A continuation of events surrounding the drug war and related social issues of Baja California and Mexico. Keeping an eye on Seig Heil Trump. We are still trying to restore all blogs from 2006 which were hacked by Linton Robinson and his team, famous for supporting the Baja Trump Towers on one of his real estate sites. Highlights of Paris-Simone's favorite music !!
I have been really sick for almost two weeks, so I am behind like crazy with everything...but the next few days will catch up.. It's a long story.
Let's start off with dummy. Of course, just about the only thing which made me feel a little better in the last two weeks were the 250,000 Brits who turned out to protest against Trump which prompted me to look again at old pics and videos of Sennen Cove and wonder WTF am I doing here?
Adding this from Owen Jones: If you are interested, bookmark it, hit the "support The Guardian" link and give them a hand:
Unbelievable, but why should it be ? Both of them are gangsters.
end edit, really.
**********
The really big news which the US MSM is missing is AMLO, who I will return to. Executions and violence continue in our neck of the woods despite the recent election - we are over 100 executions this month in TIJ alone, another kidnapping in Rosarito and another Ministerial Agent murdered in Ensenada... I'll be back with those stats. Plus updates on the separated families.
Still, everyone sort of thought things would improve in Russia back in 2003, which did not happen. Note Putin's "look" in video:
I have been really sick for almost two weeks, so I am behind like crazy with everything...but the next few days will catch up.. It's a long story.
Let's start off with dummy. Of course, just about the only thing which made me feel a little better in the last two weeks were the 250,000 Brits who turned out to protest against Trump which prompted me to look again at old pics and videos of Sennen Cove and wonder WTF am I doing here?
Adding this from Owen Jones: If you are interested, bookmark it, hit the "support The Guardian" link and give them a hand:
Unbelievable, but why should it be ? Both of them are gangsters.
end edit, really.
**********
The really big news which the US MSM is missing is AMLO, who I will return to. Executions and violence continue in our neck of the woods despite the recent election - we are over 100 executions this month in TIJ alone, another kidnapping in Rosarito and another Ministerial Agent murdered in Ensenada... I'll be back with those stats. Plus updates on the separated families.
Still, everyone sort of thought things would improve in Russia back in 2003, which did not happen. Note Putin's "look" in video:
Paris has been a full time job during her post operative recovery, she will have to wear her harness (Mike calls it her combat gear) for the next seven weeks. She went into the VCA on last Friday for her first bandage change and x-ray - so far so good; this upcoming week she goes back up again for another bandage change and x-ray. We are weaning her off of the pain medication - up until this weekend have been hand feeding her and holding her water in a little bowl for her to drink. There have been no negative reactions to the med for inflammation and no need to give her tranquilizers, she finished her antibiotic. She cannot stand the crate-cage we bought her to keep her in when she can't be watched for short periods of time, so probably will have to take that back.
There was a break through this weekend, she actually sat up and got out of her bed ! She was able to walk just a bit (about five feet ) then falls, but pulls herself up and starts again. She also started eating mostly on her own this weekend - we put her up on the sofa for her meals, sit next to her and hold her dish for her. Her appetite is increasing, and her most favorite is chicken from "Pollo Asil" in Rosarito which I take off the bone and mix with rice. Tonight she had pot roast from Sprouts, roast white potatoes and one carrot and four Wolf biscuits and we finally finished watching BBC's "The Last Post."
She has been a stellar patient with the exception of she growled at Mike when he put her soft collar back on tonight after dinner. We are now beginning the second week of care giving and have six more to go then a four week monitor take it easy period with very short walkies down the block. Mike took some pictures, but he has to upload them off of his phone, as soon as he does I'll post them. Bob the Daca cat slept in the house last night waiting for Paris to get up, evenings are getting cool on the coast...and basically along with my neighbors we feel like prisoners in our homes due to the never ending drug war violence which surrounds us. And, we've all felt that way for a very long time.
Adding this....
