Originally published at: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/antifa-texas-trial-shideler
This article is part of TPM’s ongoing “Creating the Enemy Within” project, tracking the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent. For years, conspiracy theorists, grifters, and would-be authoritarians in search of a useful internal crisis have howled about a supposed threat hell-bent on destroying the government and the American way of life: antifa. …
That that idiot Gaffney is involved is all you need to know about how stupid this is.
12 Likes
Just ask yourself, which scares you most, antifa (which actually does not exist) or ICE Agents? I know how I would answer,
18 Likes
Maybe worth noting that Judge Mark Pittman is a malevolent trumpist asshole.
16 Likes
Went to my first “Antifa” meeting last night. We ate tacos and handed out whistles.
12 Likes
" Its founder and former leader, Frank Gaffney, spent decades claiming that “creeping Sharia” was infecting American life."
Well, yeah. But the “creeping sharia” is the “tradwife” movement, the anti-abortion efforts, the “quiverful” insanity … you know, all those good things springing from the fundie protestant extremists.
15 Likes
““It’s shocking to me that that’s the best [expert] the government could find.””
Maybe? If by “shocking” you mean “entirely predictable because there’s no such thing as an “expert” when it comes to made-up let’s-pretend paranoid delusional imaginary white supremacist christian dominionist demagoguery nonsense,” then sure, “shocking.”
14 Likes
That, in turn, raises deeply troubling questions. It suggests that FBI agents in the case may be regarding adherence to what they imagine as antifa as itself worthy of investigation, conflating belief or association with criminal conduct. For Shideler, “antifa” often seems broad enough to encompass a range of conduct, from peaceful protests to planned violence against law enforcement.
“Just because a network is decentralized and non-hierarchical does not mean that it’s not an organization for purposes of criminal or other statutes and that does not mean that they do not exist,” Shideler said
Careful. This can and should be used against MAGA, when once again sanity reigns in the American government.
11 Likes
If a bully keeps pushing people around he eventually ends up with enemies. Probably means although that antifa stuff is complete nonsense, the MAGA Trumpists will have their enemy eventually.
Of course, that is what they want. They are so morally twisted they apparently cannot live without such.
8 Likes
The D’s need to call Kennedy as expert witness to testify about what I’ve termed “Magatosis”, infection of the brain that causes rot, primarily of the cerebral cortex, and highly contagious, with the primary vector of transmission being Trump’s buttcrack, where victims have been witnessed licking or sniffing while listening for his voice to make fantastical pronouncements and commands that are largely unhinged from reality and run counter to the laws of the United States.
4 Likes
Agreed. This dates back (way back!) to the fall of the Soviet Union (USSR). Suddenly, Reagan’s “Evil Empire” was gone! Who to hate now?
The initial pick was “the Democrat Party”. Of course. Turn on fellow Americans, divide the electorate (the old “divide & conquer” schtick) – and WIN!
It’s been working for Republicans for over 40 years now.
14 Likes
Yeah, but did ya’ll speak 'Merican or Spanish?
3 Likes
So now they’re going comb through Ancestry.com and find that on my maternal grandfather’s side they arrived in 1773?
4 Likes
There are plenty of unemployed and underemployed people out there that would be willing to be the “antifa”, all the MAGots have to do is offer them the job with pay and benefits. I might even do it - be the loyal opposition, if the pay is right.
Eventually it would be all of us:
1 Like
Thus bolstering their allegation that any opposition to the First Felon, Twice Impeached is coming from “paid demonstrators.” Well done!
1 Like
Human-ish.
1 Like
Does anyone have the address for Antifa headquarters? I’d like to bring my dues current. Also do they have an online store? I’d like a mug and a couple of tee shirts.
6 Likes
The advent of Fox which St Ronny help bring about, didn’t hurt.
1 Like