations where they were drugged and then photographed naked with children. The CIA guys have Dossiers to hold over them.

Supposedly It is the power that causes Security Clearance of Trump hires to be delayed for months instead of weeks.

cubanbob said...

In other news:

The IRS Scandal, Day 1437: Lois Lerner Fears For Her Life, Asks Federal Court To Seal Her Upcoming Deposition Testimony

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/04/the-irs-scandal-day-1437-lois-lerner-fears-for-her-life-asks-federal-court-to-seal-her-upcoming-depo.html

The wheels of the Democratic buss appear to be starting to coming off.

An aside one of the reasons I love this blog is the stuff one learns from the comments posted here. Today I learned from Chuck that the Armed Forces have two kinds of weapons; lethal and non lethal. I never knew that. Thanks for the info.

Bruce Hayden said...

@CB - I wondered when I first saw that if maybe part of the underlying reason that Lerner is asking for that is that several Representatives have asked the DoJ to reopen the probe into her shenanigans at the IRS.

Heywood Rice said...

The Trump hatred is what guys like this feed on.

Priceless

Michael K said...

Blogger antiphone said...
The Trump hatred is what guys like this feed on.

Priceless


Yeah. Without the Trump haters, nobody would ever hear of him.

Heywood Rice said...

Yeah. Without the Trump haters, nobody would ever hear of him.

Interesting, does this dynamic only apply to Trump or more broadly to human nature in general? For instance, did Obama haters fuel the popularity of anyone like this?

Heywood Rice said...

Yeah. Without the Trump haters, nobody would ever hear of him.

People don't have to recognize --by name-- the original sources of the titillating gossip swirling around in our media, to some degree they don't want to. So the people who purposely invent "fake news" have a definite advantage.

He was ranting on Periscope. But who the hell is he? I don't have a tag for him. Am I supposed to care?

Once the stories are "out there" they provide entertainment value that can be exploited by all "sides".


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Chuck said...

CERNOVICH: I don’t take anything Hillary Clinton is going to say at all as true. I’m not going to take her on her word. The media says we’re not going to take Donald Trump on his word and that’s why we are in these different universes.

Lol!

Well, nobody is taking Trump at his word. Actually, the problem is not so much that the media insists on not taking Trump at his word. The media, and the Trump-critical wing of the Republican Party, are taking Trump at his word, and we're pointing out all of the ways in which Trump keeps breaking every promise he's made and every past position he's taken.

It is Trump's own most fervent supporters who seem to know better than to try to take Trump at his word. Trump has bigly reversed himself on assault weapons bans, abortion rights, universal national healthcare, NATO obsolescence, funding the ExIm Bank, Chinese currency manipulation, military intervention inside Syria, and several dozen other major policy initiatives. And there is no outcry from the base of Trump's most fervent supporters. Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are on the airwaves every weekday, assailing mainstream Republicans for failing to follow what they view as essential conservative doctrine. But when has anyone seen Hannity going after Trump for policy reversals in the same way? It'll never happen. Hannity, whatever he is (he is by self-proclamation NOT a Republican; he claims to be some sort of "Registered Conservative") he is above all a Trump Man. Hannity believes in what Trump says, today. Or what Trump Tweets today. Taking Trump at Trump's own word is an irrelevancy. An afterthought. A non-entity.

This is so obvious; it is Trump's critics (I will only speak for Trump's critics on the Right, and not those on the Left) who continually take Trump at his word. And his supporters who disregard all details of Trump's words.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Trump is bad enough. Bannon is abominably terrible.

The more he's tied to the right wing - especially a right-wing in power - the better it is for anyone not on the right wing.

Heywood Rice said...

Hannity, whatever he is (he is by self-proclamation NOT a Republican; he claims to be some sort of "Registered Conservative") he is above all a Trump Man. Hannity believes in what Trump says, today. Or what Trump Tweets today.

To most of the media the controversy of the day is an empty vessel. The facts are contested and easily made irrelevant. Then they disappear entirely.

“Live bolder, live louder, live for now”.

Brand identity is what remains.

Michael K said...

For instance, did Obama haters fuel the popularity of anyone like this?

I wasn't sure if you were a Trump hater. Thanks for clearing that up.

"Obama haters" were a different breed. They thought he had come out of nowhere , with friends like terrorists Bill Ayres and Bernadine Dohrn, nurtured by a racist preacher named Wright, and with the thinnest resume of any serious candidate for president in history.

His friends were radical Islamists like Khalidi and he was surrounded by Muslim Brotherhood types.

The Illinois election was sketchy as Axelrod got a judge to unseal divorce records of Jack Ryan the candidate for the GOP. Both he and his ex-wife wanted them sealed because there had been an acrimonious divorce and child custody case. In many of these cases. the ex-wife makes inflammatory charges to try to get custody. The people behind Obama, and we still don't know who they are, knew something about this and got a judge to make it all public. To hell with the Ryan children.

Most of us didn't "hate" Obama. We just didn't know who he was.

And still don't except he is a leftist ideologue worthy of membership in the Weather Underground with his friends.

Heywood Rice said...


Most of us didn't "hate" Obama. We just didn't know who he was.

So, if I understand you, since there were no Obama haters like the Trump haters there were no rabid pro Obama advocates equivalent to Mike Cernovich?

Jake said...

He's ready to pay the iron price.

Michael K said...

since there were no Obama haters like the Trump haters there were no rabid pro Obama advocates equivalent to Mike Cernovich?

Rabid Obama advocates trashed Ferguson, MO.

mockturtle said...

Boxty observes: The reason that Cernovich is willing to go MOAB if Bannon is ousted is it means the globalists (I hear Cohen and Kushner's name mentioned a lot) will have won. MAGA will be dead.

I'm afraid you're right. Very afraid.

chickelit said...

mockturtle quoted: The reason that Cernovich is willing to go MOAB if Bannon is ousted is it means the globalists (I hear Cohen and Kushner's name mentioned a lot) will have won. MAGA will be dead.

I wonder if Scott Adam even cares. I bet he doesn't.

chickelit said...

I said it before: If the Don goes all la famiglia, he's finished. Just like the Mob.

Melania will get the last laugh, writing her memoir "Married To The Moob."

mockturtle said...

Or even, 'Married to the Moby".

chickelit said...

mockturtle said...Or even, 'Married to the Moby".

Ouch!

Gospace said...

Cernovich has broken a few big stories and the real media is confused and doesn't know how or why. There's someone else who used to know that. Knew about and published some weird theory about a blue dress. The real media laughed it away. Seriously, a blue dress with SEMEN on it? I mean, get real! Except Drudge had an exclusive and the MSM knew nothing about it.