Before her first bandages change
**********
Courtesy Frontera
11/12/17 Headlines
Just about the only time I have to catch up on all of the news is late at night after Mike and Paris are asleep, however once in a blue moon I can get down here. Every time we take Paris up to San Diego we wind up talking to people at the Hospital and different stores about the violence here, and believe it or not most people (except the Mexican Americans) are completely unaware of the situation in Tijuana, in Baja California and in Mexico.
Frontera's headline says it all, and I don't feel that they or the other news services are being alarmist - it is the reality. Over the weekend, Tijuana alone exceeded 1,500 homicidio dolosos/executions since the beginning of this year according to the authorities and is now considered the most violent city in Mexico. The war between the Sinaloa Cartel vs. the CJNG and their allies (CAF, Tijuana Cartel) continues.
So to keep you up to speed here is Frontera's Policiaca twitter, the only one not listed so far and it probably will be soon is the gringo shot at the restaurant on Blvd. Insurgentes whose condition is listed as delicate. Close by, one executed in Real del Mar across the road and just a couple of weeks ago, three bodies located in the barranca at Punta Bandera up the road - so far I've only seen Zeta point out that specific location. As you will see, Rosarito has had an uptick in executions as well as Tecate, another in San Quintin, Ensenada:
Importantly was the surprise replacement of Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, I'll come back to that one and the threats against authorities in Tecate and update the October and November stats, I hope. Have to pull out a chicken from the freezer to bake for Paris tomorrow.
**********
Meanwhile, Trump is still an asshole of course - here's the latest:
- Adding this one on edit: can you believe this shit ? Check out the videos:
Paris has been a full time job during her post operative recovery, she will have to wear her harness (Mike calls it her combat gear) for the next seven weeks. She went into the VCA on last Friday for her first bandage change and x-ray - so far so good; this upcoming week she goes back up again for another bandage change and x-ray. We are weaning her off of the pain medication - up until this weekend have been hand feeding her and holding her water in a little bowl for her to drink. There have been no negative reactions to the med for inflammation and no need to give her tranquilizers, she finished her antibiotic. She cannot stand the crate-cage we bought her to keep her in when she can't be watched for short periods of time, so probably will have to take that back.
There was a break through this weekend, she actually sat up and got out of her bed ! She was able to walk just a bit (about five feet ) then falls, but pulls herself up and starts again. She also started eating mostly on her own this weekend - we put her up on the sofa for her meals, sit next to her and hold her dish for her. Her appetite is increasing, and her most favorite is chicken from "Pollo Asil" in Rosarito which I take off the bone and mix with rice. Tonight she had pot roast from Sprouts, roast white potatoes and one carrot and four Wolf biscuits and we finally finished watching BBC's "The Last Post."
She has been a stellar patient with the exception of she growled at Mike when he put her soft collar back on tonight after dinner. We are now beginning the second week of care giving and have six more to go then a four week monitor take it easy period with very short walkies down the block. Mike took some pictures, but he has to upload them off of his phone, as soon as he does I'll post them. Bob the Daca cat slept in the house last night waiting for Paris to get up, evenings are getting cool on the coast...and basically along with my neighbors we feel like prisoners in our homes due to the never ending drug war violence which surrounds us. And, we've all felt that way for a very long time.
Adding this....
Before her first bandages change
**********
Courtesy Frontera
11/12/17 Headlines
Just about the only time I have to catch up on all of the news is late at night after Mike and Paris are asleep, however once in a blue moon I can get down here. Every time we take Paris up to San Diego we wind up talking to people at the Hospital and different stores about the violence here, and believe it or not most people (except the Mexican Americans) are completely unaware of the situation in Tijuana, in Baja California and in Mexico.
Frontera's headline says it all, and I don't feel that they or the other news services are being alarmist - it is the reality. Over the weekend, Tijuana alone exceeded 1,500 homicidio dolosos/executions since the beginning of this year according to the authorities and is now considered the most violent city in Mexico. The war between the Sinaloa Cartel vs. the CJNG and their allies (CAF, Tijuana Cartel) continues.
