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Discount Gentleman's avatar

"Meanwhile, the mainstream media seems stuck in “fact-checker” pedant mode, having declared just days ago that the terrorism label was technically impossible."

This is a mistake I keep seeing by supposedly smart people. Trump's declarations are always so vague that they could mean anything at all. Smug liberals keep assuming that they have him bound down by rules, and that therefore his pronouncements mean nothing. In fact, he sets the rules (and liberals comply), so that his pronouncements mean whatever he wants them to, and he can retroactively determine what they mean (or are seen to have meant) from day to day.

Antifa isn't an organization, there are no members, so it is up to Trump and his federal police to decide who is a member or supporter, and what acts constitute (or are retroactively determined to have constituted) support.

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Discount Gentleman's avatar

It is also worth noting that this executive order comes right as liberals are patting themselves on the back for getting Jimmy Kimmel back on the air. Will their outcry be as loud for an action that criminalizes a widely-held belief, but doesn't interrupt their bedtime TV routine?

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Susan Becraft's avatar

I always laugh sardonically when certain liberals bleat, “He can’t do that. It’s against the law.” So is attempting to overthrow the U.S. government, but look what happened.

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Michael Wallace's avatar

Boy, I can't wait until the FBI comes to interview me for being anti fascist. 😂 I sincerely hope the FBI agents tasked with coming to harass me at my abode understand how heartily I intend to laugh in their faces. If not fascists, then why do fascist things?

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Peter Murphy's avatar

I have a confession to make. My family and I have been indoctrinated into Antifa from a young age. Even before we were old enough to drink or vote, my father brought me and my sister to this disgusting film. I think it was called "Raiders of the Lost Ark". It's basically, a movie about punching fascists, shooting fascists, and (going by the "opening of the Ark" scene) boiling, electrocuting and exploding fascists. How revolting!

It's a big problem with Hollywood - they're always coming out with movies denigrating fascists, and I guess millions (tens of millions? hundreds of millions?) have also be indoctrinated into Antifa. I was a bit young to remember, but there was this other movie around the time - set in Chicago - where this couple of suits drove some fascists off a bridge. (Or was it the Sears building? It all blurs together.) They tell us "They're on a mission from God." Obviously, they were on a mission from Satan all along.

Thank you, Big Daddy Trump, for saving us from the scourge of anti-Fascism.

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[Yes, this should be obvious satire.]

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Marian Gillis's avatar

The Utah Governor, called the shooter, oneof our own. Mormon family, Online family Christmas photos, holding guns. There is no organization called, Antifa.

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Patty Tanji's avatar

Anti-fascist, communist, a terrorist designation by any other name wouldst smell as sweet.

Nothing to see here folks, just history repeating itself.

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AJ's avatar
4hEdited

I know it’s history repeating itself - but in my 38-some years here, I can’t remember things being this awful. But, I still try to keep the humor! It’s just exhausting (probably because this all feels like the start of a worst case scenario). I’m getting on my private Antifa-plane as I speak.

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John Reynolds's avatar

I declare war on fake tans, fake hair , bitcoin frauds whether left right or center

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AJ's avatar

I try to joke… but secretly it’s a bit scary. I don’t know what to do for the next (how many) years? I don’t know what to do. But, thanks for the great reporting, as always Ken.

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Luke Diaz's avatar

So what opinions are we allowed to have? Trump always has talked like this but the way that DHS has been unleashed on America, it's alarming.

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SAM's avatar

make sure this article goes far and wide. putting mangione in there is going to be backfire on them. most of the country was at least not-upset about that ceo getting whacked.

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Astral's avatar

Hell yeah

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Rob Bird's avatar

IS the "domestic terrorist" designation new? It doesn't feel like it. The Biden administration was all about that, no?

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Ken Klippenstein's avatar

This specific designation is new but the FBI focusing on "domestic terrorism" is not new. It's an escalation

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Discount Gentleman's avatar

Yep, Biden massively expanded the focus on "domestic terrorism." He set the stage for this, as for so much else.

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Goetz Kluge's avatar

The Republicans and Trump might be preparing to provoke unrest in late 2026 for manufacturing an excuse for a cancellation of the midterm elections.

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