For many years, I have testified and written about Antifa and its growing anti-free speech philosophy. Some Democratic leaders have embraced this violent movement, which continues to gain strength on campuses and its cities across the nation. It is also a global movement. That is reflected in the alarming election of Antifa candidates to the French National Assembly as well as the European Parliament. That is quite an accomplishment for a movement that President Joe Biden dismissed as “just an idea.”
As discussed in my new book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I explore the history of Antifa as a movement that began in Germany:
“Antifa originated with European anarchist and Marxist groups from the 1920s, particularly Antifaschistische Aktion, a Communist group from the Weimar Republic before World War II. Its name resulted from the shortening of the German word antifaschistisch. In the United States, the modern movement emerged through the Anti- Racist Action (ARA) groups, which were dominated by anarchists and Marxists. It has an association with the anarchist organization Love and Rage, which was founded by former Trotsky and Marxist followers as well as offshoots like Mexico’s Amor Y Rabia. The oldest U.S. group is likely the Rose City Antifa (RCA) in Portland, Oregon, which would become the center of violent riots during the Trump years. The anarchist roots of the group give it the same organizational profile as such groups in the early twentieth century with uncertain leadership and undefined structures.”
Despite the denial of its existence by figures like Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), I have long written and spoken about the threat of Antifa to free speech on our campuses and in our communities. This includes testimony before Congress on Antifa’s central role in the anti-free speech movement nationally.
As I have previously written, it has long been the “Keyser Söze” of the anti-free speech movement, a loosely aligned group that employs measures to avoid easy detection or association. Yet, FBI Director Chris Wray has repeatedly pushed back on the denials of Antifa’s work or violence. In one hearing, Wray stated “And we have quite a number” — and “Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a fiction.”
We have continued to follow the attacks and arrests of Antifa followers across the country, including attacks on journalists.
Some Democrats have played a dangerous game in supporting or excusing the work of Antifa. Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. This was after Antifa had been involved in numerous acts of violence and its website was banned in Germany.
Ellison’s son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer. During a prior hearing, Democratic senators refused to clearly denounce Antifa and falsely suggested that the far right was the primary cause of recent violence. Likewise, Joe Biden has dismissed objections to Antifa as just “an idea.”
It is at its base a movement at war with free speech, defining the right itself as a tool of oppression. That purpose is evident in what is called the “bible” of the Antifa movement: Rutgers Professor Mark Bray’s Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.
Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement against free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase that says, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’”
Bray admits that “most Americans in Antifa have been anarchists or antiauthoritarian communists… From that standpoint, ‘free speech’ as such is merely a bourgeois fantasy unworthy of consideration.”
The movement continues to take hold among parties on the left. An Antifa leader who is on France’s national security watchlist was elected to the National Assembly as a member of the New Popular Front leftist bloc. Raphaël Arnault will represent Vaucluse in Provence in the French parliament after winning with 54.98 per cent of the vote, according to Le Figaro.
French President Emmanuel Macron and his moderate party worked with the New Popular Front in a power deal to defeat conservatives. Antifa was part of that front.
In Italy, Ilaria Salis, a school teacher by trade from Milan, Italy, has been elected to the European Parliament despite being arrested in 2023 in Budapest for allegedly taking part in the organized attack by Antifa on attendees of an event commemorating the anniversary of the siege of the Buda castle by the Soviet forces in 1945. Salis’ far-left green alliance Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra (AVS) succeeded in securing the seat with the backing of far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (LFI) party — a member of the New Popular Front alliance.
These two milestones were secured only with the help of mainstream parties and leaders who continue to delude themselves about Antifa and its true agenda. While convenient allies now to win elections, these same leaders could soon find themselves the next reactionaries denounced by these same radical groups as they gain greater power.
Antifa is a rebel looking for a cause.
So, they make one up. Or several.
The police are fascists!
That group is fascists!
This group is fascists!
Those people are fascists!
They would have you believe there are fascists everywhere.
A few years ago, Oakland CA had a rally calling for the reinstatement of the police after the city had defunded their PD. The people who were pro-police on their streets, pro-safe communities, were from that area.
Then a bunch of antifa types showed up. White soy boys from a much different, and more affluent zip code. Things got heated. If it were not for the fact the police were there, the white soy boys would of gotten a serious beat down.
Jonathan: What is the “true agenda” of Antifa? That’s implicit in your column. As you point out Antifas originated in Germany as “Antifaschistische Aktion” (AA), a popular front founded by Germany’s Communist Party (KPD), to fight against the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party. In the 1932 Reichstag elections their were violent clashes between the AA and Nazi supporters. After Hitler took power he brutally suppressed the AA and other liberal parties. The AA had to go underground. Had AA and its allies been successful perhaps the murder of 6 million Jews could have been prevented and the loss of 35 to 85 million in WWII.
Today Antifa is one of the principal movements fighting against the rise of neo-fascist groups and parties in Europe and the US. That is their “true agenda”. As you point out several Antifa candidates have been elected to the French National Assembly and the European Parliament. That reflects the sentiments of many voters in France.
Here in the US we also see the rise of white nationalist neo-fascists groups like the Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers. They were the shock troops that, at the direction of DJT, assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6 and attempted to overturn an election to keep DJT in power. That insurrection was an attempt to cancel the “free speech” rights of millions of American voters to select the candidate of their choice.
Antifa is not a threat to “free speech”–not comparable to the threats we face from DJT, his MAGA movement and other violent neo-fascist groups. The fact that you would continue to attack those who are trying to defend our Democratic institutions speaks volumes about which side you are on!
Please go away. You are a big bag of wind; thinking you’re the equal or smarter than Turley. He’s a lawyer and professoer with a record. You? Still in your mom’s basement huh?
That’s exactly as I picture him–still in his mom’s basement ankle-chained to the radiator.
efromme,
I quite enjoy Dennis.
