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Antifa Tag

My my, how the political pendulum has swung about the little darlings known as Antifa. Antifa, as we documented, are the continuation of a long line of Anarchist-Marxist street thugs originally known as Black Bloc, then Occupy, then in the age of the Resistance to Trump, were rebranded as "Anti-Fascist," hence, Antifa. The stripes changed, but not the violent tactics. Just as Democrats embraced Occupy, so too they embraced Antifa when Trump rallies were disrupted and Trump supporters beaten. "Punch a Nazi" became a popular slogan, with "Nazi" having an expansive definition to include all Trump supporters. We explored this Democratic love affair with Antifa in Democrats own Antifa, just like they owned Occupy.

Two days ago black-clad Antifa thugs beat people in Berkeley as police mostly stood on the sidelines, as we documented in Journalist amid Antifa Berkeley Riots: “Police have completely disappeared … People getting beaten up”. ABC News reported that police were ordered not to intervene:
Berkeley Police Chief Andrew Greenwood said officers were told not to actively confront the anarchists. He applauded officers' restraint, saying it forestalled greater violence.
Berkeley Mayor Jesse Areguin, while criticizind the Antifa violence, approved of the police stepping back and effectively ceding the streets:

Don't look now but someone in the media finally asked a Democrat to comment on Antifa. Tim Dunn of WBSM Radio in New Bedford gave Elizabeth Warren a chance to condemn Antifa and she failed miserably.

Asserting that they are "answering a call to confront and dismantle the white supremacist agenda in every community," a coalition of leftist groups is embarking on a 10-day march from Charlottesville to Washington D. C. Among their demands is the removal of President Trump from office and unspecified means of "confronting white supremacy throughout our history."  They also demand "an agenda that repairs the damage it's done to our country and its people." The Hill reports:
Activists are set to start a 10-day march from Charlottesville, Va., to Washington, D.C., on Monday to confront white supremacy and demand President Trump's removal from office.

Having lost most of their political power, Democrats are desperately wielding their not inconsiderable social and cultural power. From colleges and universities to statues and flags, the regressive left is demonstrating an alarming anti-American sentiment that threatens to undermine not just our nation's history but its very fabric. Case in point: Californian leaders, including House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D), have adamantly opposed a rally organized by the Patriot Prayer group on the grounds that it is "alt right" and "white supremacist."  The problem, however, is that of the speakers scheduled to speak, only one was white.  Indeed, the group's leader is neither white nor "alt right."

Officers in Laguna Beach have arrested Richard Lousy who allegedly sucker punched a black Trump supporter at a rally on Sunday. R.C. Maxwell told FOX 11 the attack was unprovoked:
"If the optics were completely different and I was a black lives matter supporter and I was attacked on the Trump side of a protest I would be in the spotlight on CNN right now," Maxwell said. "I went over to the left side to see if I could engage them with dialogue and I was instantly encircled by the so called anti fascists."

The Antifa street thugs who have rampaged on college campuses and cities long before Charlottesville have been embraced by the anti-Trump Democratic Resistance. This should come as no surprise, because Democrats also embraced the Occupy Wall Street movement, from which the Antifa movement evolved, As discussed in my prior post, both are the outgrowth of the Black Bloc anarchists and Marxists, Gathering Storms And Threats to Liberty.

We're living in a very dangerous time. Several things are coming together that pose a serious threat to the liberty of anyone who is right-of-center. While there are many factors at work, I've been focused in recent days on three: (1) Antifa becoming a part of the anti-Trump Resistance; (2) politically-motivated denial of access to the internet at the gatekeeper level; and (3) attempts to weaken free speech protections in the name of social justice.

The anti-Israel Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is notorious for campus violence and disruption directed at Israelis and pro-Israeli students and faculty. We have featured dozens of incidents of shout-downs and disruptions of events, including physical acts of intimidation. Many of these incidents are discussed in our post, With campus shout downs, first they came for the Jews and Israel. In an extremely dangerous development, anti-Israel pro-BDS faculty are organizing a nationwide campus Antifa network.

The media and political frenzy we've witnessed since the Charlottesville riots and death of Heather Heyer last Saturday has been as intense as anything in recent memory. I've often used as a measure of frenzy the media reaction when Mitt Romney made a statement during the 2012 campaign criticizing the Obama administration's response to Benghazi. By that measure, the current situation is off the charts.

For the past 36 hours I've tried to gather my thoughts about the Charlottesville riots and killing of 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Here goes, in no particular order. Free Speech. The sight of neo-Nazis marching with torches was nauseating. But even Nazis are protected by the First Amendment. That's why a federal judge declined to issue an injunction against their march. It's why the U.S. Supreme Court stayed an injunction issued in 1977 seeking to prevent Nazis from marching in the mostly Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie.

Joy Reid doesn't brook much dissent on her own MSNBC show, regularly shutting down, as here, here and here, conservatives who have the temerity to disagree with her. Fortunately, when Rich Lowry of the National Review took on the Reid this morning, it happened on Meet the Press, where Reid was a fellow panelist rather than host. The topic was the violence between neo-Nazi/white nationalists and Antifa, in which numerous people were injured and one woman killed. President Trump has come under withering media and political attack for a statement condemning violence "on many sides." Lowry made the point that the so-called "anti-fascists" in Charlottesville also engaged in violence, and the violence was not one-sided, as the videos show. Reid refused to admit that there was violence on both sides, claiming "there was certainly not."