News Burst: August 17, 2017 (Patreon)

I hope you’re all doing great! I just finished tomorrow’s (well, today’s, depending on when you’re seeing this) video, which is a sort of continuation -- more of a spin-off, really -- of Monday’s video about Charlottesville. This one is far more historical, though, and I hope you like it. It’s uploading as we speak. (Or, as I write.)

In anycase, there’s little else to report, other than that I’m going to be announcing the five winners of the $2+/month Topic Primary in the next day or so, so keep an eye out on that.

Also, we’re hovering above 5,000 Patrons! If we stay there into next month, four episodes of the Colin’s Last Stand Podcast (preliminary title) will be produced and released throughout September. If we keep it going each month, you’ll keep getting podcasts! Thank you for making that a reality (hopefully).

Okay, enough of that. Onto the news!

5.) Steve Bannon’s Unusual Interview

http://prospect.org/article/steve-bannon-unrepentant

This is the so-called freshest piece of news in this week’s News Burst, and it revolves around a rather peculiar -- yet awesomely candid -- interview that Steve Bannon gave. Bannon, who is one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers, and one of the people responsible for delivering him the White House (regardless of whatever angle Trump chooses to take on that question), randomly spoke with a reporter at The American Prospect named Robert Kuttner, who Bannon apparently took a shine to. The conversation, interestingly enough, didn’t revolve around Charlottesville and the aftermath (more on that in pretty much the rest of the News Burst), but instead the United States’ relationship with China, and how that relationship revolves around massive trade imbalances that Bannon fears will ultimately place America in a permanent second place. Or worse.

Now, it’s worth nothing one thing in particular, which makes this entire story all the stranger: Steve Bannon apparently didn’t realize that in talking to the reporter, he was essentially giving him an on-the-record interview. Bannon himself sought out Kuttner, and he himself had the interview set up through an intermediary. But he had no clue what was being said would be used in a story. If this sounds incredibly familiar, that’s because it absolutely is: Anthony Scaramucci, who was the White House’s Director of Communications for about five seconds, did the same exact thing mere weeks ago with a separate publication. Naturally, being on the record or off the record (or speaking on background) is a major differentiator when talking to journalists and other media types, and it appears no one in Trump’s orbit actually knows that.

What’s truly stunning about the interview, though, isn’t what Bannon is saying about China, or even about North Korea, but how he talks about some of his peers and colleagues, and how he seems to brandish a level of power that isn’t bestowed upon a person in his position. As the Axios story (link below) notes, Bannon isn’t the only person flabbergasted by the interview; so are the people around him, who he talked about replacing and moving around like they were chess pieces. This tale is just getting stranger and stranger, especially as Bannon’s position in Trump’s administration appears more tenuous by the day.

Related Story | Bannon Didn’t Know He Was Giving Interview, Colleagues Pissed: https://www.axios.com/bannons-colleagues-disturbed-by-interview-with-left-wing-publication-2473835346.html

4.) Charlottesville

https://www.apnews.com/bb578f5b5dcc4cf9afe0aea14a5ba3c4/Inside-a-day-of-violence,-terror-in-Charlottesville

Now, I typically want to keep the News Burst stories in order from least important to most important, so that the most important story rests at 1. However, that structure is primarily designed with five unrelated stories in mind. The next four stories are all intertwined, and all feed off of each other, so I’m actually doing the opposite this week. Without context for the next story, and so on, none of this will make sense, so I’m just pointing that out in case anyone’s confused. In any case, it should be no surprise that the news story that dominated this week -- and the news story that’s now setting the frightening cadence for everything that’s happening around us -- is the riotous weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The US is becoming increasingly culturally tense, and Charlottesville was I fear just the first of likely many boiling points that we’re going to witness in the weeks and months to come. The gist of the story -- that I’m sure all of you are already familiar with -- is that white supremacists, white nationalists, KKK members, and Neo-Nazis -- as well as allies within their orbit -- descended on Charlottesville, Virginia beginning last Friday night to protest the ultimate removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee that sits there. They didn't want to only protest for that statue, though, but for the many Confederate statues and other pieces of public remembrance that are being removed. Not surprisingly, over the weekend, the protests got out of hand, and one woman was killed in a rather despicable and disgusting assault with a car. (You can find video and imagery of it, if you dare.)

