Robert Mercer pulls support from former Breitbart editor Milo Yianopoulos. Boom. Splash. Gurgle.

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-- the gist of the story concerns the sausage-making of Milo's "seminal" article at Breitbart, "An Establishment Conservative's Guide To The Alt-Right."

The word 'bombshell' gets over-used, but Milo has lost his biggest sugar-daddy. From the Washington Examiner:

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Robert Mercer: I regret supporting Milo Yiannopoulos and I'm cutting off his funding

[...]

Billionaire Republican financier Robert Mercer Thursday is cutting all ties conservative firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos and selling his shares in Breitbart News, which he has funded for years.

Mercer, who has long backed Breitbart and Yiannopoulos, said he hoped Yiannopoulos’ abrasive style and views outside the political mainstream would help people think for themselves. However, as Yiannopoulos moved closer to neo-Nazi and other racist groups, he now regrets supporting him.

“Without individuals thinking for themselves, society as a whole will struggle to distinguish the signal of truth from the correlated news of conformity,” Mercer said in a statement.

“I supported Milo Yiannopoulos in the hope and expectation that his expression of views contrary to the social mainstream and his spotlighting of the hypocrisy of those who would close down free speech in the name of political correctness would promote the type of open debate and freedom of thought that is being throttled on many American college campuses today.”

“But, in my opinion, actions of and statements by Mr. Yiannopoulos have caused pain and divisiveness undermining the open and productive discourse that I had hoped to facilitate. I was mistaken to have supported him, and for several weeks have been in the process of severing all ties with him.”

See the full letter at Business Insider. May the open and productive discourse commence ...

1 hour ago, william.scherk said:

The word 'bombshell' gets over-used, but Milo has lost his biggest sugar-daddy.

William,

Robert Mercer sold and transferred his political stuff to his daughters.

I predict not much is going to change except maybe things financed with Mercer money will get even more Trumpian.

Check out Rebekah Mercer sometime. She ain't her daddy...

Let the dust settle, then let's see if this impacts Milo where it hurts.

So it might be a little too soon to crow victory, albeit I understand the urge for premature celebration. (I was once a crack addict.  ) The left crows victory regularly on autopilot right before tanking. They've been doing this about President Trump ever since the primaries. 

Wile E. Coyote and all...

Michael

23 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

On 11/2/2017 at 9:29 AM, william.scherk said:

The word 'bombshell' gets over-used, but Milo has lost his biggest sugar-daddy.

Let the dust settle, then let's see if this impacts Milo where it hurts.

Good advice. That Mercer is de-funding Milo Inc (they're hiring for seven positions!) could be a turning point for the young gentleman. 

22 minutes ago, william.scherk said:

That Mercer is de-funding Milo Inc (they're hiring for seven positions!). could be a turning point for the young gentleman.

William,

Mu grok faculty seems to be on the blink.

If Milo is being defunded, how is he hiring? Don't you need money to hire people?

Anyway, here is what Milo himself says about it (from about 3 hours ago):

Michael

1 hour ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

If Milo is being defunded, how is he hiring? Don't you need money to hire people?

Well, let's check back in a while, and see if Milo Inc. is still hiring. Mu grok or not.

20 hours ago, william.scherk said:

Mu grok or not.

William,

A quick update, but on a related issue.

Milo now writes for The Daily Caller.

A Round Of Applause For Kevin Spacey

Just thought you might like to know since you seem concerned about Milo's demise and all.

At least now you don't have to worry...

Michael

1 hour ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Milo now writes for The Daily Caller.

A Round Of Applause For Kevin Spacey

Just thought you might like to know since you seem concerned about Milo's demise and all.

At least now you don't have to worry...

Whew! I wish I had a weekly column at a site like that Daily Caller ... even if I could no longer rely upon the Mercer family to subsidize my career.

