Antifa: Definition and History:

The anti-fascist protest movement known as antifa gainednew prominence in the United States after the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA, in August 2017. In Charlottesville and at many subsequent events held by white supremacists or right-wing extremists, antifa activists have aggressively confronted what they believe to be authoritarian movements and groups. While most counter-protestors tend to be peaceful, there have been several instances where encounters between antifa and the far-right have turned violent.

These violent counter-protesters are often part ofantifa (short for antifascist), a loose collection of groups, networks and individuals who believe in active, aggressive opposition to far right-wing movements. Their ideology is rooted in the assumption that the Nazi party would never have been able to come to power in Germany if people had more aggressively fought them in the streets in the 1920s and 30s. Most antifa come from the anarchist movement or from the far left, though since the 2016presidentialelection, some people with more mainstream political backgrounds have also joined their ranks.

These antifa sometimes use a logo with a double flag, usually in black and red. The antifa movement began in the 1960s in Europe, and had reached the US by the end of the 1970s. Most people who show up to counter or oppose white supremacist public events are peaceful demonstrators, but when antifa show up, as they frequently do, they can increase the chances that an event may turn violent.

Today, antifa activists focus on harassing right wing extremists both online and in real life. Antifa is not a unified group; it is loose collection of local/regional groups and individuals. Their presence at a protest is intended to intimidate and dissuade racists, but the use of violent measures by some antifa against their adversaries can create a vicious, self-defeating cycle of attacks, counter-attacks and blame.This is why most established civil rights organizations criticize antifa tactics as dangerous and counterproductive.

The current political climate increases the chances of violent confrontations at protests and rallies. Antifa have expanded their definition of fascist/fascism to include not just white supremacists and other extremists, but also many conservatives and supporters of President Trump. In Berkeley, for example, some antifa were captured on video harassing Trump supporters with no known extremist connections. Antifa have also falsely characterized some recent right wing rallies as Nazi events, even though they were not actually white supremacist in nature.

Another concern is the misapplication of the label antifa to include all counter-protesters, rather than limiting it to those who proactively seek physical confrontations with their perceived fascist adversaries. It is critical to understand how antifa fit within the larger counter-protest efforts. Doing so allows law enforcement to focus their resources on the minority who engage in violence without curtailing the civil rights of the majority of peaceful individuals who just want their voices to be heard.

All forms of antifa violence are problematic. Additionally, violence plays into the victimhood narrative of white supremacists and other right-wing extremists and can even be used for recruiting purposes. Images of these free speech protesters being beaten by black-clad and bandana-masked antifa provide right wing extremists with a powerful propaganda tool.

That said, it is important to reject attempts to claim equivalence between the antifa and the white supremacist groups they oppose. Antifa reject racism but use unacceptable tactics. White supremacists use even more extreme violence to spread their ideologies of hate, to intimidate ethnic minorities, and undermine democratic norms. Right-wing extremists have been one of the largest and most consistent sources of domestic terror incidents in the United States for many years; they have murdered hundreds of people in this country over the last ten years alone. To date, there hasbeen onesuspected antifa-related murder, which took place on August 29, 2020, in Portland, Oregon.

Antifa: Scope and Tactics:

Today's antifa argue they are the on-the-ground defense against individuals they believe are promoting fascism in the United States. However, antifa, who have many anti-police anarchists in their ranks, can also target law enforcement with both verbal and physical assaults because they believe the police are providing cover for white supremacists. They will sometimes chant against fascism and against law enforcement in the same breath.

While some antifa use their fists, other violent tactics include throwing projectiles, including bricks, crowbars, homemade slingshots, metal chains, water bottles, and balloons filled with urine and feces. They have deployed noxious gases, pushed through police barricades, and attempted to exploit any perceived weakness in law enforcement presence.

Away from rallies, they also engage in doxxing, exposing their adversaries identities, addresses, jobs and other private information. This can lead to their opponents being harassed or losing their jobs, among other consequences. Members of the alt right and other right wing extremists have responded with their own doxxing campaigns, and by perpetuating hateful and violent narratives using fake antifa social media accounts.