He actually makes arguments rather than relying on toddler level ad hominem like so many here.
And the arguments are self evidently bad
and self evidently disconnected from facts and the real world.
Dennis is the epitomy of one of Mill’s reasons that free speech is necessary.
You can not truly know how good your own arguments are without knowing those of your opponents.
Dennis reassures me every time he posts that there is not some flaw in my thinking or arguments that I missed.
But I do wish he had a higher IQ and could make better arguments.
But if that were the case he likely would not be on the left.
Dennis – you are delusional.
With respect to much of your defense of Antifa. You are free to SAY whatever you please.
Antifa is free to SAY whatever it pleases.
The problem with Antifa is not what they say – though they are atleast as fascist as those they claim to oppose in what they say.
You rant about the purported history of Antifa opposing fascism. How is silencing others opposing fascism ?
As Turley pointed out – Core to Antifa is the use of force to SILENCE others.
That is not “anti-fascism” it is just plain old fascism.
As to the rest of your nonsense. There is no “Rise of white nationalist neo-fascist groups”.
All of those things in the US are on the DECLINE and have been for a long long time.
In the 70s the KKK held rallies and cross burnings in a nearby Central Pennsylvania town, where as many as 10,000 people showed up.
In Charlottesville in 2017 they could not get more than a half Dozen KKK members to show up to fight against removing a Statute of Robert E. Lee.
Nearly all of the “aryan” groups in the US are essentially prison/drug gangs – they are no more some kind of political movement than the crips and the bloods. They are dangerous – as are all criminal drug gangs. They are not POLITICALLY dangerous.
You are batschiff enough to think the Proud Boys are white nationalists – when their leader is a black Hispanic, and a significant portion of their membership is minorities.
Further the major activity of the Proudboys has been protecting protestors from Antifa.
As to your J6 nonsense – absolutely – you and the anti-american THUGS that democrats have populated our justice department with
Targeted Proudboys and Oathkeepers for the “Crime” of organizing to oppose the certification of Biden in an election rife with Fraud.
The majority of those you convicted – were not in washington..
And the evidence against them ? Emails and Text’s asserting the election was stolen and organizing protests.
It is likely that the Supreme court Fischer ruling has reversed the vast majority of your proudboys and Oathkeepers convictions.
Regardless, on Jan 21,2025 or shortly thereafter the LEFT FACISCM of the Biden administration will be undone
and those people you have hunted down for engaging in free speech you do not like will be pardoned.
Those actually guilty of initiating violence on J6 or of destruction of property or theft should have their sentences commuted to the same sentences as other protestors who have in the past crossed the line into violence.
In NYC – you know the idiotic place that convicted Trump for allegedly lying to himself in ways that ordinary people can not see,
BLM protestors who through molotov cocktails into occupied police cars got 18month suspended sentences.
Can you name ANYONE at J6 who committed as serious a crime as Arson of an occupied vehicle ?
John Say,
Well said.
Well said but you will never be able to change the minds of these people. My deceased Cuban dad who had all his possessions expropriated by the communists had a saying: the only good communist is a d___d one.
” … had a saying: the only good communist is a d___d one.”
**************************
A “deranged” one? Hell, they’re all that way!
Maybe, maybe not. I do not know.
In the late 70’s I was in Architectural school – they were HUGE on passive solar everything, on self sufficient.
They were the left wing version of “preppers”. We were told oil would run out by 1984, and that we had 5 years to redesign the world to work without fossil fuels.
Briefly I bought into that.
I STILL think the design ideas that in many cases date back hundreds of years and some thousands, orienting buildings correctly, making use of shade and winds and solar angles to make a house more efficient is just a good idea.
But obviously we did not run out of oil in 1984. Nor are we all growing hydroponic tomatoes in our home – though My wife does grow hydroponic spices but not because the world is coming to an end.
What “cured” me was grasping that there is no way we could reach full sustainablility in cities like atlanta by 1984 and that if we were headed to a mad max dystopian world – one of the things our “sustaionable” homes would need would be machine gun turrets to fend off the majority who had not prepared.
I decided if the Malthusians were right – I was not prepared to kill large numbers of other people to defend my sustainable home to survive.
It is amazing how many ideas fail when you actually follow them to their logical conclusion.
Through much of my life – while I have often encounter intelligent people worth discussion or debate.
I have very rarely bumped into someone who I considered sufficiently more intelligent that merely disagreeing with them likely meant I was wrong.
I have spent most of my life (from the time I could speak) reaching my own conclusions and far more often than night finding I was either right, or mostly right when most of the world disagreed.
As such I have NEVER found the claim that everybody else disagrees, or that “experts” disagree compelling.
I bought into global Warming – at-least until about 2003 – when I spent a week with one of the few people in the world that I assume I am wrong when I disagree with him and he patiently explained that CAGW was BS.
He introduced me to Julian Simon – who is an economist that really ahs little to do with Global warming.
But absolutely everything to do with proving that EVERY SINGLE MALTHUSIAN CLAIM SINCE MALTHUS has proven wrong.
In fact they are predictably wrong.
Global Warming is NOT the only thing I have been wrong about in my life. I have been Wrong ALOT.
I have UNIVERSALLY been wrong when I accepted without questioning conventional wisdom on things.
I have almost never been wrong – or at-least far off when I have bothered to learn about a subject and then think it through on my own.
At various times decades ago I have held many of the views that those like Dennis hold.
Debate, Reality, and actually learning has changed my mind on many many many things.
I do beleive people can change.
What is unusual is changed driven only by thinking about a subject.
Most change occurs – like when I realized that I would have to kill others if the sustainable/Malthusian prognostications of my professors were true, when you are FORCED to confront an irresolveable conflict in your values.
When your system of values FAILS.