So to keep you up to speed here is Frontera's Policiaca twitter, the only one not listed so far and it probably will be soon is the gringo shot at the restaurant on Blvd. Insurgentes whose condition is listed as delicate. Close by, one executed in Real del Mar across the road and just a couple of weeks ago, three bodies located in the barranca at Punta Bandera up the road - so far I've only seen Zeta point out that specific location. As you will see, Rosarito has had an uptick in executions as well as Tecate, another in San Quintin, Ensenada:
Importantly was the surprise replacement of Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, I'll come back to that one and the threats against authorities in Tecate and update the October and November stats, I hope. Have to pull out a chicken from the freezer to bake for Paris tomorrow.
**********
Meanwhile, Trump is still an asshole of course - here's the latest:
- Adding this one on edit: can you believe this shit ? Check out the videos:
One person asked me, "...with this crisis of the rise of the neo-nazi movement and the division in the United States, does this mean you are not going to be blogging about the executions in Baja California anymore"? No, one of the problems I am having is that the local press has not been reporting an up to date August number of the homicidios dolosos as they have in the past, and at this point we are somewhere over 50 this month just in Tijuana not counting Rosarito Beach, Mexicali and Ensenada but that is not official. So, stay tuned.
Finally from Zeta a report on the departure of Steve Bannon:
Bannon will simply return to Breitbart and mobilize the neo-nazis which Trump has emboldened and enabled. The White House & Government of the United States will still have an abundant number of racists in control while Bannon musters the troops. Well at least French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted support for the protesters against Fascism and Nazis yesterday in his response to the terrorist attack in Spain:
From The Guardian:
"The French president, Emmanuel Macron, appeared to take on Trump in his Twitter reaction to the Barcelona attack. An initial tweet offered solidarity for the victims of and the pledge: “We remain united and determined.” But in a follow-up, Macron – who has repeatedly acted as a foil to Trump on the world stage – said: “We stand beside those who fight racism and xenophobia. It is our common fight, in past and present.” He added the hashtag: #Charlottesville."
This just in moments after I typed that - from The Intercept comes this report, with super tweet from Glenn thrush of the New York Times:
"The answer is pretty simple and straightforward: Trump shares Bannon’s worldview. Or as the New York Times’ Glenn Thrush tweeted: “Ultimately you don’t need a Bannon when you are a Bannon.”
The writing was on the wall for Steve Bannon on Tuesday afternoon. Speaking in the gilded lobby of the Trump Tower in New York, the president of the United States took a short break from defending neo-Nazis and attacking “fake news” to comment on the future of his chief strategist -—who he pointedly refused to call “Steve.”
“Look, I like Mr. Bannon,” Trump told reporters. “He is a friend of mine, but Mr. Bannon came on very late. You know that. I went through 17 senators, governors and I won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that, and I like him.” Trump added: “We’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon.”
Well, it didn’t take long: Bannon, as of Friday morning, is out, six months after his controversial switchover from Trump campaign CEO to White House chief strategist. He joins Gen. Michael Flynn, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer, Kate Walsh and Anthony Scaramucci on the outside. As Oscar Wilde nearly remarked, to lose one member of your inner circle may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose six in six months looks like sheer chaos.
Let’s be clear: Trump’s sacking of “Mr. Bannon” is not a repudiation of Bannon-esque, or Breitbartian, white nationalism. Rather, it is a clear consequence of Bannon, like Icarus flying too close to the sun. As his remarks on Tuesday indicated, Trump wanted to make clear to the world that he is his own man — or as he once declaimed in an early-morning tweet: “I call my own shots.” For the thin-skinned, egomaniacal and attention-hungry president, White House staffers have only one mission: to boost him, not themselves.
Thanks to the relentless leaking from inside the White House, we have known for some time that Trump has been bothered by the rise and rise of Bannon. He was annoyed by the Time magazine cover story that asked whether the chief strategist was now “the second most powerful man in the world.” He was irritated by the #PresidentBannon hashtag on Twitter and upset over the SNL sketch showing Bannon running the White House while the president sits at a kid’s desk playing with toys. And, in recent days, Trump was angered by the much-discussed new book by Joshua Green, “Devil’s Bargain,” which suggests that it was the former Breitbart boss who paved the way for Trump’s shock victory over Hillary Clinton. “That fucking Steve Bannon taking credit for my election,” Trump recently told a friend, according to Buzzfeed News.
