by Matthew Vadum
Cross state lines to riot and you’ll be prosecuted, Barr promises.
After days of bloody rioting and looting across America, the U.S. government “will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization[,]” President Donald Trump announced on Twitter.
The tweet came after Antifa, Democratic Socialists of America, Black Lives Matter, and other America-hating radical leftist groups seized on the opportunity of the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man who perished after then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into the suspect’s neck for almost 9 minutes, an event captured on video that quickly went viral. The in-custody death video became a recruiting tool for agitators.
George himself had been detained by police after a report he tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at a local establishment. Why Chauvin, assisted by other officers, used so much force on a suspect who was already under control has not yet been explained.
Ultra-violent Antifa, a revolutionary communist-anarchist militia movement that aspires to forcibly overthrow the United States government, has gained new prominence in the post-Obama era. Adopting fascistic tactics, they trace their roots back to Nazi Germany. Although they opposed the Sturmabteilung (SA), or Nazi storm troopers going back to the Weimar era, like the SA they also used violence to intimidate political opponents and break up their meetings and rallies. It could be argued that the ideological distance between Antifa and the now-defunct National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated as NSDAP) or Nazi Party, is so slight it could be measured in millimeters.
Antifa is not typically thought of as a single organization: it is a movement or coalition of leftist groups, each of which claims to combat “fascism,” a political ideology whose definition academics have been arguing about for decades. The word Antifa itself is a truncation of anti-fascist.
Antifa operates under a twisted working definition of fascism, labeling mainstream conservatives fascists and lumping them in with white-supremacists and neo-Nazis. All cops can be deemed fascists as representatives of the supposedly evil capitalist system unless perhaps they declare their “allyship.” It is fair to say that true fascists are hard to find in the U.S. today – except in the fantasies of Antifa and radical hate groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The president’s tweet came at 12:23 p.m. on May 31, after days of unrest and insurrectionist violence in: Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; Los Angeles; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; Denver; Phoenix and Tampa, Arizona; Des Moines, Iowa; Milwaukee; Kansas City; Oklahoma City; Salt Lake City; Chicago; Detroit; Fargo, North Dakota; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Atlanta; Wilmington, Delaware; Richmond, Virginia; Columbia, South Carolina; Miami and Jacksonville, Florida; and in Washington, D.C., both downtown and in front of the White House itself.
Curfews have reportedly been imposed in Minneapolis, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
California, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin have all reportedly activated their state national guards to restore order.
A few hours after the initial announcement, Trump took to Twitter to urge Democratic mayors and governors, who have largely been letting angry mobs run wild in the ongoing orgy of leftist violence, to “Get tough … These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW.”
The Antifa terrorist-organization designation is something conservatives and other patriots have been awaiting for years. President Barack Hussein Obama wouldn’t do it no matter how much havoc the so-called anti-fascists wreaked during his term. Few Democrats have even been willing to denounce Antifa because the party’s base is in love with these supposedly romantic, Che Guevara-like, bathing-averse revolutionaries who want to slit the throats of Republicans (and quite a few Democrats, as well).
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who was Hillary Clinton’s running-mate in 2016, has long been sympathetic to violent street radicals. He even uses Leninist phrasing when discussing political activism, saying those on his side must “fight in the streets.” Not surprisingly, in March 2017, Woody Kaine, his son, was part of an Antifa assault on Trump supporters in the rotunda of the Minnesota Capitol. Young Kaine fought with police as they tried to arrest him for lobbing a smoke bomb. His father was no doubt proud.
Unfortunately, a few Republican squishes have also had kind words for Antifa. The late Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, all embraced Antifa after the violent unrest in Charlottesville in 2017.
But President Trump is no squish.
Neither is U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
On Saturday, May 30, Barr said he will not hesitate to use federal legislation to prosecute those who cross state lines to participate in organized upheaval.
“We must have law and order on our streets and in our communities,” he said.
Barr blamed the violence in Minneapolis and elsewhere on “far-left extremist groups,”
“Unfortunately, with the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful protests are being hijacked by violent radical elements,” he said. “In many places it appears the violence is planned, organized, and driven by far left extremist groups and anarchic groups using Antifa-like tactics.”
The same day, President Trump said the U.S. military was “ready, willing and able” to deploy if unrest continued.
And justice will be done, Barr vowed.
“The outrage of our national community about what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis is real and legitimate. Accountability for his death must be addressed, and is being addressed, through the regular process of our criminal justice system, both at the state and at the federal level. That system is working and moving at exceptional speed. Already initial charges have been filed. That process continues to move forward. Justice will be served.”
Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch spoke for many conservatives when he praised the Trump administration for taking aim at the dangerous subversives of Antifa.
“Antifa has been engaging in terrorism and seditious conspiracy for years[,]” Fitton tweeted.
“But FBI and DOJ were too busy to care much, their leadership engaging in their own seditious conspiracy against the presidency @RealDonaldTrump. Glad to see that AG Barr is beginning to get back to basics.”
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/trump-vows-designate-antifa-terrorist-organization-matthew-vadum/
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