Because there is no unifying body for antifa, it is impossible to know how many members are currently active. Different localities have antifa populations of different strengths, but antifa are also sometimes willing to travel hundreds of miles to oppose a white supremacist event.

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Who are Antifa? - Anti-Defamation League

Antifa has seen a steady increase in media attention ever since President Donald Trump was first inaugurated in January 2017. Republicans often portray antifa as a highly organized group of "terrorists" worthy of national watch lists.

Right-wing media blames antifa members for rioting and looting. Democrats have also condemned such violence, but many on the left say the rhetoric about antifa is greatly exaggerated, and that it's less of an organized movement than just something of "an idea."

But much of what politicians say about antifa isn't quite true. Here's what antifa is, what it isn't, and what you need to know.

Antifa is not a highly organized movement, nor is it merely an idea. Antifa is a loose affiliation of local activists scattered across the United States and a few other countries.

The term "antifa" is short for anti-fascist; it's used both by its adherents and its foes.

In general, people who identify as antifa are known not for what they support, but what they oppose: Fascism, nationalism, far-right ideologies, white supremacy, authoritarianism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia. Some antifa activists also denounce capitalism and the government overall.

Mostly, people aligned with antifa are on the left of the political spectrum. Antifa is not, however, affiliated with Joe Biden, the Democratic Party or its leaders. Biden has condemned antifa and called violence "unacceptable."

Antifa actions have included everything from tracking and publicly identifying members of alt-right groups to physically attackingadversaries.

In "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook," author Mark Bray, an organizer for the Occupy Wall Street movement, lays out antifa's methods this way:

"Despite the media portrayal of a deranged, bloodthirsty antifa the vast majority of anti-fascist tactics involve no physical violence whatsoever. Anti-fascists conduct research on the far right online, in person, and sometimes through infiltrations; they dox them, push central milieux to disown them, pressure bosses to fire them

"But it's also true that some of them punch Nazis in the face and don't apologize for it."

During public demonstrations, antifa activists often wear top-to-toe black; even before the coronavirus pandemic, they were also known for wearing face coverings at public gatherings.

Antifa has no official national leadership, though followers have organized themselves into small, local cells that sometimes coordinate with other movements, such as Black Lives Matter. Some self-described antifa adherents have organized to confront Patriot Prayer, the Proud Boys, and other far-right groups during public demonstrations. Some of those rallies have devolved into violence.

Some antifa adherents keep a very low profile, while other local groups venture to give themselves a more public profile with a name and a website. One of the oldest such groups appears to be Rose City Antifa, which says it was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 2007. According to its website, its main focus is "any work that prevents fascist organizing, and when that is not possible, provides consequences to fascist organizers. This is supported by researching and tracking fascist organizations."

Over President Trump's years in office, coverage of "antifa" has skyrocketed in the mainstream press. That coverage started on the day of his inauguration, when dozens of people took to the streets of the nation's capital in a protest that would soon grow violent. Authorities would later arrest several dozen of them, many of whom later identified themselves as antifa, and accuse them of starting fires and riots. Charges were eventually dropped for the bulk of the defendants, while others were acquitted by juries.

President Trump pointed a finger at what he called the "alt-left" following the infamous "Unite the Right"rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. After a white supremacist deliberatelyplowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman namedHeather Heyer, Mr. Trump sparked more outrage when he suggested an equivalency between the white supremacists and the protesters on the other side, who despite his claims were mostly peaceful.

"What about the alt-left that came charging at, what you say, the alt-right?" Mr. Trump wondered aloud. "Do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the fact they're charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs, do they have any problem? I think they do."

In the years since then, media coverage has identified antifa as participants, and sometimes agitators, in clashes at numerous rallies and protests around the country. That includes a 2017 anti-hate rally in Berkeley, California, and a Patriot Prayer "freedom rally" in Portland, Oregon, in 2018.

In at least one instance, a person self-identifying as an antifa supporter has been linked to a deadly attack at a protest. Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was considered a prime suspect in the August 2020 killing of 39-year-old Aaron "Jay" Danielson, a right-wing activist who was shot during heated demonstrations in Portland. Reinoehl was later shot to death by federal authorities as they moved to arrest him.

Reinoehl had described himself in a social media post as "100% ANTIFA."