For the Narcissist-in Chief, who perhaps values and cherishes his electoral college win more than he does four of his own five children, it was the final nail in Bannon’s coffin. Whatever else you say or do, don’t you dare take credit from The Donald!
History, however, will remember the hiring, not the firing, of Bannon. How on God’s green earth did a president of the United States bring into his White House as chief strategist a man who proudly called his Breitbart News website “the platform for the alt-right”; published pieces on Breitbart, during his tenure as executive chairman, with headlines such as “Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?” and “Political Correctness Protects Muslim Rape Culture”; allegedly objected to the number of “whiny” Jews at his daughters’ school; took inspiration from notorious Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl; produced a closing ad for the Trump presidential campaign that, according to the Anti-Defamation League, used “images and rhetoric” that “anti-Semites have used for ages”; suggested disenfranchising black voters might not be “such a bad thing”; said he wanted women who “lead this country” to “be feminine” rather than “a bunch of dykes… from the 7 Sisters schools”; declared “Islam is not a religion of peace” but “a religion of submission” and also called it “the most radical” religion in the world; warned the U.S. could turn into the “Islamic States of America” and dubbed American Muslim organizations a “Fifth Column”; seemed to approvingly cite Italian fascist thinker Julius Evola; repeatedly nodded to a “stunningly racist French novel” called “The Camp of the Saints” which warns of a migrant invasion of the West; expressed admiration for the anti-Semitic French philosopher, and hero to the European far right, Charles Maurras; joined the controversial and secretive Council for National Policy, or CNP, alongside extremists, who according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “regularly defame LGBT people with utter falsehoods” and “describe Latino immigrants as… rapists and disease-carriers”; and whose White House appointment in January was welcomed by America’s leading white nationalists and neo-Nazis, including David Duke and Peter Brimelow, who called it “excellent” and “amazing”?
The answer is pretty simple and straightforward: Trump shares Bannon’s worldview. Or as the New York Times’ Glenn Thrush tweeted: “Ultimately you don’t need a Bannon when you are a Bannon.”
Look, the Great Manipulator, as Time called Bannon, may have encouraged Trump’s worst, most crude, most bigoted tendencies — but they were Trump’s tendencies to begin with. The White House chief strategist, for instance, was reportedly one of the key architects of the “Muslim Ban” but does anyone seriously expect that ban to be lifted now he is gone? Remember: the president was promising a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in December 2015, long before Bannon joined Team Trump.
The Leader of the Free World has form on nativism, xenophobia and racism, as I have pointed out before. Consider the past few days: Bannon may have influenced Trump’s response to the domestic terror attack in Charlottesville but he did not force Trump to provoke howls of outrage across Capitol Hill, the business community and the wider West on Tuesday by referring to the “very fine people” on the neo-Nazi, KKK-aligned side; nor did Bannon dictate Trump’s dog-whistling tweet on Thursday praising the “beauty” of Confederate monuments.
Yes, Bannon has finally gone and we can all rejoice. Sebastian Gorka and maybe even Stephen Miller might eventually follow him out of the White House doors. But Trump remains. That’s the inescapable, unavoidable, undeniable problem; that’s the orange-skinned gorilla in the room. I hate to agree with Trump but Bannon or no Bannon, Gen. John Kelly or no Gen. Kelly, the president does indeed call his own shots. Especially the racist ones."
**********
Meanwhile from The Hill:
"Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said he was happy that Bannon would be gone but that the departure "cannot wash away the harm he and the president have done."
"It can't reverse the Muslim Ban. It can't reverse the President's inappropriate attacks on a Federal judge of Mexican heritage. And it can't reverse the White House's reluctance to denounce white supremacists," Cicilline said in a statement. "
Democrats are cheering the news that Stephen Bannon is out as White House chief strategist. Bannon has long been one of the least-liked figures in the White House on the left, and many Democrats have criticized his influence. Democrats have ripped the former leader of Breitbart News for promoting nationalist policies that they see as thinly disguised racism. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said Bannon should never have been given his position by President Trump.
