Earlier today about 300 “free speech” activists held a rally in Boston, or at least they tried to, before ironically having their free speech silenced by thousands of leftist counter-protesters who bill themselves as anti-fascists.
Admittedly I do not know much about this group that assembled today but it seems that unlike last week’s rally in Virginia which was attended by white nationalists and the KKK this rally was much more innocent.
They billed themselves as “libertarians, conservatives, traditionalists, classical liberals, (Donald) Trump supporters or anyone else who enjoys their right to free speech” but that did not matter because over the course of the last week we have been told that being a supporter of Donald Trump means you are either a fascist or a white nationalist.
The counter-protesters were heard chanting “no hate no fear” as they hurled bottles full of urine at the police, am I the only one who sees the irony of anti-fascists acting like fascists in an attempt to shut down the opposition from even offering an opinion contrary to their own?
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Steve Bannon out as White House chief strategist
It has been speculated more than once in the past that Steve Bannon was on the verge of being let go as Donald Trump’s chief strategist, most recently about five days ago when it was reported the President believed Steve Bannon was behind the leaks about National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster but nothing has ever come from these reports.
Until now…it appears as if Steve Bannon has been let go according to this story.
Steve Bannon is out as White House chief strategist, according to a senior administration official, amid growing displeasure in the West Wing with his tactics and behavior.
His departure marks the latest high-level staff shake-up that has rocked Trump’s administration.
The official said Bannon had resigned on Aug. 7, but other officials noted that President Donald Trump had grown tired of his chief strategist’s approach and had been plotting ways to oust him.
Bannon, known as a populist firebrand who pushed Trump toward strongly nationalist views, often clashed with other White House aides and had had a rocky relationship with the president for months.
He particularly butted heads with the globalist wing of the White House, which includes Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn.
There are conflicting reports with some saying he resigned a couple of weeks ago and with other saying Donald Trump was plotting ways to get rid of him but it does appear as if he is out.
I do not particularly care for Steve Bannon however I care less for Jared Kushner and it is going to be interesting to see if the White House takes on a more globalist-friendly atmosphere with Mr. Bannon out of the way of Jared Kushner’s, Gary Cohn’s, and H.R. McMaster’s agenda.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Democrat to draw up articles of impeachment over Donald Trump’s Charlottesville comments
Donald Trump stirred up a hornet’s nest the other day when he gave a press conference in which he said there was violence coming from both sides during the Charlottesville riot. Now one Democrat is drawing up articles of impeachment because he claims the President “failed the presidential test of moral leadership” by not forcefully condemning Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.
Here is more:
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) announced Thursday he is taking the first step towards implementing impeachment articles against President Trump for his remarks on the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Cohen claims that Trump supported white supremacists in the deadly rally Saturday when the president condemned the violence “on both sides” following the attack.
“Instead of unequivocally condemning hateful actions by neo-Nazis, white nationalists and Klansmen following a national tragedy, the president said ‘there were very fine people on both sides.’ There are no good Nazis. There are no good Klansmen,” Cohen said in a statement.
Cohen added that he plans to start the impeachment process against Trump because he feels the president “failed the presidential test of moral leadership.”
Now if you heard the press conference, which apparently this Democrat did not, you know this is a gross, and I would add purposeful, misinterpretation of what Donald Trump actually said.
The President never said there were good Nazis or good Klansmen as Steve Cohen is claiming but rather he said there were good people there who were not Nazis and Klansmen who showed up at the rally simply to protest the removal of Confederate statues.
If this is true, and I do not know if it is, we should be questioning the judgement of people who would show up at a rally in which Nazis and Klanmen were attending and not condemning the President on false pretenses. Even if it is not true at worse Donald Trump is guilty of speaking without knowing all the facts.
We can question Donald Trump’s response, and personally I do not find anything wrong with it, but to claim he is a Nazi is just a little bit over the top to put it mildly. This might play well with the Democratic base but I have to wonder how this plays with mainstream Americans. The Democrats are trying everything in order to bring down Donald Trump but the misogyny angle did not work and the Russian collusion angle seems to be falling apart so now they are playing the “Nazi card” and I do not think this will work either.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
You cannot go on Facebook nowadays and not see simplistic memes about the removal, and in some cases, the destruction of Confederate statues on both sides of the issue so, although I have tried to ignore this and against my better judgement, I feel it is time for me to write a little bit about this and how I feel about it. This is something that cannot be summed up in a meme in my opinion; history is not a bumper sticker slogan but rather a life lesson.
This is a touchy subject because you cannot take the contrary opinion without being branded a racist or a white supremacist nowadays but, as I alluded to above, this is part of the simplistic approach I have found on Facebook and I find the Civil War to be a subject of our history which is fascinating, almost more so than the Revolutionary War. To think this was the culmination of the Founding Fathers’ unwillingness to address that “peculiar institution” when writing the Constitution and instead kicking the can down the road by 20 years is mind-blowing. The Civil War was inevitable, it is amazing it was delayed for so long.
It is being reported here that a top investigator, Peter Strzok from a private investigator firm, in Robert Mueller’s special counsel into the Russia hacking scandal has stepped down today. Here is more:
One of the FBI’s top investigators, tapped by special counsel Robert Mueller just weeks ago to help lead the probe of Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election, has left Mueller’s team, sources tell ABC News.