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This week I have been accused of causing “pain and divisiveness.” I should hope so. A terminal disease in contemporary American culture is niceness. Appropriateness and earnestness are this country’s cardinal sins. For three decades, conservatives have been scolded, reprimanded, backed into toothless, diluted positions, robbed of their effectiveness and browbeaten out of their zeal by language-policers demanding “civilized discourse.” Well. Daddy Trump did not win the presidency through gingerliness – nor did I amass millions of fans by being scrupulously conciliatory. The progressive Left is dedicated to the annihilation of America and every surviving libertarian and conservative person in it. The Left’s gratuitous vandalism of American institutions and its hostility to the principles that have made this country great cannot be fought with essays in magazines. The Left can only win by forcing us onto the uneven playing field of political correctness and constructive dialogue. I choose war.

MILO is an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author. This is the first installment in his new weekly column for the Daily Caller.

Views expressed in op-eds are not the views of The Daily Caller.
 

10 minutes ago, william.scherk said:

Whew! I wish I had a weekly column at a site like that Daily Caller...

William,

So do I.

Especially if I had been thrown off of Breitbart for being abused by a pedophile as a kid and being painted as one myself for talking about it rather confusedly.

In fact, I heard from the mainstream that Milo was washed up in the culture. Finished. Kaput. No way, José. He's a gonner.

Especially among conservatives who don't hold truck with pedophiles and punish them when they are found out (unlike, say, Antifa and Hollywood  ).

I heard a rumor that the audience of The Daily Caller was pretty conservative, though...

I wonder what happened...

Helpfully,

Michael

20 hours ago, William quoted the Daily Caller, said:

[link] The Left can only win by forcing us onto the uneven playing field of political correctness and constructive dialogue. I choose war.

MILO is an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author. This is the first installment in his new weekly column for the Daily Caller.

Views expressed in op-eds are not the views of The Daily Caller.

-- in the 20 hours since I quoted the Milo column ... one line has disappeared:

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The Left can only win by forcing us onto the uneven playing field of political correctness and constructive dialogue. I choose war.

MILO is an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author.

Views expressed in op-eds are not the views of The Daily Caller.

2 hours ago, william.scherk said:

-- in the 20 hours since I quoted the Milo column ... one line has disappeared:

And an article by Andrew Blake at The Washington Times has appeared that mentions this:

Milo Yiannopoulos makes Daily Caller debut after losing backing of Breitbart, Mercer

From the article:

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The Daily Caller clarified its relationship with right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos on Saturday a day after publishing his first opinion column for the conservative news site.

Mr. Yiannopoulos made his Daily Caller debut with an opinion piece published Friday containing an editor’s note stating: “This is the first installment in his new weekly column for the Daily Caller.”

The language labeling Mr. Yiannopoulos as a weekly columnist disappeared by Saturday, and the Daily Caller has since pushed back against news reports involving its newest writer.

“Contrary to some recent news reports The Daily Caller did not hire Milo Yiannopoulos,” Neil Patel, the website’s co-founder and publisher, said in a statement to The Washington Times. “He is not working for us. He has never worked for us. Yiannopoulos published a single op-ed on The Daily Caller.”

“News outlets trying to play our publication of an op-ed as some sort of Daily Caller endorsement of Yionnopoulos are just trying to score cheap political points,” Mr. Patel added.

. . .

Mr. Patel, a former advisor to former Vice President Dick Cheney, founded The Daily Caller in 2010 with Fox News host Tucker Carlson. The site averages 50 million page views each month, including 7,000 unique views from visitors on Capitol Hill, according to its own statistics.

It sounds to me like there is some fighting going on backstage at The Daily Caller.

I certainly can't see a Dick Cheney person happy with carrying Milo. I suspect Patel was left out of the loop when Milo was hired, then the shit hit the fan once Milo's article went up with the announcement of a weekly installment.

Michael

37 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

It sounds to me like there is some fighting going on backstage at The Daily Caller.

What I don't understand is what Tucker Carlson has to do with the Daily Caller -- besides being one of its founders.

Here's Tucker with Milo back in February ... a couple of weeks before he resigned from Breitbart. 