Generally when that happens it is pretty much an identity/personality crisis and people tend to swing 180.
I do not know if Dennis or Gigi or … can ever change – but I would bet money that if they – or the majority of left wing nuts today ever did experience the crisis in values that would require them to change – they would flip to being something like Christian fundamentalists.
The good news is that most people are not “true beleivers” and therefore do not flip from one entirely faith based system to the opposite when they face an irreconcilable conflict in their values.
Most of us learn slowly over time.
“the only good communist is a d___d one.”
True,
“Do you really think the only way to bring about the peace
Is to sacrifice your children and kill all your enemies?
The politicians all make speeches while the news men all take note,
And they exaggerate the issues as they shove them down our throats;
Is it really up to them whether this country sinks or floats?
Well I wonder who would lead us if none of us would vote.
Well my phone is tapped and my lips are chapped from whispering through the fence,
You know every move I make, or is that just coincidence?
Well you try to make my way of life a little less like jail,
If I promise to make tapes and slides and send them through the mail.”
killing all the communists is not a solution.
At the same time Communism is merely the most virulent strain of collectivism/statism.
I got heavily into economics with the housing crisis.
One of the many things I learned is that more government IN ANY FORM is almost universally bad.
And the data on this is absolutely damning.
I have to qualify this – because this is a curve – just like the laffler curve, and the data is damning – because we have very little data on governments smaller than 20% of GDP and pretty close to none at less than 10% of GDP.
Though I would note that Lincoln fought the civil war with total Government spending (state, local, federal) of less than 10% of GDP.
There are other variables – as an example homogenous societies can generally endure higher government spending with less damage than diverse ones.
The US is the most diverse country in the world. Whether those on the left like it or not, this country can not thrive with too large and too powerful a government. The american people do NOT have a large enough base of shared values.
There are important core american values – like maximizing freedom, which are compatibile with an extremely diverse population.
There is lots of discussion here about the problems in Europe – but problems in Europe are nothing new.
What is interesting at the moment is that Europe is pretty much by FORCE becoming more diverse – and it is Tearing europe apart. Statism, socialism, big government is NOT compatible with diverse populations.
The so called scandanavian social democracies – were NEVER as socialist as the american left claims, were only lightly socialist for a few decades post WWII, having been trying since the 80’s with great difficulty to undo their socialist past,
in many instances significant parts of their culture are MORE freedom oriented than the US today.
And are enduring horible internal stresses as they go from 98% homogeneity to as little as 10% diversity.
Anyone who has actually followed me here knows that while Biden’s immigration and border policies are absolutely disastrous. I am pro-immigration.
I absoltuely want a wall at the southern border.
But I also want as much legal immigration as possible.
Biden’s disasterous immigration policies have absolutely in the short run proven on NET extremely bad for the country.
But it is highly likely over the long run that even those will prove significantly net positive.
I would encourage you to read Julian Simon – “The Ultimare Resoure II” is free on the web.
It is a LONG and data intensive book, and it MOSTLY does not draw conclusions about population until towards the end.
But the FACT is that More people is ALWAYS net better for a country in the long run.
But it is also incredibly disruptive in the short run. And disruptive in the short run MEANS that real people who are currently citizens suffer REAL harm. Mass immigration of low skilled labor is devastating to the existing low skilled citizenry.
And this is core to Trump’s popularity.
Regardless, my point is that diversity is NET good. It is not ALL good. Alot of real harm comes with the good.
But this has ALWAYS been at the root of the US. We are not only a nation of immigrants, even our earliest were escaping the intolerance of Europe, came here and were equally intolerant – but FORCED to get along and to adopt values of toleration in order to avoid the protracted bloody cultural wars and persecution they had left behind in Europe.
The US has always had a tension between diversity and homogeneity.
In the long run that diversity has ALWAYS benefited us, and it has AMPLIFIED the core american values such as free speech that are what MAKES AMERICA GREAT.
OT – John Say – FYI
“THE DECLARATION CAN BE ROBUSTLY SHOWN TO CONTAIN BOTH IMMEDIATELY VATTELIAN HYPOTEXT AND LOCKEAN HYPOTEXT MEDIATED BY VATTEL”
The Reception of Vattel’s Law of Nations in the American Colonies: From James Otis and John Adams to the Declaration of Independence
American Journal of Legal History ( IF 0.6 ) Pub Date: 2017-11-03 , DOI:10.1093/ajlh/njx023
William Ossipow , Dominik Gerber
The treatise of the Swiss philosopher and jurist Emer de Vattel, The Law of Nations (1758), is well known in the United States and has attracted sustained scholarly atten- tion. Against the widespread assumption that the reception of The Law of Nations in America only started in 1775, this article establishes that Vattel’s treatise was available on American soil already in 1762. This finding paves the way for inquiry into Vattel’s intellectual authority in the revolutionary context from the early pamphleteers to the Declaration of Independence. Following a reception-based methodology that facilitates robust inferences from patterns of intertextuality, this study aims to make up for the gap in Vattel’s historiography regarding the crucial period between 1762 and 1776. New England, and the Boston area in particular, turn out to be the hotbeds of Vattel’s reception. A special emphasis is put on the central role of John Adams as a transmitter of Vattel’s thought in the colonial discourse in spring 1776. In the great political docu- ments of this time, most of which were written by Adams or by patriots close to him, such as Richard Henry Lee, a recurrent argument, called the Vattel-Adams argument, was put forth, forging a claim on the loss of royal protection into a justification of se- cession. The present study demonstrates that this rationalization bears unmistakably Vattelian marks. Furthermore, considering Thomas Jefferson’s mastery of intertextual practice, it is argued that the first, second, and fifth paragraphs of the Declaration can be robustly shown to contain both immediately Vattelian hypotext and Lockean hypo- text mediated by Vattel. Beyond its objective of uncovering a hitherto neglected aspect of the revolution’s intellectual underpinnings, this study offers a new perspective on the intertextual complexity and density that characterize the political documents of the revolutionary era.