The recent departure of FBI veteran Peter Strzok is the first known hitch in a secretive probe that by all public accounts is charging full-steam ahead.
It’s unclear why Strzok stepped away from Mueller’s team of nearly two dozen lawyers, investigators and administrative staff. Strzok, who has spent much of his law enforcement career working counterintelligence cases and has been unanimously praised by government officials who spoke with ABC News, is now working for the FBI’s human resources division.
He is now working in the human resources department but no reason was given for this sudden change. It certainly sounds odd and it almost seems as if he is being punished for some reason but of course that is only speculation on my part. We do not know what happened and I have a feeling Robert Mueller wants to keep it that way.
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Kim Jong-un backs down on missile threat
Tensions have been rising over the last several days with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatening to launch missiles at Guam and with Donald Trump’s stern warning against such a provocative action. But today the tensions eased as Kim Jong-un backed down, here is more:
The tense stand-off between North Korea and the United States eased today as Kim Jong-un appeared to back off over his threat to target missiles at waters near Guam.
But the rogue regime’s leader warned he could change his mind “if the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions”.
Pyongyang’s state media reported that while Kim had decided against firing four missiles at the US territory in the Pacific Ocean for now, the launch could still happen at any time.
For days the media has portrayed the world as being on the brink of nuclear war although neither Kim Jong-un nor Donald Trump mentioned nuclear war; while this was a dire situation it was a mischaracterization by the media intended to show Donald Trump’s fiery rhetoric was irresponsible and responsible for heightening tensions with North Korea.
Barack Obama knew about Russia hacking attempts since 2014 and did nothing because he feared retribution
We have known through previous reports that Barack Obama knew Russia was trying to interfere in the 2016 election and did nothing to stop it but now we are learning he knew about Russia’s meddling as early as 2014. Here is more:
The Obama administration as early as 2014 received several warnings that Moscow was intensifying its intelligence operations to disrupt the U.S. political system and other Western democracies, Politico reported Monday, citing more than half a dozen current and former officials. The NSC, intelligence agencies, and the State Department received reports of Russia stepping up its operations after the Kremlin’s cyber attack against Ukrainian election systems in 2014.
Why with this knowledge was Barack Obama not concerned with the attack on democracy the Russians posed? The answer is apparently two-fold: he did not think the Russians could influence the outcome of an election and he was afraid to “piss off the Russians.” He was afraid of Russian retaliation.
This apparently did not sit well with US Intelligence Officials:
Does Donald Trump believe Steve Bannon is a leaker?
The previous reports of Steve Bannon’s demise have not come to fruition, however this article claims that Donald Trump believes his top aide is behind the recent leaks about National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
President Trump has told close associates that he believes Steve Bannon is behind damaging leaks about White House colleagues, putting the chief strategist’s job in fresh jeopardy, sources close to the president tell me.
Key West Wing colleagues believe Bannon is an instigator of leaks targeting National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. The stories have been driven by Breitbart News, where Bannon was executive chairman before joining Trump’s presidential campaign as chief executive in August. On Thursday, Trump backed McMaster as “our friend.”
the source wondered why Bannon hasn’t raised a finger to stop the hit pieces against McMaster that have run on Breitbart, a publication he used to run. The source pointed out that when the media began reporting, early in the administration, that Bannon was warring with Reince, the two went to extraordinary lengths to prove their friendship, and Bannon went to extraordinary lengths to shut down the narrative.
The article goes on to say that Donald Trump is growing tired of what he sees as Steve Bannon’s self-promotion and Chief of Staff John Kelly is more than displeased with him and is likely to do the dirty work for the President.
To be fair I do not know how reliable this website is and we have heard Steve Bannon was on the chopping block before, if this story is true we should know more very shortly. Stay tuned…
malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium
Here is the open thread for Sunday, August 13th. Please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
Last week we discussed 6 stories, did you miss any of them? If so there is an easy way to make sure it does not happen again. I understand that all of you are busy and cannot always find the time to check the blog for updates so why not subscribe to America’s Watchtower and receive email updates whenever I write a new post? That is the easiest way to follow the blog to ensure you never miss another post.
In addition to subscribing you can also follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right. But you will get more than that for I often post links to articles probably will not be writing about so it is a great way to keep up with what is happening.
The Twitter widget in the sidebar is fully interactive. This widget updates my tweets in real time and allows you to respond to or retweet my tweets right from the blog. It also allows you to tweet me right from America’s Watchtower.
Here is The Smiths performing “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” live from 1984.
frui diem
Keith Ellison regrets saying Kim Jong Un is ‘acting more responsibly’ than Donald Trump
The situation in North Korea is growing more desperate by the day. Kim Jong Un has been test firing missiles and this provocation has been condemned by the United Nations, while Donald Trump has ratcheted up the rhetoric in an attempt to intimidate the North Korean leader. It is also being reported that North Korea now has the capability to attach miniature nuclear warheads to ICBMs which can reach the continental United States. I am not sure I believe this but that is what is being reported.
It is clear to me that after decades of United States leadership which has been unwilling to confront this situation that Kim Jong Un is testing the current President to see what his reaction will be. Unlike Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama Donald Trump seems to be taking a more hard line approach and this has drawn the ire of the left, and some establishment Republicans, who would prefer apparently to let Kim Jong Un continue to develop his weapons in the hope that he will not do anything stupid while Donald Trump is taking the opposite position.
America's Watchtower 