In the summer of 2019, Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Bill Cassidy introduced a resolution calling for antifa to be labeled as a domestic terror organization. President Trump voiced his support on Twitter.

But the Trump administration's own Department of Homeland Security and FBI don't appear to view antifa as aleading threat. A DHS draft document from September 2020 reportedly namedwhite supremacist groups as the biggest terror threat to America. That same document doesn't mention antifa at all.

The FBI also considers far-right groups the "top of the priority list." FBI director Christopher Wray said in February 2020 that the FBI places the risk of violence from racially-motivated extremist groups "on the same footing" as the threat posed by foreign terrorist organizations such as ISIS and its sympathizers.

That's not to say the FBI hasn't also taken aim at antifa. After arson and looting broke out amid the protests in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd, Wray said: "We're seeing people who are exploiting this situation to pursue violent, extremist agendas anarchists like ANTIFA, and other agitators. These individuals have set out to sow discord and upheaval, rather than join in the righteous pursuit of equality and justice."

But the idea of designating antifa a terror group worries some civil rights advocates.

"The designation would grant federal law enforcement broad powers, under the federal terrorism code, to surveil and investigate anyone labeled as antifa," the Southern Poverty Law Centersaid in a statement. "It could also allow federal law enforcement to broadly target anyone involved in protests viewed unfavorably by the Trump administration, even retroactively."

The center added, "President Trump's announcement is rooted in politics, not the present realities of the terror threat in the U.S."

Antifa has earned its reputation for sporadic violence. But many other rumors about antifa have been spun from whole cloth, sometimes by people later identified as right-wing extremists. In June 2020, Twitter shut down multiple fake antifa accounts that were inciting violence against white suburbs; subsequent investigations tracked the accounts to Identity Evropa, a white supremacist organization.

Right-wing figures and other commentators on social media also have falsely accused unspecified antifa members of starting wildfires on the West Coast, prompting police and fire officials to appeal to the public to stop spreadingwhat one agency called "an UNTRUE rumor."

Another common conspiracy theory has alleged, without evidence, that billionaire philanthropist George Soros is funding antifa.

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What is antifa? Is it a group or an idea, and what do ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon that the United States will designate antifa as a terrorist organization, although some say the U.S. government doesn't have the legal authority to do so.

The State Department can designate foreign organizations as terrorist groups, but the United States has no domestic terrorism statute, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Let's be clear: There is no legal authority for designating a domestic group," the ACLU tweeted Sunday. "Any such designation would raise significant due process and First Amendment concerns."

On Tuesday, Twitter announced that a white nationalist group had been posing as antifa, presumably to cause dissension.

For those who might be a little unsure as to what and who antifa is, here are five things to know about the movement of militant activists.

1. What does Antifa stand for and what are their general beliefs?

Antifa, short for anti-facists, is an umbrella description for a broad group of people whose political beliefs often fall to the far left but do not conform with the Democratic Party.

Antifa members stand against what they view as authoritarian, homophobic and racist systems, according to The New York Times.

2. How long has antifa existed?

The original antifa groups date back to fights against European fascists in the 1940s. The modern antifa movement in America began in the 1980s with a group called Anti-Racist Action, according to the "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook."

3. Who is in antifa?

Part of the issue with Trump's claim that he will designate antifa as a terrorist organization is that it's difficult to label antifa as an organization at all.

The movement has no official leaders or headquarters. Over the past decade, antifa has worked with other local activist networks that are rallying around shared beliefs, such as Black Lives Matter, but it's impossible to know how many members there are, according to The New York Times.

4. What does antifa protest, and what are its tactics?

Antifa members take part in protests and rallies aimed at disrupting authoritative speakers and actions. Many antifa organizers participate in peaceful forms of community organizing, but what sets the group is apart is its willingness to use violence.

Antifa members say they use violence as a means of self-defense and that property destruction does not equate to violence, according to CNN.

"There is a place for violence," Scott Crow, a former Antifa organizer, told CNN. "Is that the world that we want to live in? No. Is it the world we want to inhabit? No. Is it the world we want to create? No. But will we push back? Yes."

5. Why do antifa members dress in all black?

Antifa members will often dress in all black, sometimes also covering their faces with masks, so they can't be identified by opposing groups or the police.