He never should have been in the White House to begin with and his departure is welcome news.
At the same time, several Democrats questioned whether Bannon's ouster would really change the White House or Trump's policies. "Steve Bannon's firing is welcome news, but it doesn’t disguise where President Trump himself stands on white supremacists and the bigoted beliefs they advance," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
"President Trump's growing record of repulsive statements is matched by his repulsive policies. Personnel changes are worthless so long as President Trump continues to advance policies that disgrace our cherished American values," she said.
While he never should have been in the WH, I’m glad Bannon is out. But he's just one staffer & we need real action to undo the damage done https://t.co/s6qHu9lu3v
Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said he was happy that Bannon would be gone but that the departure "cannot wash away the harm he and the president have done." "It can't reverse the Muslim Ban. It can't reverse the President's inappropriate attacks on a Federal judge of Mexican heritage. And it can't reverse the White House's reluctance to denounce white supremacists," Cicilline said in a statement. Other House Democrats chimed in with similar messages.
#Bannon was just a start. What really have to go are the xenophobic policies & rhetoric he inspired.
Bannon's departure comes nearly a week after white supremacists and neo-Nazis rallied in Charlottesville, Va., to protest the removal of a Confederate statue, spurring violence with counterprotesters. Various Democrats were quick to incorporate the events in Charlottesville in their reactions to Bannon, who was seen as a prominent voice in the white supremacist community, leaving.
Firing nationalist #SteveBannon was necessary but it is not sufficient in light of @POTUS' immoral, unacceptable remarks on #Charlottesville
Bannon's departure comes after speculation swirled that his future at the White House was up in the air. The president garnered backlash from Republicans and Democrats alike for his reaction to Charlottesville, which was seen as an attempt to appease white nationalists and other far-right extremist groups. "
**********
Excellent report on the confederate statues and memorabilia from Robert Mackey of The Intercept with links:
After President Donald Trump inflamed the national debate over monuments to the Confederacy on Tuesday, telling reporters that white supremacists willing to use deadly violence to defend a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville included some “very fine people,” the City of Baltimore removed four statues honoring the defenders of slavery in the early hours of Wednesday. Witnesses to the late-night operation, which was completed by 5:30 a.m. local time, shared images and video of workers removing the statues, including a massive one of Lee and Stonewall Jackson in Baltimore’s Wyman Park Dell.
Pugh told The Baltimore Sun that her decision to act quickly was partly an effort to avoid the kind of violence sparked by neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, where an antiracist protester, Heather Heyer, was killed by a white supremacist. A mayoral commission appointed by Pugh’s predecessor had recommended last year that the statues of Lee and Jackson be removed, along with a monument to Roger Taney, the Supreme Court justice who wrote the notorious Dred Scott decision in 1857, ruling that African-Americans could not be American citizens. Both of those monuments were removed overnight, along with one dedicated to Confederate women and another honoring Confederate soldiers and sailors, which had been doused in blood-red paint over the weekend.
JUST IN— Baltimore removes Confederate-era statues overnight, including this one of Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney. (via @FlyingDogMK) pic.twitter.com/ndNw6QkgMW
Pugh acted after activists had vowed to destroy the monuments if the city delayed any longer. Officials in Durham County, North Carolina, were less inclined to share the viewpoint of antiracist protesters, arresting a 22-year-old woman accused of helping to topple a Confederate statue there, and charging her with rioting and vandalism.
Trump’s intemperate defense of the white supremacists at a news conference in Trump Tower on Tuesday was widely condemned, but seemed to delight his neo-Nazi supporters, including David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, and Richard Spencer, who coined the term “alt-right” to rebrand white supremacy.
Trump "They had a permit, the other group didn't have a permit"
Yes, white supremacy and slave owners had legal permission too — Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) August 15, 2017
"Very fine people" "…you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists." -Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/tAW5gWzzZ9
Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa https://t.co/tTESdV4LP0
Trump’s latest defense of white supremacists reminded many close observers of his career that his father, Fred Trump, was reportedly arrested at a KKK rally in Queens in 1927.
