Saturday News: Bannon “Alt-Ctrl Deleted”; Trump “Untethered”; “The future looks grim for Virginia Republicans”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, August 19.

• Trump ousts White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon (One fascist down, several more to go…)
• Trump’s Populism Isn’t Popular — But That’s On Him, Not Bannon
• The Test of Nazism That Trump Failed
• The Week When President Trump Resigned (“He consciously decided that he didn’t care about comforting or inspiring those Americans — a majority of them — who weren’t quick and generous enough with their clapping. He was more interested in justifying himself. So he picked division over unity, war over peace. And make no mistake: He didn’t merely shortchange the presidency. He left it vacant.”)
• Trump is a cancer on the presidency (Stage 4)
• President Trump Is More Isolated Than Ever
• Bannon Could Be More Dangerous Outside Than Inside the White House
• Bannon: ‘The Trump Presidency That We Fought For, and Won, Is Over.’
• Salvation Army, Red Cross, Susan G. Komen abandon Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
• Carl Icahn’s Failed Raid on Washington (“Was President Trump’s richest adviser focussed on helping the country—or his own bottom line?”)
• The Rise and Fall of Steve Bannon
• Steve Bannon’s Talent for Destruction
• Steve Bannon believed in Trumpism. Donald Trump doesn’t. (“…as president of the United States, Trump is proving to be one of the weakest, most disinterested executives in memory. He seems happy — even eager — to be both operationally and ideologically marginalized inside his own administration.”)
• With Bannon gone, the far-right media trolls are ready to break up with the White House (“The anti-establishment trolls have lost their biggest White House ally and are starting to go after Pence. Prepare for the right-wing media food fight.”)
• Bannon’s Exit Gave Trump a Perfect Opening to Distance Himself From White Nationalism. He Didn’t Take It.
• Forget the liberal smears: Leftists aren’t covertly aiding the alt-right — they’re battling it (“Liberals and centrists use Charlottesville as another opportunity to demonize the activist left. It’s not working”)
• Charlottesville Makes Strange Bedfellows Around the World (“Condemnation united Iran and Israel—and got the xenophobic National Front in France speaking out against white nationalism.”)
• Bannon’s Exit Leaves Trump Untethered (“As the president cuts ties with establishment staffers, and forces out his populist firebrand, what’s left of Trumpism other than white identity politics?”)
• Bannon Is ‘Going Nuclear’ (“The ousted White House chief strategist is back at Breitbart News, and he’s planning to make mischief.”)
• Exit Steve Bannon (“He is leaving the White House, but his political influence could grow.”)
• Trump’s populism was a ruse. Bannon’s ouster proves it. (“Trump’s decision to fire his chief strategist sends a clear signal that the president’s ‘populism’ has always been a ruse.”)
• Trump’s Charlottesville comments were just another distraction (“The Civil War talk covers up that the president is already at war with the rule of law.”)
• Why I’m Not Popping Corks Over Steve Bannon’s Exit (“Paul Ryan, and others like him, now see an opening to influence Trump’s future.” Blech.)
• The future looks grim for Virginia Republicans (“2009 — The last time a Republican won statewide in Virginia. Today, Virginia’s governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and U.S. senators are all Democrats, thanks to blue-voting majorities in urban and suburban eastern Virginia, especially the Northern Virginia suburbs”)
• Sens. Warner and Kaine say Congress has to reassert its authority because of Trump’s weakened presidency
• WATCH: Gavin Newsom schools Bill Maher on why Mike Pence is just as terrifying as Donald Trump
• Mike Signer: Charlottesville Will Move On (“Mr. Gingrich had nothing to do with last weekend’s violence. But there is a direct line to be drawn from his nihilistic rhetoric through President Trump’s toxic tweets to the far-right sentiments expressed in Charlottesville.”)
• How Virginia voters could help decide the fate of Confederate monuments
• Why didn’t police shut down the militias that descended on Charlottesville last week? (“The men had the right to openly carry rifles.”)
• Governor calls Charlottesville mayor’s request for special session of General Assembly ‘redundant’
• Were militia groups in Charlottesville better equipped than Virginia State Police? (“It seems likely that police had access to greater firepower than the militia members but didn’t use that level of force when dealing with public protesters.”)
• In tragic first, Va. governor presides at funeral for man on his security detail (“Mourners remember Berke Bates, the trooper-pilot who died patrolling over Charlottesville.”)
• Deconstructing the symbols and slogans spotted in Charlottesville
• Ad to air in Charlottesville: ‘White supremacy does not belong in White House’ (“Commercial from progressive group urges Trump to fire Sebastian Gorka, Stephen Miller and already-ousted Steve Bannon.”)
• After Charlottesville, some rally to take Confederate name off schools (“There are at least 138 schools named for Confederate figures, many of them in Virginia.”)
• Charlottesville mayor: Remove Confederate statues from downtown, honor Heather Heyer and tighten gun laws
• For neo-Nazi charged in Charlottesville car attack, a rage-fueled journey to Virginia
• Charlottesville mayor wants new laws to empower localities, suspend gun laws
• How the disaster in Charlottesville unfolded, as told by the people who were there
• Trooper-pilot killed in helicopter crash at violent protest in Charlottesville remembered as ‘happy warrior’ with ‘100 watt’ smile.
• McAuliffe temporarily bars demonstrations at Lee monument in Richmond, citing public safety
• Charlottesville mayor calls for swift removal of Lee statue (“McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said the governor won’t call a special session while the issue is being decided in court.” Dumb.)
• One week after that terrifying torchlight march, U-Va.’s new Hoos make a home
• Civil War re-enactment in Manassas canceled amid worries over violence
• Editorial: Why did Roanoke never put up any Confederate statues?
• What’s in a name? Virginia school enters Confederate symbols battle (“In the northern Virginia county where Confederate general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson earned his famous moniker, a battle has begun to remove his name from the local high school where it appears in large white letters on the red brick facade.”)
• Editorial: Portsmouth makes push to silence free speech (“PORTSMOUTH CITY leaders will discuss on Monday whether they can prohibit racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan from holding rallies or protests in their community.”)
• In the wake of Charlottesville, a call to change the name of Arlington’s Washington-Lee High
• A more comfortable version of summer this weekend