The all-black uniform is also an intimidation tactic, which allows members to move through a protest as one uniformed group.

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What Is Antifa: 5 Things To Know About The Movement ...

An Israeli hacking group has taken responsibility for exposing the personal details of a number of alleged members of a Ku Klux Klan group after targeting a website linked to a white supremacist cell.

A Twitter account linked to the anti-fascist group Hayalim AlmonimHebrew for Anonymous Soldiersboasted about how the website of The Patriotic Brigade of the KKK "has been exposed" on January 30.

The Klan331.com website, which previously contained a number of racist and anti-Semitic hate material, has now been entirely altered. The site, which had its URL changed to jewishantifa.com, reveals the names of several people who are allegedly members of the KKK.

"Any Klansmen reading this, we know who you are, and we are coming for you," a message on the hacked site reads. "We never forgive, never forget, and never stop coming."

The site also reveals the apparent leader of the Patriotic Brigade, Texan man Kevin James Smith. The site doxxed Smith to include his home address, email, and proof that he registered and ran the previous domain name.

The hacked site also provides a link to the Texas Public Sex Offender Registry, where Smith is registered for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

In a statement to The Jerusalem Post, Hayalim Almonim said: "Our objective is to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of humanity.

"Neo-Nazi and other white supremacist groups believe that Jews have an all-seeing eye. Our desire is to make their fantasies a reality, and exploit their conspiracy theories as a form of psychological warfare. We want them to know, wherever they are in the world that will find them and expose them.

"And we will bathe in their tears, and mock at the gnashing of their teeth. There is nowhere that is beyond our reach."

The group also claims to have unmasked the leader of the Church of the Ku Klux Klan as George Bois Stout, an arms dealer in De Kalb, Texas. Stout is reported to go by the name TexasKKK on the infamous neo-Nazi website Stormfront.

The group said they will also be posting further updates via the Twitter account @justice_jew, which they told The Jerusalem Post acts as an "information relay" for Hayalim Almonim.

The Patriotic Brigade of the KKK are listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and have cells in South Carolina as well as Texas.

Hayalim Almonim has been contacted for further comment.

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Jewish Antifa Hacks KKK Website: 'We Will Destroy Their Lives' - Newsweek

Oregon U.S. Attorney Billy Williams, a Trump-appointee who prosecuted more Antifa suspects than any other, is among many federal prosecutors who will resign from their positions at the behest of the Biden administration.

Williams, 64, was officially appointed to the job by former President Donald Trump in 2017 after holding it in an acting and interim capacity since 2015, when he replaced former U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall, who resigned during a sexual harassment investigation.

Last week, he reported that Portlands summer of rioting had caused at least $2.3 million to a handful of federal buildings in the city alone.

Billy Williams the United States Attorney for the District of Oregon speaks during a press conference January 27, 2016 at the Harney County Chamber of Commercein Burns, Oregon. (ROB KERR/AFP via Getty Images) (Getty Images)

PORTLAND RIOTS CAUSED AT LEAST $2.3M IN DAMAGE TO FEDERAL BUILDINGS, US ATTORNEY SAYS

Williams office had filed the most domestic terrorism cases out of any U.S. attorneys office in the country in 2020, the Oregonian reported. Most of them were in connection with more than two months of protests outside the citys Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse.

The nightly standoffs with police involved graffiti, broken windows and firecrackers, as well as Molotov cocktails.

Although the riots stemmed out of protests against the Trump administration, police brutality and racial injustice, they continued even after President Biden took office on Jan. 20. Antifa marchers blasted the new president and new anti-Biden graffiti emerged.

Other recent cases led by his office included the prosecution of a man who sent threatening cards and white powder to former co-workers and a fraud case against a former Nike marketing manager.

Hes not the only Trump-appointed federal prosecutor that the Biden administration has asked to step down, although a bipartisan group of senators had initially supported Williams for the job.

The Justice Department on Tuesday asked most U.S. attorneys appointed by Trump to resign although the prosecutor overseeing a federal tax probe involving the presidents son, Hunter Biden, will remain on the job at the request of acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson.

