RUSSIAN NEWS AGENCY HIRES EX-BREITBARTER JUST AS HE TURNS AGAINST THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Okay, this is odd. You may have read this at The Atlantic on Wednesday:

A former Breitbart News writer is launching a radio show for Russian propaganda network Sputnik.

“I’m on the Russian payroll now, when you work at Sputnik you’re being paid by the Russians,” former Breitbart investigative reporter Lee Stranahan told me. “That’s what it is. I don’t have any qualms about it. Nothing about it really affects my position on stuff that I’ve had for years now.”

... Stranahan, who quit Breitbart in protest last month claiming that the site’s Washington editor was preventing him from covering the White House, told me he is launching a Crossfire-style liberal vs. conservative show called Fault Lines With Nixon and Stranahan with liberal pundit Garland Nixon. It will be carried by Sputnik online....

Sputnik officially announced the hire on Wednesday.

Stranahan was a well-known Donald Trump fan -- go here if you want to watch a video of him on his way to the "DeploraBall" on Inauguration Night. Sputnik is a Russian government site that's been accused of spreading fake news on behalf of Trump and against Angela Merkel. Seems like a good match, right?

But the announcement of Stranahan's new gig coincided with the release of Stranahan YouTube videos with titles such as "VERY SERIOUS SOS: Jared Kushner forcing Bannon out at White House?" and "DOUBLE RED ALERT: on Trump Nat’l Security Advisor Dina Powell and Obama HOUSEMATE Valerie Jarrett." The latter video was also posted on Twitter a few hours before the Trump attack on Syria. The video anticipated that attack, and it links Powell -- who's said to be increasingly influential in the Trump White House -- to Valerie Jarrett and other who are considered Antichrists by the right (Arianna Huffington, Chelsea Clinton).



A follow-up today from Stranahan is titled "URGENT: Ivanka Takeover? Syria is The Coup I warned you about.. YOU need to turn it around." Another is "DAMN IT - too late, the enemy was inside. Now missiles. You were betrayed by Ivanka Trump."

We know that many on the alt-right are very upset by the Syria raid. You can read about that at BuzzFeed, Raw Story, Politico, and elsewhere. But here's a guy who was upset about the reported White House "coup" by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner loyalists before the U.S. missiles fell in Syria -- and he's working for the Russians. So does that mean the Russians aren't pro-Trump anymore? Or that they're only pro-Trump on the condition that the white nationalists are on the ascent in Trump World?

I know that a lot of people think the Syria raid was a phony show of force because the Russians were alerted in advance. But it's also possible that foreign policy really is now in the hands of people who have no interest in treating Russia with kid gloves. Stranahan, like the rest of the alt-right, sneeringly refers to them "globalists."

And if a report from Mike Allen at Axios is correct, the "globalist" takeover of the White House really might be complete soon:

President Trump is considering a broad shakeup of his White House that could include the replacement of White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the departure of chief strategist Steve Bannon, aides and advisers tell us.

No more Bannon or Priebus (who's said to have become a Bannon ally lately)? Stranahan has been urging alt-rightist Trumpites to call the White House demanding the reversal of the "coup" ...

Lee @stranahan on what you can do - CALL THE WHITE HOUSE! https://t.co/oqEDepdB0B pic.twitter.com/I4Fd5cuOPA

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) April 6, 2017

... but a purge of Bannon and Priebus is going to make the alt-rightists turn irreversibly against Trump.

And maybe the Russians, too?

I don't think the alt-rightists are genuinely representative of the Trump electorate -- they're one faction, like Bernie-or-Busters on the left, but, like the Busters, they get a disproportionate share of the attention because they're mostly young, white, articulate, and Net-savvy. As I said in the last post, I think most of Trump's voters -- dyed-in-the-wool white-collar suburban Republicans and blue-collar whites -- are happy to see Trump blowing stuff up. But alt-right criticism of Trump will spread, and will weaken him in the long run.

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Bonus alt-right disillusionment: Ben Garrison, a cartoonist who's literally portrayed Trump as Superman...



... is now depicting Trump this way:



Oh, how sad when our gods fail us.


(Cartoon via @bonerhitler.)