I’ve had too many fantasies about what I would do and say to current or former Trump administration people if I happened to run into them in real life. Like, what would you do if you saw Jared Kushner at a restaurant? What would you do if you saw Mother’s Husband at CVS? Would you go over to them and respectfully tell them to go f–k themselves? Would you throw a shoe? Would you start ranting about Nazis? I’ve fantasized about all of that and more. Apparently, one woman happened upon Steve Bannon at a Richmond, VA bookstore. Bannon, as you probably remember, was the one whispering in Trump’s ear this whole time about leaning into the worst of his Nazi tendencies. Bannon left the administration, but he still talks to Trump and I’d be willing to bet that he still advises Trump too, even though they had a big falling out in public. Anyway, back to the bookstore…
A Richmond, Virginia, bookstore owner said he called the police on Saturday after former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was confronted in his store. Nick Cooke, owner of Black Swan Books, told The Richmond Times-Dispatch that a woman called Bannon a “piece of trash.”
The woman then left the store after Cooke said he called 911.
“Steve Bannon was simply standing, looking at books, minding his own business. I asked her to leave, and she wouldn’t. And I said, ‘I’m going to call the police if you don’t,’ and I went to call the police and she left,” Cooke said. “And that’s the end of the story.”
Bannon grew up in Richmond, the newspaper noted. The Richmond Police Department confirmed the call was made but the call was canceled before officers responded.
“We are a bookshop. Bookshops are all about ideas and tolerating different opinions and not about verbally assaulting somebody, which is what was happening,” Cooke said.
For all of the stupid bullsh-t about “civility,” it’s worth noting that in most of these cases, it’s just people walking up to some Trumper a–hole and calling them a name, or simply refusing service to the a–hole. I mean, all this woman did was call him a “piece of trash,” which is not even one-tenth of what I would say if given the chance. Plus, it’s a statement of fact: water is wet, the sky is blue and Steve Bannon is a piece of trash, a dumpster fire of a human being, a Nazi slug, a boil on the ass of humanity. All statements of fact and none of them rise to the “verbal assault” label when aimed at Nazi trash like Steve Bannon. And for that statement of fact – and her refusal to leave – the owner called the cops? WTF? What did Nick Cooke even say to the 911 dispatcher? “Um there’s a woman here and she politely called Steve Bannon a ‘piece of trash’ yes it’s an emergency come quickly omg now she’s just standing there, thinking about calling him a douchecanoe.”
And here’s the chaser: Nick Cooke’s wife embezzled $2.2 million FROM A CHURCH. FFS.
The owner of Black Swan Books, (Nicholas Trout Cooke, III) who was very concerned about making Steve Bannon comfortable, was a Episcopal priest whose wife Ellen Cooke resigned as national Episcopal treasurer after stealing $2.2 million in church donations https://t.co/SgdoaqTRLC
— Rafael 🔥 (@rafaelshimunov) July 8, 2018
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Steve Bannon is a vile POS. He said “its ok if they call you a racist.” He is trash. He and Trump are right up there on the hate meter for me.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: None of these people should have a peaceful outing in public again.
Right on Jenns! The reason we never had government officials as brazenly evil and craven in recent years is that they knew they had to live/walk among us! Don’t get physical and obey the law but give all these MOFOs a piece of your mind if you see them!!! I emailed the bookstore a respectfully bold reprimand and others should also if they desire🤣
Bookstores should embrace truth. The truth is that Steve Bannon is trash. He even looks like he sleeps in a dumpster. Who was that living trash pile on Fraggle Rock? He looks like that.
Right? “Bookshops are all about ideas and tolerating different opinions…” yet he makes someone leave his store and calls the cops over them expressing an opinion he disagrees with? He has the right to ask someone to leave his store, but it’s BS to hide behind free speech and tolerance to justify it. Just admit that you were taking up for a fellow deplorable (and possible friend, according to some sites).
Hey, let’s leave the “Muppet’s Fraggle Rock” out of this. They are cute not Steve Bannon. He is trash. A Nazi Loving, Adolf Hitler worshiping sheep s*** trash.
As for the Owner of the Bookstore, he needs to stop calling the kettle black. Why wouldn’t call 911 on his wife for embezzlement, instead of calling them on a woman who called Steve Bannon exactly what he is?
…forever tarnishing a cherished memory of Fraggle Rock. sob
They called the cops? GMAFB. Sloppy Steve is a trashy POS, and I wouldn’t hold back from telling him as loudly as I could
People would be amazed (and horrified) at what some members of the public deem 911-worthy calls. The stories I could tell (if not bound by an oath of secrecy). Makes me weep for the future of humanity and alleviates some of the pain of never having children, frankly.
I bet you have stories. I thought those people calling the police because their cat went crazy and trapping themselves in the bathroom while screaming at the top of their lungs was bad. I mean, yeah cats can be vicious and have sharp claws and teeth but it’s not like they can kill you. Be a grown up, for godsake. On second thought, maybe the cat went crazy because it couldn’t deal with their bullshit anymore…
I read black Twitter and the root and it is appalling how white people have called 911 on:
Black person who showed at the public pool and refused to show white dude ID
Black person who said no when a drunk white woman at a pool asked her if they could be friends
Black real estate agent going into a house they were showing
Black congresswoman doing constituency work door to door
Black girl selling bottled water
Black person BBQing in a park
Black student sleeping in her dorm lobby
Black boy mowing a lawn he was hired to mow
Black woman entering her gated community
And on and on and on. Thank God for cell phones because the people calling the cops LIE about the issue and get ashamed when taped and called out.
It is unreal! 911 is not for hashing out racism or petty disagreements. We should start charging people for using 911 for this crap. And yet people say nothing at the racist behavior where whites use 911 like a referee for black folks trying to exist and live.
This bookstore owner calling 911 on a woman calling Bannon a racist, which Gannon identifies as, proudly, is peak caucasity.
I read that the Cooke’s bought the bookstore with those ill-gotten gains. Very “Trumpian” of you!
You all better call the cops because I have many worse things to say to Bannon, Conway, Sarah Sanders, Ivanka, et al.
Oh no now there will be a week of stories about on Fox News on the horrors that Steve Bannon suffered. CNN will debate the pros and cons of yelling at Bannon. Anyway, he was just there in the children’s section looking at what Golden Books he should advice Trump to burn.
To be fair, Dumpy only burns books that he can’t read. Which is all of them.
Our tax dollars at work! Once again left to wonder why the cops respond to the mild discomfort of white people WHICH IS NOT A CRIME.
Why aren’t dispatchers asking questions? Telling people that being called a mean name is not a police matter?
Freaking waste of time, money and resources. Kind of like how Steve Bannon is a waste of skin.
From above: “the call was canceled before officers responded.“
But the police didn’t cancel the call, the bookstore owner did. The police are not white people’s personal security, yet they act as such.
I worked at a sheriff station many moons ago. Dispatchers do ask questions however they can not determine whether an officer is dispatched. Cops have to go and it falls on them to say that it’s a civil matter. Yes it’s BS, but that’s the way it is.
Except—and this isn’t a comment meant to question you or your knowledge, just general observation—that isn’t true in all circumstances.
If a business person or someone from an affluent area calls then, yes, police are for sure dispatched, no matter what the complaint, but calls far more violent are routinely ignored in poor, mostly minority areas. We hear all the time about police taking hours to show up for gunshots, if at all. People waiting in vain for ambulances to help them, etc. That, combined with repeated instances of police brutality and murder, is what has lead to this vast gulf of distrust being minority communities and law enforcement.
Hard to ignore that there are two kinds of policing in this country: one for those who happen to be white, and another for those that aren’t. It’s a disgrace.
Funny coincidence — Trump’s sister was the judge who put the wife in the slammer. You couldn’t make this shit up!!
Six Degrees of Separation Strikes Again! lol
Frankly, Kaiser, if you permit, I would LOVE to say all those things you said you’d call them, if I had the misfortune to see any one of those blights on humanity, right to their faces.
As to calling the cops?? OMG, WHY isn’t ANYONE citing the 1st Amendment right to free speech? Or have we finally acquiesced our final hold on our Constitution for everyone except the Orange Sh!tstain and his Mindless Minions?
I’m just amazed that any trump supporter would ever be in a bookstore, since he brags about never reading..I think it might be smarter just to follow them, taking their pic to make them squirm, especially if a lot of people do it..and how is this ‘holy man’s’ allowed to use stolen $ to start a business (if that’s true.,)..
I get the sense that a lot of his staff read quite a bit. How else do you imagine that they be able to come up with these coked up cruel KKK fantasies? They’re looking through the history books, through law, and through custom. That’s how he’s shepherding Trumpism through.
I think trump is a big old racist and sexist dirtbag, but I think he’s in the presidency because Putin told him to, because he wants to be a dictator, and because he wants to make money. That he’s getting to act racism is lagniappe for him, but I think absent the urging by Bannon and Miller (and god knows how many other white supremacists we don’t know the names of), I don’t think he’d want to put in the work. He would be content to sit in the White House and his cheesy resorts and tweet and eat cake and bully people. This is not me excusing him, by the way. I just think he’s lazy and stupid and these specific and cruel policies wouldn’t have occurred to him.
My sister was one of the STEM educators invited to the White House last week. She texted me a picture of Ivanka when she breezed into the room. I was begging her to:
1) throw her shoe at her
2) call her feckless
3) ask her if MAGA meant making her products in the United States.
My sister said it was painful to see these clowns play Goverment up there after the Obama administration. Betsy DeVos was the absolute worst. Huge note cards for a panel because she does not have the knowledgeable information to answer anything.
Did she consider not going? Your sister, I mean? Or was it out of curiosity that she went? I keep putting myself in that scenario and I keep thinking I would refuse but then maybe it’s too tempting to say no? IDK.
Michael Selyem, a CA deputy AG, called for Maxine Water’s assassination in a deluge of vile language. He’s being investigated.
Calling someone a piece of trash or politely asking someone to leave a restaurant, or telling someone to resign by reading a calm script does not even approach this monstrous hatred by some Republican officials.
When Republican talk about civility, they are using it as a shield to hide their grifting, like Grifter Barbie who has stolen $82 million due to her government position. The drumps’ speeches at campaign rallies are the template for rabid hatred.
The only reason I can think of for Bannon to be in a bookstore is to stick copies of Mein Kampf in the religion section right next to the Bible. Either that or he wanted to buy a copy of the Handmaid’s Tale to get some good tips.
In reality though, he was probably trying to find some slug-themed erotica to get back to his under-a-rock dwelling roots.
When did bookstores become all of that!?! Bookstores, sorry “bookshops” rarely carry anything that won’t sell and are rarely bastions of tolerance or ranges of view, get over yourself. Although, it is sad that there aren’t really unique bookstores anymore (but can be found with research). I remember once going to an independent “bookshop” and they had this big book as a doorstop. I said “You know there’s a book propping the door?” and the guy said “It’s a Jeffery Archer book and that’s the best use it’ll see.” Nicholas and his enabling bookshop can eff off.
The bookstore is private property and if someone refuses to leave when asked by the owner it’s technically trespassing. A better tactic might have been to linger discreetly on the sidewalk, wait for Bannon to come out, and then heckle him all the way to his car.
I’m all in favor of making those complicit in this mess very uncomfortable when out in public, but if you are going to do that, please brush up on your rights and know what you can legally do and what behavior will actually get you arrested. If you break some bullshit law about unlawful assembly or creating a disturbance, you could very easily end up with a criminal record. Civil disobedience is not a get out of jail free card. It doesn’t matter why you committed the crime, just that you did. Everyone needs to know that and prepare for the consequences. The ACLU website has some useful info about exercising your right to free speech and what lines you can’t cross.
I can understand in wanting to intervene before it turns into A Scene in your business, but, uh, feck off with the police calls. Stop wasting people’s tax dollars for non-issues.
OMFG but WE’RE snowflakes? I can’t even.
Even more delicious…Trump’s older sister, who was a federal judge (she must have gotten all the brains in the family), was the one to sentence the bookshop owner’s wife to 5 years in prison for embezzlement back in 1995!
http://articles.latimes.com/1996-07-13/local/me-23704_1_episcopal-church
I am just shaking my head and wondering where the hell this is going to take this country that I cannot even recognize anymore. I used to be proud to be an American and I’m just not. I am questioning how it is possible for me to love the family members that think Trump is doing a fine job. How can we even be on the same planet? I feel utterly despondent and thank the friends in the UK for making a bigger stink than the idiots here who voted for this abomination.
I’m all for public shaming and guilt. Sorry they carry out those plans they deserve to be shamed. It worked for centuries. Miller bought sushi and the bartender chased him down and cussed him out. CONway was also yelled at in a supermarket. Fine with me. This civility thing is bs. Public shaming has existed since the dawn of time.