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U.S. Attorney John Durham, who former Attorney General Bill Barr appointed to investigate the Trump-Russia probe in October, will also stay on in that capacity while being asked to step down from his role as U.S. attorney in Connecticut.

Historically, its not unusual for federal prosecutors to leave their positions when a new president takes office.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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US Attorney who prosecuted Antifa suspects will resign at request of Biden admin - Fox News

The Week

No president is immune from scandal, President Biden included, Trevor Noah said on Monday's Daily Show. But maybe not all scandals are created equal. "Over the weekend, Biden took a short break from his day-to-day presidenting to catch the Super Bowl from his home in Delaware and if you aren't immediately outraged about that, well, you obviously haven't been watching the last 48 hours of conservative news media," Noah said. "But it's not surprising that Biden bent the travel rules for himself, because he's been president for less that three weeks and already he's had more scandals than we can keep track of although, my friends, we are going to try in our brand-new segment: 'Joe Biden, The Worst President in History That We Can Remember.'" Noah covered White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki's Space Force brouhaha, Biden's comments about honorable FBI agents, Hunter Biden's memoir deal, and the three scandals Biden chalked up even before becoming president. "That's right, Joe Biden stole 10 minutes of Donald Trump's presidency, or as Fox News calls it, Tenghazi," Noah deadpanned. "Who knows what Trump could have accomplished in those 10 minutes? I mean, maybe that's when he was finally going to release his health care plan. He could have used that time to walk down half a ramp! And do you have any idea how much Fox News Trump could have watched in that 10 minutes? Like, 10 minutes! So those are they many Joe Biden scandals by the muckraking journalists of conservative media in just his first three weeks in office." He predicted some Biden scandals that could come next. One of those conservative would-be Biden muckrakers lost his platform over the weekend, and The Daily Show also took a moment to say farewell to Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, "the most North Korean broadcaster America has ever seen." Watch his highlight reel below. More stories from theweek.comDominion says it had to hire detectives to track down Sidney Powell to serve her with its $1.3 billion lawsuitSen. Coons: Trump's impeachment defense is 'the Four Seasons Landscaping of the legal profession'Trump still hasn't conceded his election loss. But his impeachment lawyer Bruce Castor did, several times.

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Antifa uses Twitter to threaten me and the media: Seattle radio host - Yahoo News

Donald Trump promised on Twitter this week that the United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.

Legal experts immediatelythrew cold wateron theproposal, arguing that there may be no means by which any domestic entity can be designated in this way.

But, perhaps more importantly, experts also say that there is no actual antifa organization for Trump to define in this way.Put simply: antifa does not really exist as a distinct entity.

Antifa is a useful umbrella term that denotes a broad spectrum of groups and individuals of far-left or anarchist tendencies. The term itself means simply anti-fascist.

Mark Bray, a historian and the author of Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook, said in a telephone conversation that antifa is a loose movement of decentralized revolutionary self defense opposed to the far right.

Antifa conspiracy theories are common amongst rightwing politicians, media and activists. Bray said: The right describes antifa as a unitary organization with leaders and even secret funding though that is simply not true.

An antisemitic conspiracy theory that the billionaire financier George Soros funds antifa also has widespread currency on the right, including amonginfluential Trump-world figures.

Although the president and his allies wish to conflate large protests in every city with radical anti-fascist groups, Bray says they drastically overstate the numbers and influence of committed Antifa activists.

The antifa movement traces its heritage to radical left groups that resisted dictators such as Mussolini and Hitler in Europe in the 1930s. In Germany, the communist-aligned Antifaschistische Aktion fought street battles with Hitlers followers until it was forcibly disbanded in 1933.

This tradition was revived in Europe during the 1980s and 1990s, with the rise of nazi skinheads and other far right groups. It arrived in the US in the late 1980s, with the creation of Anti Racist Action (ARA) in Minneapolis.

The movement which is also strongly associated with anarchist politics is not defined by lasting institutions. ARA no longer exists and the oldest identifiable group in the US is probably Portlands Rose City Antifa, which dates from 2007.

Contemporary antifa groups have a distinctive repertoire of tactics ranging from publicly identifying members of far-right groups, to physically resisting them in the streets.Often, in street protests, activists dress in black bloc attire including balaclavas or masks to conceal their identity.