F off. they are domestic terrorists. They themselves are a fascist organization being a group of non-government people supported by democrat leaders in the US. There is a reason they are in Portland, Philly, and NYC and not republican places (ostensibly where the worst fascism is). Ted Wheeler in Portland, the Charlottesville mayor back in 2016, and the establishments in the dying union eastern cities are all supporters turning their heads from the criminality of these worthless morons.
Anti-fa is simply the expression of the stupidest white people (largely) on the face of the planet, no wonder they flourish in poisoned Portland – home of the largest collection of stupid whiyte people in the nation.
My father navigated an 8th Air Force B-24 over Germany, the low countries and France back in 1944. He participated in Operations Overlord, Cobra and Market-Garden and in-between he flew raids on refineries, marshalling yards and aircraft factories.
My father-in-law made beach landings in Operations Husky (Sicily), Avalanche (Sorrento) and Dragoon (southern France) as a member of a Navy Beach Battalion. Beach Battalions would accompany Army Engineering units that would storm the beaches in the first wave of an assault, before the infantry. He was severely wounded in Sorrento but still took part in Dragoon.
These guys are who I think of when I think of anti-fascists.
The sniveling little pip-squeak, dip-shit turds that Dennis admires so much are anything but anti-fascists.
There are treatment facilities for those suffering from massive indoctrination and TDS, Seek help before your mind is completely gone.
Too late!
We are a Constitutional Republic not a Democracy!
Dennis – below is the republican platform that will likely be adopted at the conventions.
I do not agree with every item. Nor are these my priorities.
But it poses no “threat” except to fascists, socialists, the lawless, and the left.
The platform is in CAPS, my comments are not.
1. SEAL THE BORDER, AND STOP THE MIGRANT INVASION
Can we please stop this left wing nut misuse of terms. Migrants are temporary. Immigrants are those who intend to stay.
2. CARRY OUT THE LARGEST DEPORTATION OPERATION IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Not possible and not happening.
Getting rid of 10% of those who have entered illegally in the past 4 years would be a miracle.
3. END INFLATION, AND MAKE AMERICA AFFORDABLE AGAIN
That is the FEDs job not the presidents. It will happen when:
The fed allows a recession to clear the market.
But inflation will return if the government continues large scale deficit spending and the Fed monetizes the debt.
4. MAKE AMERICA THE DOMINANT ENERGY PRODUCER IN THE WORLD, BY FAR!
Get government out of the way that will happen automatically.
5. STOP OUTSOURCING, AND TURN THE UNITED STATES INTO A MANUFACTURING SUPERPOWER
That is likely to happen no matter what. We are seeing a global realignment. The US is increasingly focused on the western hemisphere and the pacific rim. China is both a serious threat and in serious trouble.
Further rising wages in china dramatically cut their competitive advantage in the US.
and finally more heavily automated and less labor intensive production favors the US.
6. LARGE TAX CUTS FOR WORKERS, AND NO TAX ON TIPS!
Eliminating taxes on Tips is an excellent idea.
Large tax cuts for the working class is also a good idea.
The taxes of the bottom half of the country barely pay the cost of collecting those taxes.
The real cost of running this country is nearly entirely pad for by taxes on the top 10%.
7. DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION, OUR BILL OF RIGHTS, AND OUR FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS, INCLUDING FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FREEDOM OF RELIGION, AND THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS
Amern
8. PREVENT WORLD WAR THREE, RESTORE PEACE IN EUROPE AND IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AND BUILD A GREAT IRON DOME MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD OVER OUR ENTIRE COUNTRY — ALL MADE IN AMERICA
While I expect that Trump can accomplish the first two – ultimately peace in Europe and the mideast are the responsibility of EUROPE. Increasingly the US has no national security interest in either.
9. END THE WEAPONIZATION OF GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
Amen
10. STOP THE MIGRANT CRIME EPIDEMIC, DEMOLISH THE FOREIGN DRUG CARTELS, CRUSH GANG VIOLENCE, AND LOCK UP VIOLENT OFFENDERS
Every president has promised that in my lifetime.
until recently crime has declined SLOWLY.
The current spike in crime is reverse-able.
Illegal immigrants (and drugs) are a factor, but a small factor.
Regardless, this is a very complex problem and neither republicans nor democrats have been close to right about dealing with it.
Though inarguably since Furgesson – Democrats and the left have made things worse.
11. REBUILD OUR CITIES, INCLUDING WASHINGTON DC, MAKING THEM SAFE, CLEAN, AND BEAUTIFUL AGAIN.
Not the job of the federal government.
12. STRENGTHEN AND MODERNIZE OUR MILITARY, MAKING IT, WITHOUT QUESTION, THE STRONGEST AND MOST POWERFUL IN THE WORLD
All that really needs to be done with the military is to return its focus on its actual mission – the defense of the country and the defeat of our enemies as necessary.
We do NOT need to spend more.
Frankly would could spend less and still be the strongest and most powerful in the world.
13. KEEP THE U.S. DOLLAR AS THE WORLD’S RESERVE CURRENCY
Not changing in the next 50 years no matter what.
14. FIGHT FOR AND PROTECT SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE WITH NO CUTS, INCLUDING NO CHANGES TO THE RETIREMENT AGE
At some point we are going to have to deal with the problem that our entitlements are out of control.
Neither party is willing to do that.
15. CANCEL THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE MANDATE AND CUT COSTLY AND BURDENSOME REGULATIONS
Government should not be picking winners and losers in the economy.
I have no problem with so called green energy, green vehicles. but the economy – US the people should decide what we want – not govenrment.