48 minutes ago, william.scherk said:

What I don't understand is what Tucker Carlson has to do with the Daily Caller -- besides being one of its founders.

William,

I don't understand it, either.

Besides, who said Tucker had anything to do with The Daily Caller? Everybody knows he founded it, but he had to leave once he took over his own show at Fox News. I believe it had to do with the conflict of interest clause or something when he became top talent.

I imagine the fighting was between Patel and other management, although I speculate.

Michael

Michael, I get the sensation -- rightly or wrongly -- that you may think I dislike Milo, join his heartless critics in hoping for his utter ruin. That isn't true to what I actually believe or feel. I wrote about this earlier and compared him to Oscar Wilde (in the Conspiracy thread) ... where I think we were talking about Milo in-with Camille Paglia and David Seaman.

I have a few video-editing things to do on this slow OL day -- and I think I want to put the Milo "pedo-ephebo-philia" comments (and apology) in one place. In the meantime, I repost my earlier thoughts, in reconsidering some conclusions I took that seem rather wrong in retrospect:

On 2/21/2017 at 6:56 PM, william.scherk said:

Listening and watching my share of David Seaman video, I noted he has few expressions, and no particular aptitude for empathy. His brows are almost always knit to the same degree.  His affect is blunted.  It is a state of bland anger and vigilance and grievance, aggression, but without much modulation.  His moods may be obverse to his reason. 

That is my bias. I don't like him in the way that I like Milo, find Milo more empathetic, more intelligent, more socially-gifted, a larger personality along more dimensions. I like Milo much more than I like, say, Ann Coulter or other entertainer-provocateurs who are writers and communicators.

I think what happened to him is that he tried to have something both ways. The something was his experience with youth-adult sex.  On the one hand, not joking, he likened himself to the predator in the encounter he told of with a Catholic cleric in his twenties. His age at the time he was coy with (on Rogan), but the outrageous remark was ostensibly that his experience should generalize to other youth vis-a-vis intergenerational love. The remark that he wouldn't know how to give such good blowjobs were it not his early encounter ... was suitable for Rogan's show. 

That's the one way, the one audience, the one pose, the one interpretation, the prey-as-predator, the difference between pre and post-puberty 'boys,' some laughs, a lot of outraged/performance push back from Rogan. It is almost a schtick. That schtick was also on display in the live-chat video excerpts.

Then there is the 'what will I tell the principal?' way, when called to the office. Well now, the truth of the mattter is that I was a victim of child sexual abuse by cleric. I am a victim, and I was being edgy about it in other venues. 

It's just that you can't have it both ways with some people.

Milo will rise again and rise taller, I hope. He will gain more wisdom and insight without losing his edge and his punch. He will still be a darling, our own sassy gay pundit, but he will further individualize, set his own course, once the sad and unnecessary scandal passes.

I think he hit the third-rail of Christian-right triggers, the revulsion button.  That wing of Republicans and presumably those Christians like Bannon and others at Breitbart will not accept the having it both ways.  It's a shame.  The provocation was in testing the verities that youth-adult 'love' relations are overwhelmingly criminal and negative.  It is too bad that that hit the electric rail and no further nuance can get over the burning jolt of Bzzzzzt.

Worse in the short-term but just fine in the medium term is that Millo lost a book-publishing deal. There will be another.

 

For now he is in the early stages of the Oscar Wilde effect.  Wilde told the truth in the dock and it put him in gaol.  But he is one of the British immortals of letters and manners. All the talent and energy that brought Milo this far in his career as a public provocateur ... will propel him past the momentary social antipathy.   Even if he takes some self-prison, or a session of recluse, he will  again mount big stages.

William,

I thought you had changed re Milo. My impression is probably due to you posting stuff about Milo being a Nazi and promoting white power without comment right after bashing Dinesh for the Hitler was not anti-gay comment. Then continuing with nothing but bad new Milo-wise.

(btw - I know what Dinesh meant, but man, was he inartful in saying it. In my view, he meant that gayness as an issue was not on Hitler's hatred priorities when it was present among his power base and very low on his negative radar for anything, although it was there. Dinesh knows hatred grew, too.)