One person asked me, "...with this crisis of the rise of the neo-nazi movement and the division in the United States, does this mean you are not going to be blogging about the executions in Baja California anymore"? No, one of the problems I am having is that the local press has not been reporting an up to date August number of the homicidios dolosos as they have in the past, and at this point we are somewhere over 50 this month just in Tijuana not counting Rosarito Beach, Mexicali and Ensenada but that is not official. So, stay tuned.
Finally from Zeta a report on the departure of Steve Bannon:
Bannon will simply return to Breitbart and mobilize the neo-nazis which Trump has emboldened and enabled. The White House & Government of the United States will still have an abundant number of racists in control while Bannon musters the troops. Well at least French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted support for the protesters against Fascism and Nazis yesterday in his response to the terrorist attack in Spain:
From The Guardian:
"The French president, Emmanuel Macron, appeared to take on Trump in his
Twitter reaction to the Barcelona attack. An initial tweet offered
solidarity for the victims of and the pledge: “We remain united and
determined.” But in a follow-up,
Macron – who has repeatedly acted as a foil to Trump on the world stage
– said: “We stand beside those who fight racism and xenophobia. It is
our common fight, in past and present.” He added the hashtag:
#Charlottesville."
This just in moments after I typed that - from The Intercept comes this report, with super tweet from Glenn thrush of the New York Times:
"The answer is pretty simple and straightforward: Trump shares Bannon’s worldview. Or as the New York Times’ Glenn Thrush tweeted: “Ultimately you don’t need a Bannon when you are a Bannon.”
The writing
was on the wall for Steve Bannon on Tuesday afternoon. Speaking in the
gilded lobby of the Trump Tower in New York, the president of the United
States took a short break from defending neo-Nazis and attacking “fake
news” to comment on the future of his chief strategist -—who he
pointedly refused to call “Steve.”
“Look, I like Mr. Bannon,” Trump told
reporters. “He is a friend of mine, but Mr. Bannon came on very late.
You know that. I went through 17 senators, governors and I won all the
primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that, and I like
him.” Trump added: “We’ll see what happens with Mr. Bannon.”
Well, it didn’t take long: Bannon, as of Friday morning, is out,
six months after his controversial switchover from Trump campaign CEO
to White House chief strategist. He joins Gen. Michael Flynn, Reince
Priebus, Sean Spicer, Kate Walsh and Anthony Scaramucci on the outside.
As Oscar Wilde nearly remarked, to lose one member of your inner circle
may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose six in six months looks like
sheer chaos.
Let’s be clear: Trump’s sacking of “Mr. Bannon” is not a repudiation
of Bannon-esque, or Breitbartian, white nationalism. Rather, it is a
clear consequence of Bannon, like Icarus flying too close to the sun. As
his remarks on Tuesday indicated, Trump wanted to make clear to the
world that he is his own man — or as he once declaimed in an
early-morning tweet:
“I call my own shots.” For the thin-skinned, egomaniacal and
attention-hungry president, White House staffers have only one mission: to boost him, not themselves.
Thanks to the relentless leaking from inside the White House, we have
known for some time that Trump has been bothered by the rise and rise
of Bannon. He was annoyed
by the Time magazine cover story that asked whether the chief
strategist was now “the second most powerful man in the world.” He was irritated by the #PresidentBannon hashtag on Twitter and upset
over the SNL sketch showing Bannon running the White House while the
president sits at a kid’s desk playing with toys. And, in recent days,
Trump was angered by the much-discussed new book
by Joshua Green, “Devil’s Bargain,” which suggests that it was the
former Breitbart boss who paved the way for Trump’s shock victory over
Hillary Clinton. “That fucking Steve Bannon taking credit for my
election,” Trump recently told a friend, according to Buzzfeed News.
For the Narcissist-in Chief, who perhaps values and cherishes his
electoral college win more than he does four of his own five children,
it was the final nail in Bannon’s coffin. Whatever else you say or do,
don’t you dare take credit from The Donald!