16. CUT FEDERAL FUNDING FOR ANY SCHOOL PUSHING CRITICAL RACE THEORY, RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY, AND OTHER INAPPROPRIATE RACIAL, SEXUAL, OR POLITICAL CONTENT ON OUR CHILDREN
Just end the department of education entirely.
17. KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S SPORTS
Amen
18. DEPORT PRO-HAMAS RADICALS AND MAKE OUR COLLEGE CAMPUSES SAFE AND PATRIOTIC AGAIN
If people want to come here to college and pay their own way – I do not give a crap what they are pro or anti.
We have problems in our colleges. But those problems start with the fact that the Students control the college.
That is nonsense. If students knew what they needed from college – they would not need college.
We have alot to fix with our colleges., But the federal government is not the answer.
Get government out of college education. End government backed student loans.
As people have to pay for college they will demand that the education is worth what they have to pay for it.
Free markets work. Goivenrment control does not.
19. SECURE OUR ELECTIONS, INCLUDING SAME DAY VOTING, VOTER IDENTIFICATION, PAPER BALLOTS, AND PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP
Excellent. Election day should be a single 24hr period that starts and ends at the same time throughout the US.
Absentee ballots should only be permitted FOR CAUSE – such as military service.
I would prefer hand counted ballots, but we can use tabulators – if and only if random audits are conducted.
All ballots should be counted at the polling station where the votes are cast. and no polling station should have more than 25000 registered voters.
20. UNITE OUR COUNTRY BY BRINGING IT TO NEW AND RECORD LEVELS OF SUCCESS
Won;t happen. If it was possible to make the left rational through success – we would have already done it.
Regardless of all of the above – what is it that “threatens you” ?
Republicans have promised to END all the stupid divisive nonsense that you engage in, and that you FORCE on the rest of us.
Nowhere on that list was
Bring about white supremacy.
Send all my enemies to jail.
Censor those who disagree with me.
That is all p[art of the DEMOCRATIC platform.
JT – You waste no time to obfuscate do you? Right off the bat you say…”Some Democratic leaders have embraced this violent movement, ”
And how many Republicans in this country support the insurrectionist trump? There was violence, inside the capitol building, by trump supporters on Jan 6. trump is a convicted felon, trump has abused women, trump calls wounded soldiers losers. trump himself has called for violence against protesters at his rallies. trump calls immigrants “vermin” Remember that term for what Hitler said about Jewish people?
So “some” democratic leaders support ANTIFA. How many republicans support trump? Heck, even the SC that used to believe in the Constitution threw that document out when they said trump has limited immunity for “official” acts. Nothing of any such sort is in the Constitution.
JT, have you gone fully fascist?
Trump has never practiced or called for violence. Throwing a heckler out of a rally is not violence.
“If you see somebody with a tomato, knock the crap out of them,” Trump said, referencing another incident with a protestor.
Trump said he would even pay for any legal fees that supporters incurred stopping a tomato-thrower. The theory was quickly put to the test when Trump spotted a protestor and had them removed.
I call that calling for violence against those that oppose him.
I call you either ignorant or complicit or both.
So I point out where trump called for violence, proving my allegation, and your response is? Are blind? willfully ignorant? or just plain stupid?
Good. F antifa.
If they have tomatoes.
Instead of being applied to Trump, the term “insurrectionist” is better applied to those people who are trying to force Biden out of office or off the ticket (which he has won by primary elections).
Boy do you have a weird definition of insurrectionist.
Insurrection – an act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion, or resistance against civil authority or an established government.
On Jan 6 a group of people tried to keep in power the person that lost the election in power. Many had weapons. trump sat back in his office seeing how his coup was unfolding. It did not go well so he eventually went out and disavowed them, sort of. He still loves them because they love him.
One aim of some of the protesters was to DELAY certification until election issues in some states could be investigated. Democrats have tried the same gambit. It is not clear that that is illegal.
Yes it is very clear that delaying certification by trespassing is illegal.
The VAST majority of people on January 6th were peaceful yet you insist on your interpretation otherwise. You probably also believe people other than Trump supporters died that day. Had it coming you say? Pathetic hater you are.
“… Bray emphasizes the struggle of the movement against free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase that says, ‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’” …”
Jonathan, I would take concern the use of the term “Radicals” used in your Caption.
“Antifa Radicals Elected to the French and European Parliaments”
“Antifa Members Elected to the French and European Parliaments” would suffice.
Aren’t you a Radical Jonathan? Lest it be for Free Speech
[e.g.: Jonathan Turley is a Free Speech Radical with a new book: The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in the Age of Rage]
Now how do you feel that would ring in the French Blogs? How would that make you feel?
Don’t chastise a whole group – you know better.
The French are a peculiar People, and I admit that I don’t particularly like them, but they do come up with some interesting (uniquely creative) ways of doing things, ‘Radical or Not’.
Antifa
1 : a person or group actively opposing fascism
The groups … prominently featured about 100 Christian ministers in clerical garb, angry Charlottesville residents, peace advocates, Black Lives Matter activists, and self-styled anti-fascists who call themselves “antifas” …—
After the war, Antifas varied in size and composition across the former Reich, now divided into four zones of occupation, and developed in interaction with the local occupying power.—
2 : an anti-fascist movement
Antifa is the backlash to the backlash, a defensive response to the growing presence of right-wing extremism.—
antifa adjective
antifa protesters
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antifa
Antifa
or an·ti·fa
[ an-tee-fuh, an-ti-fuh, an-tee-fah, ]
noun
A political movement whose followers are left-wing activists who oppose fascist authoritarianism, capitalism, and extreme right-wing ideologies such as nationalism, xenophobia, and white supremacy (often used attributively):
Antifa protesters marched on a far-right demonstration, with police intervening to stop the opposing sides from clashing.
a group of such activists, or a member of such a group.
