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WASHINGTON D.C. (KUSI) — The battle over Confederate monuments is being waged in cities and communities across the nation. For many people, these monuments represent one of the darkest chapters in American history, but to others, they are a reminder of this nation's heritage. Overnight in Baltimore, a stark reminder that even that which is set in stone can be removed with enough force. Statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were among four monuments hauled off into the night on a flatbed truck. Hours earlier in Birmingham, Alabama, crews put up plywood to obscure a 52- foot obelisk honoring Confederate soldiers and sailors. All this, just hours after President Trump posed this question:  "I noticed that Stonewall Jackson's coming down. I wonder is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?" For Baltimore's mayor, the answer was simple: ...

DURHAM, N.C. — The Latest on growing opposition to Confederate monuments since last weekend's deadly confrontation at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (all times local): 11 a.m. Another North Carolina city is cleaning up after vandals defaced the base of a Confederate soldier statue . Multiple media organizations reported someone spray- painted unintelligible black letters on at least two sides of the downtown Winston -Salem memorial, but did not deface the soldier portrayed atop the base. The damage was mostly cleansed within two hours of the incident Friday night . Police earlier issued a statement responding to queries about a downtown Ku Klux Klan rally rumored for Saturday. Police said they had received no requests from the white supremacist organization for a rally. The Winston- Salem Journal reports the monument was erected in 1905 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which still claims ownership. It stands at a street corner before th...

A Confederate flag hangs in an East Village apartment window . (PIX11 News) EAST VILLAGE, Manhattan — A person living in the East Village hung up Confederate flags in the windows of an apartment, and the locals are not happy about the display The NYPD confirmed that a person was trying to throw rocks at the windows on the sixth floor on Wednesday. A colonial- era American flag and the flag of Israel were also displayed in the windows of the E. 8th Street apartment . A colonial- era American flag , Israeli flags and Confederate flags hang in an East Village apartment window . (PIX11 News) A neighbor told the New York Daily News that the flags have been hanging in the windows of the apartment for more than a year. The Daily News reported that “dozens of neighbors” gathered outside of the building to look at the flags. Police went to the building to talk to the tenant of the apartment on the top floor on Wednesday night, but the tenant did not answer the door and was believed to no...

The same day it voted to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee from a park — a move that white supremacists descended on the city to protest — the City Council did something that got much less publicity. It unanimously approved a $ 4 million spending plan to address racial disparities . Over the next five years, about $2.5 million is to be used to redevelop public housing ; $250,000 will go to expanding a park in a black neighborhood; and $20,000 a year will pay for G.E.D. classes for public housing residents . Photo K. Ian Grandison, a University of Virginia professor, with a map of what the rapidly gentrifying city looked like in the 1920s. Credit Matt Eich for The New York Times Activists call it reparations for the destruction of Vinegar Hill and other black neighborhoods here. “I’m hoping that other elected officials and policy makers from across the country can see it’s not enough to just move a damn statue,” said Wes Bellamy, the vice mayor, who proposed the plan. “I think symbol...

As the racial unrest stirred by a neo-Nazi rally in Virginia on Saturday continued throughout the nation on Monday, a group of demonstrators took down a statue of a Confederate soldier outside a courthouse in Durham, North Carolina.  According to the News Observer, nearly 100 demonstrators, describing themselves as anti-fascists, used a ladder to tie a rope around the statue. The crowd used the rope to pull the statue to the ground.  Video of the incident shows the crowd kicking the statue, as others in the crowd cheered on. The statue has stood outside the courthouse since 1924. According to a Facebook event page , the protest was organized by the Workers World Party Durham Branch . The protest was organized to demand the removal of all Confederate symbols.  The News Observer reported that members of the Durham County Sheriff ’s Office were on hand, but did not get involved. Instead, deputies videotaped the incident.   “Charlottesville and racist monuments across the country are the...

“a shaken Spencer took to the roof to film activists while hiding his face, prompting police to guard the rear entrance of his apartment building for the rest of the night. We chanted, “We are not afraid of you!”’ On Sunday, August 13th in response to the tragedy in Charlottesville, the DC Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Mid- Atlantic General Defense Committee (GDC), and the DC Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) organized a vigil at Market Square in Alexandria, Virginia to offer space and support for those who had attended the rally the day prior, and to honor and remember the life of Heather Heyer and those injured at Charlottesville. Protestors and medics who witnessed the murder spoke about their experiences and gave detail about the police inaction in Charlottesville, and the medical response to Heather Heyer’s injuries, eventually resulting in her death. They drew connections between the many Confederate monuments and street names in Northern Virginia and Spencer...

By Lambert Strether of Corrente. We had our Naked Capitalism meetup in Burlington Thursday, August 17, and our meetup in Montréal on Friday, August 18. Seven NC readers attended the Burlington Meetup, some coming a long distance; fourteen — I think, we had to add a table — came to Montréal. I thought both numbers were remarkable; strangers coming together for no other reason than that they read the same blog speaks to a great hunger for connection, IMNSHO, and speaks well of the blog. In Burlington, we met at Zero Gravity Brewpub at Flatbread ( excellent craft beer , excellent pizza). In Montréal, we met at Le Café Cherrier (cuisine bourgeois, again excellent, and bringing back very happy memories for me. And a big hat tip here to the Montréal organizer for selecting the venue; I’m anonymizing them because I’m not sure they wish to be named). Both meetups were very convivial — conviviality is important — and both establishments let us sit and chat for a long time. I hadn’t been to e...