History, however, will remember the hiring, not the firing, of
Bannon. How on God’s green earth did a president of the United States
bring into his White House as chief strategist a man who proudly called
his Breitbart News website “the platform for the alt-right”; published
pieces on Breitbart, during his tenure as executive chairman, with
headlines such as “Would You Rather Your Child Had Feminism or Cancer?” and “Political Correctness Protects Muslim Rape Culture”; allegedly objected to the number of “whiny” Jews at his daughters’ school; took inspiration from notorious Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl; produced a closing ad for the Trump presidential campaign that, according to the Anti-Defamation League, used “images and rhetoric” that “anti-Semites have used for ages”; suggested disenfranchising black voters might not be “such a bad thing”; said he wanted women who “lead this country” to “be feminine” rather than “a bunch of dykes… from the 7 Sisters schools”; declared “Islam is not a religion of peace” but “a religion of submission” and also called it “the most radical” religion in the world; warned
the U.S. could turn into the “Islamic States of America” and dubbed
American Muslim organizations a “Fifth Column”; seemed to approvingly cite Italian fascist thinker Julius Evola; repeatedly nodded to a “stunningly racist French novel” called “The Camp of the Saints” which warns of a migrant invasion of the West; expressed admiration
for the anti-Semitic French philosopher, and hero to the European far
right, Charles Maurras; joined the controversial and secretive Council
for National Policy, or CNP, alongside extremists, who according to the Southern Poverty Law Center,
“regularly defame LGBT people with utter falsehoods” and “describe
Latino immigrants as… rapists and disease-carriers”; and whose White
House appointment in January was welcomed
by America’s leading white nationalists and neo-Nazis, including David
Duke and Peter Brimelow, who called it “excellent” and “amazing”?
The answer is pretty simple and straightforward: Trump shares Bannon’s worldview. Or as the New York Times’ Glenn Thrush tweeted: “Ultimately you don’t need a Bannon when you are a Bannon.”
Look, the Great Manipulator, as Time called Bannon, may have encouraged Trump’s worst, most crude, most bigoted tendencies — but they were Trump’s tendencies to begin with. The White House chief strategist, for instance, was reportedly one of the key architects of the “Muslim Ban” but does anyone seriously expect that ban to be lifted now he is gone? Remember: the president was promising a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in December 2015, long before Bannon joined Team Trump.
The Leader of the Free World has form on nativism, xenophobia and racism, as I have pointed out before.
Consider the past few days: Bannon may have influenced Trump’s response
to the domestic terror attack in Charlottesville but he did not force
Trump to provoke howls of outrage across Capitol Hill, the business community and the wider West on Tuesday by referring to the “very fine people” on the neo-Nazi, KKK-aligned side; nor did Bannon dictate Trump’s dog-whistling tweet on Thursday praising the “beauty” of Confederate monuments.
Yes, Bannon has finally gone and we can all rejoice. Sebastian Gorka and maybe even Stephen Miller
might eventually follow him out of the White House doors. But Trump
remains. That’s the inescapable, unavoidable, undeniable problem; that’s
the orange-skinned gorilla in the room. I hate to agree with Trump but
Bannon or no Bannon, Gen. John Kelly or no Gen. Kelly, the president
does indeed call his own shots. Especially the racist ones."
**********
Meanwhile from The Hill:
"Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said he was happy that Bannon would be
gone but that the departure "cannot wash away the harm he and the
president have done."
"It can't reverse the Muslim Ban. It can't
reverse the President's inappropriate attacks on a Federal judge of
Mexican heritage. And it can't reverse the White House's reluctance to
denounce white supremacists," Cicilline said in a statement. "
Democrats are cheering the news that Stephen Bannon is out as White House chief strategist.
Bannon
has long been one of the least-liked figures in the White House on the
left, and many Democrats have criticized his influence.
Democrats
have ripped the former leader of Breitbart News for promoting
nationalist policies that they see as thinly disguised racism.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) said Bannon should never have been given his position by President Trump.
He never should have been in the White House to begin with and his departure is welcome news.
At the same time, several Democrats questioned whether Bannon's ouster would really change the White House or Trump's policies.