I was completely disgusted by what I saw, and dedicated Monday’s episode of Colin’s Last Stand to the horrific events in an otherwise lovely city in a lovely state (link below). Moreover, I was disturbed by the utter lack of awareness of the racists in the streets, who were saying terrible things, carrying tons of weaponry, and basically acting like imbeciles (link below). It’s crazy, because I’ve still not fully processed all that happened in Charlottesville yet, and I’m not sure I ever will. Not before the violence and bigotry spreads elsewhere in the United States, which, in my mind, is frankly all but guaranteed.

Related Video | CLS on Charlottesville: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcGTg5FME8I

Related Video | VICE Goes to Charlottesville: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P54sP0Nlngg

3.) Trump’s Limp Response

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-response-to-charlottesville-should-surprise-no-one/2017/08/14/f5cd59c6-8125-11e7-ab27-1a21a8e006ab_story.html

As if what happened in Charlottesville wasn’t awful enough, wasn’t disturbing enough, and wasn’t unsettling enough for the widest swath of Americans possible, President Trump’s incredibly tone deaf and irresponsible responses -- yes, responses, plural -- were totally unacceptable, and further fueled the divide that’s slowly eating this country apart from the inside. This past weekend, he made one statement condemning the violence “on all sides,” which is a reasonable thing to say outside of the context of what happened in Charlottesville in particular. It’s fine to say that you condemn violence on all sides -- I certainly do, and I will continue to stand proudly on a platform of non-violence except in the absolute most extreme or necessary cases -- but after a girl is killed by white radicals, your best bet is to leave that rhetoric aside until a more appropriate and balanced time. As usual, Trump’s ridiculous response was completely predictable.

What wasn’t predictable was when, a couple of days later, he took to the podium to give a statement and talk to the press, and essentially doubled-down on the left field rhetoric (link below), blaming “both sides.” Again, a point understood, but well outside of the context of the specific event in which he’s speaking about. Donald Trump loves going after the “Fake News” media, and this press conference -- which should have been a respectful, sober, and straight-forward affair -- turned into a circus, as Trump lambasted the media, the media went back at Trump, and, per usual, Trump left looking like a complete loser, for lack of a better term. This could have been and should have been a slam dunk, even for Trump. Any president should have been able to handle this situation with grace and a steady hand, and I’m pretty sure just about any president would have. But Trump isn’t any president, as we’re seeing with each and every day that passes.

I said it in a video a few weeks ago (link below), but I don’t get Trump’s angle. I don’t get why he finds it so hard to shut the fuck up, say and do the right things, and keep his nose to the grindstone. I have no doubt that he’s working hard; it would be difficult for me to believe that he literally sits around and does nothing all day. That’s not the accusation I’m levying against him. Instead, I wonder who he listens to in his inner circle -- if anyone -- and who is guiding him on this path of self-destruction and irrelevance. On a Skype call with a Patreon supporter earlier today, I noted that Trump is basically already a lame duck. We have roughly seven-eighths of his natural term left. 2020 is far away, friends. Real far away.

Related Story | Trump’s Second Response is Even Worse: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/us/politics/trump-press-conference-charlottesville.html

Related Video | CLS on Trump’s Ineptitude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whdI-YS88Ko

2.) Eyes Switch Focus to Durham, North Carolina

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/us/protester-arrested-in-toppling-of-confederate-statue-in-durham.html

The fiasco isn’t over, though. Far from it. As the Rage at Charlottesville ran its course (for the time being, anyway), the furor shifted slightly further south, to another lovely southern city, Durham, North Carolina. It was here in Durham that things took a stranger turn, one that was certainly far less rambunctious and far safer for the participants, but something that I think represented a nonetheless ominous turn in terms of the tenor of the debate, and the endgoal of the debate as well. In front of the Durham County Courthouse, protesters lassoed a statue of a Confederate soldier and pulled it from its moorings, destroying the bronze piece of art in the process.