Sometimes, antifa street demonstrations involve violence: between activists and police, or members of far-right groups, or both.

The most controversial recent episodes have involved violent confrontations with rightwing social media personalities and sometimes, with journalists and photographers who activists believe will compromise their anonymity.

Bray says that antifas actions in this respect are nothing like the violence police have visited on journalists in recent days as dozens of reporters have been beaten, teargassed, shot and arrested by police covering the Black Lives Matter protests.

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What is antifa and why is Donald Trump targeting it ...

The shocking attack on the US Capitol has been uniformly characterized in the past few weeks as an insurrection incited by a sitting president and carried out by a seditious mob. Its worth reviewing what preceded the riot, and considering the impact of its aftermath.The event was entirely predictable. It was evolutionary rather than revolutionary; the logical next step in the trend we have witnessed over the past four years. Here are just a few examples of efforts to overturn the 2016 election that were at least as seditious as what happened at the Capitol. Violent anti-Trump demonstrations began even before his inauguration. The American intelligence apparatus assisted the Democratic Party in advancing the Russian collusion hoax based on a source and document they knew to be unreliable from the outset. In 2018, left-wing demonstrators occupied the Senate office building and attacked the Supreme Court. This summer, mayors rushed to declare solidarity with rioters as police stations and federal courthouses were fire-bombed and thousands of businesses were looted and destroyed. Laying siege for a full week, a mob attempted to break through barriers surrounding the White House, injuring several Secret Service officers. They then assaulted people leaving the White House, including members of Congress.An atmosphere of lawlessness was created. The media and the Democratic leadership minimized or ignored violence incited by Marxist Black Lives Matter and anarchistic Antifa supporters. Political violence was not only tolerated; it was encouraged by people in power. Rioters were hailed as patriots.Violent Antifa demonstrations in Washington State and Oregon continue to this day, with rioters chanting, We dont want Biden. We want revenge! Clearly, Antifas ultimate goal was not removing Trump but destroying the American system. Democrats have remained silent.None of this justifies the abhorrent attack on January 6. However, the Capitol rioters did not act in a vacuum. Their inexcusable actions were the foreseeable extension of what came before.The reaction to the Capitol riot has been very different.

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Antifa and the Capitol: A tale of two insurrections - opinion - The Jerusalem Post

There is no place in American society for paramilitary political groups, and there is no honest way their activities can be described as either free speech of peaceful assembly.

They are just what they were under Hitler tools of political intimidation and violence, meant to butcher both democracy and liberty, and the people who hold them dear.

Im talking about Antifa and the Proud Boys.

Cancer doesnt get better when you ignore it, and neither does insurrection in the nations Capitol or on its cities streets.

When you have groups that reek of the French Revolution or the Third Reich or some banana-republic dictatorship, you know youve got a problem. And history teaches that if you dont root out this sort of problem before it gets out of hand, it kills you.

And those who ignore that reality, unwilling to criticize the storm troopers of their own particular philosophy, are Quislings of the American Republic, traitors to their predecessors and their progeny, destroyers of the fabric of freedom.

Here are the facts.

The paramilitary actions of Antifa in support of the Democrat and progressive agenda are treason. As they have attacked police, intimidated citizens, destroyed property and shut down cities, they have been carrying out their own slow-motion Pearl Harbor, spreading their 9-11 out over months and years, instead of a day. But their attack has been just that an attack. Nothing they do comes anywhere close to peaceful assembly, and physical intimidation is not free speech. The only relationship their actions have with the Constitution is that they are calculated to destroy it.

The same is true of the Proud Boys.

When your people and your words are storming the Capitol of the United States, you are not We The People, you are in open rebellion against We The People. You are seeking to replace the voice of the people heard in our Republic at the ballot box with the rage of the mob which is always the enemy of freedom.

When so-called peaceful protesters show up with gas masks and shields, flak vests and uniforms, when they are organized with medical workers and communication systems and command and control, they are a militia, a band of thugs, and they are on the attack.

And those who sit silently in assent, or gather along in the throng to march behind a banner or a fist, are merely goose stepping in their own way.