I'm very happy to correct my impression of your impression of Milo.

As to David Seaman, I'm going to throw a curve-ball at you. Has it ever occurred to you he might be on the autistic spectrum, albeit extremely high functioning? I live with a stepson who is high-functioning (not nearly as much as David), so I see some similarities. (Now you know the root of my warm feelings for him.)

And another curve ball. If that is the case and, in Christianity, David found solace and a way to cope for his differences, is that a bad thing?

Like it or not, he is doing a good thing being like a dog latched onto a postman's pants leg about Podesta and Pedogate. Just look at the pedo-world starting to crumble right now alongside the crumbling of the Hillary-world. I find it entirely plausible that these two Grand Crumblings will eventually meet in the end re some people.

Michael

15 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

I know what Dinesh meant [...] that gayness as an issue was not on Hitler's hatred priorities when it was present among his power base and very low on his negative radar for anything, although it was there.

If I suggested to you that D'Souza was not 'inartful,' but factually wrong on Hitler's anti-gay actions as Fuhrer, would you be willing to review some evidence?

15 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Dinesh knows hatred grew, too.

Mu grok.

15 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

Has it ever occurred to you [Seaman] might be on the autistic spectrum [...]?

Not really (recall our backstage convo on him where I discussed depression and mania) ...  although there might be some faint indications of Asperger's in the fixed ideas -- or rather the repetition of elements of interest. I don't know. I will ask him what he thinks about that possible Dx.

15 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

I live with a stepson who is high-functioning (not nearly as much as David), so I see some similarities.

I don't know your step-son at all, of course, so the similarities you see are opaque to me and other readers. Being close and observant, you probably have a few indicators or patterns of behaviour that inform your view.

4 hours ago, william.scherk said:

If I suggested to you that D'Souza was not 'inartful,' but factually wrong on Hitler's anti-gay actions as Fuhrer, would you be willing to review some evidence?

William,

Actually no.

Why?

Because I'm stupid and an inferior intelligence given to conspiracies and faith over reason.

On the other hand, in my worldview, things evolve instead of being static over a lifetime. That's probably due to me having bumpkin farm-thinking or sumpin'.

I should ask if I showed you evidence that things like hatred do evolve over time, would you be willing to look at it right before you dismiss it?

Michael

An example of the Principle of Charity in action.

4 hours ago, william.scherk said:

If I suggested to you that D'Souza was not 'inartful,' but factually wrong on Hitler's anti-gay actions as Fuhrer, would you be willing to review some evidence?

I think it would be fair to say Hitler was opportunistic in his approach to gays.   Jews too.  There was a case, and I could probably look up the name easily, of a high ranking Nazi discovering he had Jewish roots, and this spawned the line (paraphrasing): we decide who is Jewish and who is not. 

Dinesh's statement would have been equally valid if he'd said Jews instead of gays.  Absurd.  

15 hours ago, william.scherk said:

An example of the Principle of Charity in action.

William

LOL...

That's actually accurate.

It's probably more a matter of tone than substance.

I have a visceral negative reaction to smug condescension presented as outreach.

I don't mind being the rube when I am. But it has to be real. Being a rube and playing one involuntarily in another person's virtue signaling drama to himself are different. If I'm supposed to play that role, I demand the right to deepen the character with other rube qualities.

Michael

Dinesh D'Souza to get a presidential pardon, according to reports by NBCknuze:

BREAKING: President Trump says he is pardoning conservative firebrand Dinesh D’Souza, asserting in a tweet that he "was treated very unfairly by our government!" pic.twitter.com/7pDk3LVgJd

— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 31, 2018

D'Souza was on Laura Ingrahm tonight. The Show, I mean.

11 hours ago, Peter said:

D'Souza was on Laura Ingrahm tonight.

Got a link?

Dinesh D'Souza has just had his new docco released, in a fairly large roll-out of 1005 screens. OL fan favourite Mike Cernovich has a brief review: