He’s already President. I’m unclear on what he even needs his base for anymore, beyond ego-stroking.
The Hill: Ohio city to remove Robert E. Lee monument
According to a report by local news outlet Cincinnatti .com, the statue is expected to be removed from its current spot on a right-of-way to a new location.
The decision has been cited as a “public safety hazard” but it comes in the light of protests over Confederate statues and monuments.
Franklin’s acting City Manager Jonathan Westendorf said in a statement the statue would be returned to Franklin Township in order to “avoid the creation of a public safety hazard” because the statue was sitting on a right-of-way on the Dixie Highway.
“It’s never been a problem in the past,” Vice Mayor Carl Bray said, according to the news site. “I think we should leave it up.”
The statue was reportedly built in the 1920s, and has been a part of the community “without interruption,” according to Franklin Township Administrator Traci Stivers.
Yes, but of the many things you’re unclear on, at least this one’s pretty benign.
Bannon called that base a bunch of morons in the interview
Saw this somewhere last night:
What do you call a Nazi with a permit? A Nazi.
I think it’s more accurate to say his message was, “Hey guys, do me a favor? Cool it with the explicit racism, play up the ‘economic nationalism’ dog-whistle instead. K thnks, see you at the next torchlight rally.”
Yeah, pretty much. Basically, the Richard Spencers of the world will read Bannon calling the fringe “clowns” and not see themselves, but see instead see those within their movement who can’t seem to grasp the nuance encapsulated by phraseology like “alt-right”.
Apparently now he is saying he did it to draw fire away from Trump.
I will say this: his take on military action in North Korea is refreshingly candid and 100% correct. It’s just crazy to see a White House advisor cop to it.
He loves rallies, speaking in front of throngs of cheering fans in stadiums. Also, that is his future customer base for Trump TV.
This is not the official (national) ACLU stance.
Historians do differentiate between the various groups that joined the Nazi party, and tend to refer to civilians as Germans and use the Nazi moniker for people who appeared to be ur-Nazis.
Of course, that sort of nuance and depth would fly right over the head of the vast majority of people involved in this discourse. Soundbites and idiot-simple are de-rigueur these days, as is complete ignorance of WW2/Weimar history. Not that that stops the idiot-simple types from pontificating about the lessons to be learned from WW2 and fascism.
I stand with the Juggal…oh for fucks sake, c’mon 2017! Really?!
For the curious:
“Antifa” is a movement that began in the 1920’s an 30’s in Europe, where anti-fascist groups in Spain, Italy and Germany brawled with burgeoning fascist parties in the streets. While obviously unsuccessful in stopping the rise to power of the fascist parties in those countries, the resistance continued through WWII. After the war, with fascism defeated, historical Antifa pretty much dissolved.
Current Antifa has it’s roots in music. In the 70’s and 80’s the growing English punk rock scene with it’s anti-government and anarchist message began to attract the attention of new fascist groups (neo-Nazis). They thought it would be a ripe recruiting ground. Many of the established punk bands and the anarchist groups that supported them were not cool with this, and banded together to fight this incursion at the street level at music festivals, concerts and events. Antifa was “reborn”. In the 80’s and 90’s it came over to America, again as part of the music scene, and was primarily anarchist groups and fans trying to protect their culture from neo-Nazi infiltration.
In recent years though, Antifa has gained traction as it’s leadership has matured and it’s organizational skills improved. With Twitter and the internet, chapters have popped up in many major cities and the movement has solidified into one of a political nature instead of just being tied to the music scene. Anti-racism replaced anti-fascism as the main theme, and because of this their ranks swelled with those who would send a more visible message of resistance in the BLM and Trump era. Most of the recent conflicts at U.C. Berkeley and in Portland have involved Antifa heavily, either clashing with Pro-Trump people or actual white supremacists. It’s often violent, because true Antifa members are anarchists, which means they will clash with police officers just easily as with alt-right groups. Respect for authority is not a hallmark of American Antifa.
Check out the Atlantic Magazine article here that relates much of the above and more details on Antifa and the militant left. It IS a thing, it’s not totally made up from whole cloth by Conservatives, though Conservatives do try to equate ANY resistance by the left as violent Antifa action, and they do not see any difference between Antifa, BLM and other left-leaning groups who are not afraid to get in the faces of Conservative and alt-right protesters/rally-goers. One shining example is the African-American man who went on a cop shooting rampage in Dallas. Conservatives will point to that as Antifa violence, when it reality it had nothing to do with Antifa, or even with BLM, and was just some guy who went nuts and tried to take out police officers.
The end result is that while this gives the left it’s own street-level resistance soldiers, they aren’t exactly making us look great all the time. If alt-right groups and Antifa clash, Antifa will be portrayed as the “good” side by the media because, well, Nazis. However Antifa groups are just as likely to antagonize the police as they are alt-right groups, or get pushy with a bunch of Pro-Trumpers…and those exchanges lead to the image of “The Left is just as violent as The Right” that Conservatives want so badly to push. It’s a double-edged sword.
We (the collective left) would probably be much better off if instead of letting Antifa fight our battles for us, we just showed up at alt-right demonstrations like Charlottesville in overwhelming numbers, lining the streets, calling out the Nazis, and making sure the Jewish, African-American and Hispanic communities knew that we stood with them against both the hatred of the alt-right and the ignorance of the Pro-Trumpers.
Apparently the Russians pulled the daily stormer website too now.
I guess Russia has a thing against Nazis… not sure why that would be.
Wait… Oh yeah.
Trump is still waiting on all those “facts” before making the call.
It would be amazingly awesome if Obama called the mayor, and/or made an appearance in the town to talk about unity in the fight against racism and nationalism. It would sure piss off Trump to no end, he might even have another epic meltdown.