Now, this is a huge problem for me, and not to spoil anything for you guys and gals, but the aforementioned video I had just mentioned was uploading (it’s all done now!) is all about this, and I don’t want to spoil too much of it. Suffice it to say that I feel like some of the people who were yelling that the removal of Confederate statues may lead to worse outcomes may have been right. Unintended consequences, as it were. I wrote them off as worrying about nothing, but maybe I should have listened a bit more, because now people aren’t happy with having statues and other artifacts moved to museums or private collections; now they’re happy destroying these artifacts. That statue was almost 100 years old. And while we might not like what it represents, and while we may want it to be moved to somewhere more appropriate, off of taxpayer-owned land, no one has the right to do what was done to that statue.

But things are getting crazier, yet. In Baltimore, Maryland, Confederate statues were removed overnight, before anymore focus was placed on them, and before people were possibly put at risk (link below). Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe has called for the further removal of Confederate statues across his state (link below). Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey is going to introduce legislation to have any Confederate statues removed from Washington D.C., where, for some reason, there are like a dozen of them in the Capitol (link below). People are now speculating how far this may go, including Trump, who wondered aloud in his second press conference if statues of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington -- both slaveholders -- would also ultimately be removed (link below). And shit’s getting downright macabre, too, with people threatening to dig up the body of a Confederate general (link below). This is a dynamic situation for sure, and one that I think has real free speech, free expression, and open thought implications. Make sure to watch my video on it in just a handful of hours from now.

Related Story | Baltimore Removes Confederate Statues Incognito: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-monuments-removed-20170816-story.html

Related Story | Virginia Governor Calls For Removal of Confederate Statues: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/virginia-gov-calls-removal-confederate-statues/story?id=49261959

Related Story | Cory Booker Wants CSA Statues Out of Capitol: http://abcnews.go.com/US/sen-cory-booker-introduce-bill-remove-confederate-statues/story?id=49265236

Related Story | Are Washington and Jefferson Statues Next?: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-are-statues-of-slave-owners-george-washington-and-thomas-jefferson-coming-down-next/article/2631620

Related Story | Protesters Begin Digging Up Buried Confederate General: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3173456/Vigilante-protesters-start-DIGGING-body-Confederate-general-Nathan-Forrest-KKK-leader-grave.html

1.) The So-Called “Alt-Left”

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/16/what-is-alt-left-myth-215496

This week’s News Burst ends with more of a question than anything else, more of a line of inquiry that remains unanswered, even as we ponder all that is going on around us. There’s a lot of talk of “both sides” in contemporary debate. I know I’ve used the term many, many times, long before Charlottesville was even on the horizon, primarily to frame both Trump and Clinton as unacceptable presidential candidates. I stand by that, but since then, the term has morphed into something greater: A desired balance, as the piece linked above notes, between extremes that appeared to be materializing, but may not be all that parallel with each other, after all.

Does the “Alt-Left” exist? I suppose it does, though not by that name. As is aptly pointed out above, “Alt-Right” was a term the Alt-Right invented for itself, and while it has since become a largely meaningless term that’s lobbed too easily and too often towards anyone who leans even slightly conservative, it does, underneath all of its unnecessary bagged, have a true meaning. For me, talking about both sides makes a great deal of sense in a vacuum, because both extremes have categorically contributed to the current, violent, and scary political climate, and anyone who says otherwise isn’t only lying to you, but also lying to themselves. Antifa and its allies ran around talking about assaulting its political opponents, which I vociferously condemned. When the far right turned violent this past weekend in particular, I vociferously condemned that, too, though it wouldn’t be the first time. You may remember that one of the earliest episodes of Colin’s Last Stand was dedicated to calling out both extremes -- particularly the right -- after the so-called Battle of Berkeley (link below).

I bring this open-ended story to you simply to put it on your mind and give you something important to think about. In politics, we may be too caught up in nomenclature, in labeling things just-so in order to readily identify people and ideas. That’s always useful to do. But in today’s climate of changing politics, polar extremes, and sides that in some way resemble mirror images of one another, we have to be willing to move around definitions, and create new ones to fit the place and time. Do I think the Alt-Left is real? No. But Alt-Left is just a name. What I do know is that there are seriously violent and vile elements on the far left, and just like with the racist, bigoted, backwards far right, I want nothing to do with them whatsoever.

Related Video | CLS on the Battle of Berkeley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO4KxomVTDk

EDIT: The story about the digging up of the Confederate general is old. I'm leaving it there so you can read it, but keep that in mind as you do. <3