The Banter Brief: Bye Bye Bolton, Nazi America, & Drizzy's UK Gangster Flick

Hey everyone, welcome to The Banter Brief, our breakdown of everything you need to know this week!:

1. Most important story of the week

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it would be repealing the Waters of the United States rule, a 2015 measure introduced by the Obama administration that limited the amount of pollutants used near streams and wetlands. As The New York Timesreported, Trump’s EPA has now determined that polluters will no longer need permits to release chemical pesticides and fertilizers into about 60 percent of the country's waterways.

The reason for this? According to the Trump administration, it is to protect the rights of land owning farmers who apparently have the right to dump whatever they want into water on their land. However, the environmental repercussions are likely to be severe, particularly given the Trump administration has rolled back many other Obama era environmental protections.

Dozens of prominent environmental organizations and several state attorneys general are gearing up to file multiple lawsuits in response to repeal.

RUNNER UP: The Democratic presidential debate happened last night and it highlighted the real differences between the candidates on issues like health care and taxation. There were no real winners or losers (there are too many still in the contest) but it seems clear Biden, Warren and Sanders are going to be very tough to take down.

2. Poll Analysis

Trump’s poll numbers are now as low as they were at the end of the government shutdown in January of this year. Just take a look at this:

Republicans and independents appear to be turning on Trump as they lose faith in his ability to run the economy, and his poll numbers are reflecting this.

As for Trump’s opposition, pretty much every top Democrat now beats Trump nationally. With Biden still leading the pack (poll numbers after last night’s debate are not settled yet), Trump should be very, very worried by this.

3. Quote of the Week

“You can very easily see — in the extreme of what we are seeing now in Trump’s camps — exactly how guards in the Nazi concentration camps behaved. Those Nazi guards believed whatever Hitler and Goering said about the Jews potentially as poison and invaders in the “Fatherland." Now, instead of Jews, for Trump and his supporters it is people from Latin and South America.”

- Philip Zimbardo, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University and leader of the notorious 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment on Trump’s border patrol and ICE agents.

4. What to Watch on Netflix

Top Boy

‘Top Boy’ is a superb UK crime drama that follows the intertwining stories of Dushane and Ra'Nell, two young men on the fictional housing project, the Summer House estate in East London. Dushane, played by rapper and actor Ashley Walters, is trying to climb the complex world of East London gangsterism, while the younger Ra’Nell, played by Malcolm Kamulete, struggles with his mother’s mental illness and lure of gang life. The characters are complex and the plot is fast paced and gripping, making Top Boy a truly first rate drama series that is comparable to ‘The Wire’. There are no moral lectures about gang life or drugs though, just a sparse, gritty insight into the urban realities many young people are born into in modern Britain.

The series was canceled in 2013, but revived by rapper Drake who produced the third series that comes out today. “That human element drew me in," Drake said after watching the first series on Youtube. "I started just looking them up. Like, who are these people? Are these actors I should know? Are they just famous over there? I remember I hit [Drake's manager] Future, and I was just like, 'This show is incredible.'"

5. Good News

Bye bye Bolton

President Trump announced on Tuesday that he had fired Neo Con psychopath and longtime warmonger John Bolton, his third national security adviser, on Tuesday.

“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service.”

The world is undoubtedly a much safer place now that John Bolton is no longer anywhere near government.

Have a great weekend!

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