Origin of Antifa1
First recorded in 1945–50; from German Antifa, shortening of Antifaschismus “antifascism” and antifaschistisch “antifascist”; anti- ( def ), fascism, fascist
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/antifa
Turley’s article makes one significant Error.
Le Penn and National Rally are NOT Conservative. They are socialist and share an enormous amount of common ground with the left wing nut extreme socialists that were elected in the 2nd round effort to defeat National Rally.
The recent elections in France will make governing France very nearly impossible – but that is a conflict between various entirely bad factions, not some actual battle between good and evil.
More dangerous is that in the quite large common ground shared by National Rally and the more traditional left socialists that have taken over to thwart National Rally, is the strong possibility of a number of very bad policies within that shared socialist common ground.
There is a trend in France and while a coalition of left and centrist forces were able to thwart Le Penn and National Rally from achieving power, it is likely inevitable that National Rally will ultimately attain power.
It is important to understand that Natgional Rally is NOT conservative. They are socialist.
I differ with those who beleive there are right wing socialists and left wing socialists. And claim that groups like the Nazi’s or National Rally are somehow on the right – they are NOT, they share far more policies with the left than with conservatives and they are typically openly socialist.
Regardless of whether you call them right or left – they are NOT conservative.
“Anti-authoritarian communists”. There never has been such a thing.
Those who decry Trump as a threat to ‘democracy’ and warn of a dictatorship looming were satisfied to let their Sturmabteilung in black, as well as others of that ilk, loose to wreak havoc in their jurisdictions where ever an opposing point of view was going to be publicly expressed. Public and private property were destroyed, lives ruined, and human beings were brutalized and murdered at their hands. We have been obliged to suffer nearly four years of this reprehensible tolerance and the time for it to end is now upon us.
antifa has enjoyed high up support from the beginning.
The numbers in their judicial, billionaire and political support system doesn’t seem to make much of a splash.
The Black Death once decimated half of Western Europe. I can see that a new plague has a death grip on it once again.
Over the last few years, the strategic entanglement of three forces:
First, we have the MEDIA (in conservative, mostly Caucasian areas of Europe and U.S.) increasingly, -now constantly–referring to the “FAR-RIGHT”as anathema in the news, in fear-mongering rhetoric.
Second, and concurrently, we have the sudden displacement of conservative body politics in previously-stable Euro nations, —
e.g., Britain’s new parliamental composition and new PM Keir Starmer (elected just a few days ago) and the increasingly disintegrating shift in France’s just-completed elections.
Finally, we learn of the role played by some U.S. leaders in influencing this change, foreshadowed by Obama’s famous reference to engagement in “transforming” political ideology, and his role as “mentor” to Britain’s brand-new PM Starmer, see, e.g., September 2023’s “Sir Keir Starmer says he speaks to Barack Obama ‘frequently,'” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/keir-starmer-labour-barack-obama-b2413604.html; — and https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/headlines/2024/jul/how-obama-mentored-new-uk-prime-minister-help-him-tell-his-story,–and Hillary’s involvement in China’s strategic policies, and her unofficial but continued presence in global strategic meetings.
(I am not preaching a view or complaint here; I am simply noting recent global developments.)
Lin,
Interesting observations.
The wife and I have noted how NPR always uses the term “far-right” when describing anything that even remotely resembles conservatives.
NPR was played in my workplace all day. We learned gardening, home maintenance, and neutral news. NPR is now a marketing arm for democrats. My co-workers and I felt propagandized; we changed the channel and have not returned. So much NPR reported has been proven false. They need to become financially independent from tax payers, but that is another topic. Make it a great day!
Upstate, did you tell your wife ‘Well Said’?
Of course those who are so sure that Putin successfully meddles in US politics meddle in the politics of other countries.
The left has no standards except double standards.
With respect to Europe – americans should distrust all reporting of European politics.
In a temporarily successful last ditch effort to stop Le Penn and National Rally left wing nuts have taken over the French parliament.
But there was no good outcome possible in France. Le Penn’s national rally is as socialist as those who weild power now.
There is no “conservative” politics of any consequence in France. It is stupid to talk of conservative or far right with regard to France.
In England Torries got their buts handed to them – but that is mostly because Nigel Farrage’s Refortm party mounted a massively successful challenge to the Torries. Labor won something over 2/3 control of Parliament while only gleaning 34% of the vote.
The real and important story is with Farrage and Reform.
Farage’s reform party is much like the Tea Party in the US. And Farage is roughly the British Trump.
The long term consequences of this election will be the re-integration of RFeform into the Torry party with Farage as the likely next Tory prime minister and a shift in the Tory party to more resemble US Republicans.
While British Tories are NOT socialists – like Le Penn’s national Rally – left and right in British Politics are NOT the same as in US politics. Though Farage’s rise may bring them into more significant alignment. Margret Thatcher might have had some resemblance to american conservatism – but Borris Johnson most certainly did not. Johnson’s handling of Covid as an example resembled Whitmer and Newsome far more than DeSantis or any red state.
My point is that throughout Europe left and right are NOT the same as in the US.
Despite the aparent success of labor in Britian and the left in France, Europe as a whole is moving “right”.
But it is Wrong to presume that is the same as moving towards conservatism.
It is also wrong to presume that right in france, England, Itally or Sweden means the same thing.
Thank you
John Say says “Le Penn’s national rally [RN] is as socialist as those who weild power now. There is no ‘conservative’ politics of any consequence in France. It is stupid to talk of conservative or far right with regard to France.”
John Say may be wrong about this.