"Steve
Bannon's firing is welcome news, but it doesn’t disguise where
President Trump himself stands on white supremacists and the bigoted
beliefs they advance," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
said in a statement.
"President Trump's growing record of
repulsive statements is matched by his repulsive policies. Personnel
changes are worthless so long as President Trump continues to advance
policies that disgrace our cherished American values," she said.
While
he never should have been in the WH, I’m glad Bannon is out. But he's
just one staffer & we need real action to undo the damage done https://t.co/s6qHu9lu3v
Rep.
David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said he was happy that Bannon would be gone
but that the departure "cannot wash away the harm he and the president
have done."
"It can't reverse the Muslim Ban. It can't reverse the
President's inappropriate attacks on a Federal judge of Mexican
heritage. And it can't reverse the White House's reluctance to denounce
white supremacists," Cicilline said in a statement.
Other House Democrats chimed in with similar messages.
#Bannon was just a start. What really have to go are the xenophobic policies & rhetoric he inspired.
Bannon's
departure comes nearly a week after white supremacists and neo-Nazis
rallied in Charlottesville, Va., to protest the removal of a Confederate
statue, spurring violence with counterprotesters.
Various
Democrats were quick to incorporate the events in Charlottesville in
their reactions to Bannon, who was seen as a prominent voice in the
white supremacist community, leaving.
Firing nationalist #SteveBannon was necessary but it is not sufficient in light of @POTUS' immoral, unacceptable remarks on #Charlottesville
Bannon's departure comes after speculation swirled that his future at the White House was up in the air.
The
president garnered backlash from Republicans and Democrats alike for
his reaction to Charlottesville, which was seen as an attempt to appease
white nationalists and other far-right extremist groups. "
**********
Excellent report on the confederate statues and memorabilia from Robert Mackey of The Intercept with links:
After President Donald
Trump inflamed the national debate over monuments to the Confederacy on
Tuesday, telling reporters that white supremacists willing to use
deadly violence to defend a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville
included some “very fine people,” the City of Baltimore removed four statues honoring the defenders of slavery in the early hours of Wednesday.
Witnesses to the late-night operation, which was completed by 5:30
a.m. local time, shared images and video of workers removing the
statues, including a massive one of Lee and Stonewall Jackson in
Baltimore’s Wyman Park Dell.
Pugh told The Baltimore Sun
that her decision to act quickly was partly an effort to avoid the kind
of violence sparked by neo-Nazi protests in Charlottesville, where an
antiracist protester, Heather Heyer, was killed by a white supremacist.
A mayoral commission appointed by Pugh’s predecessor had recommended last year
that the statues of Lee and Jackson be removed, along with a monument
to Roger Taney, the Supreme Court justice who wrote the notorious Dred
Scott decision in 1857, ruling that African-Americans could not be
American citizens.
Both of those monuments were removed overnight, along with one
dedicated to Confederate women and another honoring Confederate soldiers
and sailors, which had been doused in blood-red paint over the weekend.
JUST IN— Baltimore removes Confederate-era statues overnight, including this one of Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney. (via @FlyingDogMK) pic.twitter.com/ndNw6QkgMW
Pugh acted after activists had vowed to destroy the monuments if the city delayed any longer.
Officials in Durham County, North Carolina, were less inclined to share the viewpoint of antiracist protesters, arresting a 22-year-old woman accused of helping to topple a Confederate statue there, and charging her with rioting and vandalism.
Trump’s intemperate defense of the white supremacists at a news
conference in Trump Tower on Tuesday was widely condemned, but seemed to
delight his neo-Nazi supporters, including David Duke, the former Ku
Klux Klan grand wizard, and Richard Spencer, who coined the term
“alt-right” to rebrand white supremacy.
Trump "They had a permit, the other group didn't have a permit"
Yes, white supremacy and slave owners had legal permission too
— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) August 15, 2017
"Very fine people" "…you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists." -Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/tAW5gWzzZ9
Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa https://t.co/tTESdV4LP0
Trump’s latest defense of white supremacists reminded many close
observers of his career that his father, Fred Trump, was reportedly arrested at a KKK rally in Queens in 1927.