“The RN is committed to abolishing the birthright to citizenship for children of foreigners born on French soil, and to discriminate in favor of French citizens in welfare and public employment… Detailing how it intends to ‘preserve French civilization,’…[a]fter initially advocating to ban dual-citizenship…but maintained that the most strategic positions’within government will be reserved for French citizens.” https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/04/europe/jordan-bardella-national-rally-france-profile-intl/index.html
Nationalism perhaps, but not socialism.
This is misleading. The hard-right has been growing in popularity, power and influence in Europe. See: https://www.politico.eu/article/mapped-europe-far-right-government-power-politics-eu-italy-finalnd-hungary-parties-elections-polling/
France’s election wasn’t a “displacement of conservative body politics.” The National Rally got about a third of the vote, when mere years ago, they were in the single digits.
Your note of global developments is wildly inaccurate.
No, the right has not been growing in popularity, it has become more outspoken in response to the growing popularity of the left.
Anonymous at 11:43, do an online search such as, “France’s continuing shift from conservative to left-wing,” and you will see multiple, overwhelming headlines similar to
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/left-wing-surge-in-france-sparks-political-turmoil-for-macron/ar-BB1pCV0Y
Next, look up media headlines for Britain, and you will see PAGES of headlines such as
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/britain-s-conservatives-face-an-extinction-level-event/ar-BB1pjp3i
I don’t think you know what you are talking about.
If you think France and Europe are the same thing… Then perhaps this conversation is over.
Oh, boy.
Now they are politicians. How long will be it till their own Antifa group attacks them?
Macron has sold his soul to the devil. But where Faust knew with whom he made the deal, Macron has not realized with whom he now shares his bed, and he will be unpleasantly surprised when Mephistopheles reveals himself and outlines the conditions of the deal.
France is a mess. And Frankjly Macron had no good choice.
Trying to apply american ideas of right and left to European countries is wrong.
Macron was between two socialist Devils. La Penn’s national rally is NOT conservative. They are unabashedly Socialist.
While they have purged the taint of their ties to Nazi’s they remain a socialist party.
If National Rally is not conservative, neither is Trump’s MAGA movement.
Both support economically populist measures, such as economic protectionism.
Putin is evil.
It has been two years.
Why is this still allowed to happen?
What happened to Dresden needs to happen to Moscow.
The means exist to do it.
Then Putin will take the hint that he should stop, if he
isn’t killed in the process.
How is zelensky gonna get paid if the war stops? how are bidens’ MIC funders gonna make money if the war stops?
You are an idiot if you think this was is about anything other than making money for the biden crime syndicate and its puppeteers.
Why not provide more details about your claim? How much money are they making? Where are the accounting records?
OK, where is the $6B we mistakenly sent over there? How’d that happen?
Idiot.
So they got Russia to invade Ukraine????
Yes. The US overthrowing their elected president and then threatening NATO in Ukraine openly was the impetus.
Words are cheap. How about some evidence? Will we find the evidence int he same box of evidence about 2020 election fraud? Where is that evidence?
Words are cheap, Evidence please.
I assume you will make the same argument with regard to a certain leader in the Middle East, whose forces have destroyed three-score hospitals since October 2023? And that you would extend the argument to all air forces who fire-bombed cities between 1939 and 1945?
Or is it just Putin you dislike?
The sophistry of a villainous ball of slime. GFY.
Re: Israel/Gaza. 100% Hamas owns all destruction and dea5h rained down upon Gaza since 10/2023. Full stop. If you don’t want your ass kicked, don’t start a war.
In my neighborhood, if someone hit you, you were expected to hit back.
You would not expected to knock the guy to ground, stomp on his chest, and kick him in the head until he stopped breathing.
Guess you grew up in a really nasty neighborhood. Mine was just blue-collar.
. . . . and my apologies to Turley for feeding the troll. Last time, I promise.
First, your neighborhood wins the Darwin award. The only way to survive is to prevent the bad guy from killing your people again in the future. (See: Ender’s Game). Israel has learned this from experience. If they would not respond with overwhelming force, they would not still exist.
Second, the “stopped breathing” part is due to Hamas intentionally placing their war machine in civilian facilities to invite civilian deaths so as to win a propaganda war. Hamas actually wants Palestinians to die, as well as Jews. It is part of their ethos. Hamas is a genocidal death cult. They worship death, they even say so.
Had Biden the butcher not squashed the peace deal in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, the war would of been over then and there.
Now, we have a president clearly on the mental decline, who is leading this proxy war.
Or is it Jill?
Wait how did BIDEN squash the peace deal. Don’t get me wrong I am sure you’re right, please just remind us HOW that happened. Thanks.
Boris Johnson was sent at behest of Biden, to squash the deal, tell Zelensky to fight, and we would support him with lots and lots of money.
The Ukraine being the most corrupt country in the EU, of course Zelensky would take that offer! So far it has been estimated that Zelensky and his cronies have skimmed some $400 million off all the aid we have sent, according to the CIA. It was so bad, reportedly the CIA told him to knock it off.
What kind of idiot are you ?
Absolutely Putin is not a good guy.
What world leader is ?
MBS in Saudi Arabia ?
Erodigan in Turkey ?
Xi in China ?
Putin has telegraphed his intentions for decades.
Every single time the west has talked about NATO expanding into a Country adjacent to Russia, Putin has invaded.
The Russian invasion of Georgia was avoidable.
The Russian invasion of Crimea was avoidable.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was avoidable.
Does Putin have the right to tell Ukraine or Georgia they can not join NATO
Certainly not.
Are we willing to go to war and worse still risk Global Nuclear war to enforce that ?
Certainly not.
Is the War in Ukraine Putin’s fault ? Absolutely.
But it is also Biden’s fault, just as the invasion of Crimea was Obama/Hillaries fault and the invasion of Georgia was Bush’s fault.
Making Moscow into Dresden ?
Are you INSANE ?
We do not know where the threshold at which Putin says the hell with it and goes nuclear is.
But there is ZERO doubt that turning Moscow to ash would result in global nuclear war,
300million deaths within the first half hour. Probably 4 Billion deaths within the next year.
Most of the northern hemisphere uninhabitable for a couple of hundred years.
“What happened to Dresden needs to happen to Moscow.”
I’ll do you one worse, make it like Baltimore or Chicago
Antifa will continue to be popular with the Democrats until one of the Antifa thugs firebombs a prominent democrat.
Sort of like the recent spate of unhinged non-binary people showing exactly how unhinged they are in propagating several mass shootings. And they still won’t release the Nashville shooter’s many page screed. Must be really toxic.
The election in France gets its typical result with the 2 stage setting in every national election. The 1 st stage is used to see who is the apparent dominant party and that then gives a chance to all the losers to gang up and keep the the Right Wing party from achieving victory by making deals and forming combination quasi-parties. It works exactly as planned. It has been used in the past to keep other populist parties out of the government and not just the right.
Of course the UK has its own problem. Labour just won a “landslide”. Look at the voting however. Labour won’t 65% of the parliamentary seats with 34% of the vote. Many are now demanding that Parliament be apportioned by % of the vote. The Reform Party of Nigel Farage would have received 92 seats instead of 5.
I have no problem with a proportional dispersal of seats in a parliamentary system but the problem is that the minimum vote to get seats is often too low and that results is a multitude of splinter parties like in Israel. A minimum vote of 10% in a national election should be required to get seats. It demands nationwide support and removes splinter parties who are difficult to deal with, right or left, in national coalitions. They are frequently severely ideological and have no interest in compromise.
National Rally was the threat in France. They are near certain to take power in the elections in 2027.
But Turley’s contention they are Conservative is false. National Rally is as socialist as those that just took power in France.
As to the UK – despite their huge majority Labor is weak. They came to power WITHOUT actual popular support and that will severely limit what they can do.
The real story in the UK is rise of Farage’s Reform party. That resembles the Tea Party in the US.
With near certainty Reform and the Tories will work out their differences shortly, and Farage will likely be the Next Tory prime minister.
The UK despite the current aparent labor victory has a meaningful future.
France is in trouble NO MATTER WHAT.
Turley stands up, yet again, against anti-facism.
In 1920s Italy people observed there were two distinct groups of fascists — fascists and antifascist.
That’s really cute that you think Antifa is anti-fascist when anyone who is paying attention knows that their conduct is impossible to distinguish from fascists.
The left always projects.
Soros and Chinese…have invested wisely in the Destruction of the WEST!
Time to JAIL the Money people funding these TERRORISTS!
“It’s just an idea”, if it’s an idea it’s a really bad idea. Maybe a second attempt to have them listed as Domestic Terrorist and treated as such will be successful?
“‘I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” What if what the “what you say” is anonymous threats to encourage harming your children by doxxing? What if its a subterfuge campaign to get you fired from your job?
Our country went through an ugly phenomenon 70 years ago called McCarthyism in which we rejected hyper-militant, ad-hominem forms of attack speech. “Have you no decency, sir?” That is a much better quote about free speech than the one JT cites, because it declares that speech carries responsibilities for self-restraint in public speech.
Without that self-imposed restraint, pubic infospaces are turned to zealotry and manipulative, intimidating, paranoia-inducing tactics like doxxing. Defend to the death some activist’s impulse to dox?
What’s happened to common sense?
McCarthyism was PRO America
Democrats are Anti-America
Antifa…are Fascist WHO seek to Destroy the WEST!
There is a stupid effort by many on the right to try to rehabilitate MacCarthy and MacCarthyism because MacCarthy was anti-communist and as we see today – communists infiltrating our institutions has proved incredibly destructive.
The problem is that MacCarthy was still ANTI-AMERICAN.
Free speech is possibly the single most important american Value.
MacCarthy was no better than those on the left today trying to censor their political opposition.
The fact that he was correct about the threat that marxism posed does not mean his anti-american means to thwart that threat were correct.
MacCarthy was no different from Wilson Jailing Eugene Debbs.
Debbs was a popular Socialist. He was wrong and he was dangerous.
But silencing him, Jailing him was worse.
American values trust that most ordinary people – when allowed to hear all arguments will not be deceived by absolute stupidity.
The american ideal is that you fight lies with truth. Not with forced silence.
You equate Joe McCarthy and Woodrow Wilson so I will ask you why is Joe one of the biggest enemies of America while Wilson is an admired president?
I am not disagreeing with you, my point is that leftists write our history.
” What if what the “what you say” is anonymous threats to encourage harming your children by doxxing? What if its a subterfuge campaign to get you fired from your job?”
What does this even mean ?
What exactly is an “anonymous threat to harm your children through doxxing” ?
All you are doing is making clear the LACK of common sense of those on the left.
Doxxing is exposing the identity of an anonymous source.
It is a risk that anyone that speaks anonymously takes.
How exactly are your children harmed by having their anonymous remarks identified as from them ?
And just to complicate things further your hypothetical involves one anonymous outing another.
Next you talk about a campaign to get you fired from a job. Do you think employers fire valueable employees for no or stupid reasons or because some other employee or cabal of employees does not like them ?
If your employer is so stupid as to fall for some subterfuge campaign – then you should WANT to work elsewhere.
If some cabal is reporting you for stealing from your employer – you should expect to lose your job.
If they are lying about you – either your employer is wise enough to figure that out, or you really do not want to work for them.
You say that free speech comes with responsibility – Of course it does.
Why do you think the credibility of the Press is near Zero ?
Why do you think the credibility of Biden and Democrats is near zero ?
It is very difficult to be harmed by the speech of others – unless that speech is true.
And if the speech is false – ultimately it is the SPEAKER who is harmed by false speech.
Never underestimate the propensity of Dems to eat their own.