The Republican Party and the Democratic Party are each horribly wrong for their silent support of their respective political paramilitary groups. Democrats in city halls have let Antifa and its associates wreak havoc across dozens of American cities. Democrats in Congress have offered to pay the bail of Antifa rioters. The progressive elites who control most of American society have been silent or encouraging in relation to Antifa. The press often been openly supportive and allied.

Republicans in Congress and the White House have sought to ride the tiger by encouraging and normalizing the Proud Boys and their associated fighters, and in this they have abandoned any moral authority on this subject.

And so both fuses burn ever shorter, from the left and the right. As the right tries to catch up with the left in terms of organization and funding and aggression, the escalation of tension becomes purposely intimidating and ultimately violent.

The Democrats cry and moan about the insurrection, and the Republicans cry and moan about the burning cities, but both lack the courage to stand against their own militias. Worse, both directly encourage their own militias. It is a bipartisan hypocrisy, and a threat to American freedom.

Evil doesnt become tolerable if it voted for you in November, or tried to intimidate those who voted against you. Evil is evil, and those who dance with it die. And no society which has tolerated political militias has long endured.

This is not America in 1776, it is Germany in 1932.

And political leaders who fail to stop this threat will be fundamentally failing the Republic.

The organizing of individuals to violate the law, even in the name of protest, is criminal conspiracy, and has no protection under the Constitution. Peaceful assembly cannot include any sort of violence, and free speech cannot include any sort of physical disruption. The law must be used to push back against these criminal incursions.

Which is probably why both sides have targeted the police for their ire and intimidation.

Antifa and the Proud Boys are two peas in the same pod, evil seeds of chaos and mob rule, the eternal enemies of peace and rule of law. They are just todays manifestations of timeless evil, the dark side of history that seems intent on repeating itself.

And will, unless both parties denounce it, and the law moves against it.

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LONSBERRY: Time To Move Against Antifa And The Proud Boys | 570 WSYR | Bob Lonsberry - KFI AM 640

All of this was a strain on the counterterrorism section, which has only a few dozen prosecutors and like other parts of the department was reeling from the coronavirus. A top F.B.I. domestic terrorism chief also expressed concern to Justice Department officials over the summer about the diversion of resources.

The counterterrorism section at the time was working with prosecutors and agents around the country on cases involving people affiliated with the Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, other militia members and violent white supremacists. In some parts of the country, agents who had been investigating violent white supremacists pivoted to investigate anarchists and others involved in the rioting, struggling in certain cases to find any conspiracy or other federal charges to bring against them.

Around the same time, the F.B.I. was tracking worrisome threats emanating from the far right. Agents in Michigan monitoring members of a violent antigovernment militia called Wolverine Watchmen received intelligence in June that the men planned to recruit more members and kidnap state governors, according to court documents.

After six members of the group were charged in October with plotting to abduct Ms. Whitmer, one of Mr. Trumps most vocal opponents, the president insulted her and reiterated that the left posed the true threat. She calls me a White Supremacist while Biden and Democrats refuse to condemn Antifa, Anarchists, Looters and Mobs that burn down Democrat run cities, Mr. Trump said on Twitter.

Dozens of F.B.I. employees and senior managers were sent on temporary assignments to Portland including the head of the Tampa field office, who was an expert in Islamic terrorism, according to current and former law enforcement officials where left-leaning protests had intensified since tactical federal teams arrived.

Some F.B.I. agents and Justice Department officials expressed concern that the Portland work was a drain on the bureaus effort to combat what they viewed as the more lethal strains of domestic extremism. The bureau had about 1,000 domestic terrorism cases under investigation at the time, and only several hundred agents in the field assigned to them. The Homeland Security Department even sent agents to Portland who were usually assigned to investigate drug cartels at the border.

Mr. Barr also formed a task force run by trusted U.S. attorneys in Texas and New Jersey to prosecute antigovernment extremists. Terrorism prosecutors working on the investigations arising from the summers violence were not told beforehand of Mr. Barrs decision. They questioned the rationale behind the task force because it seemed to duplicate their work and could create confusion, according to two people familiar with their pushback.

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How Trumps Focus on Antifa Distracted Attention From the Far-Right Threat - The New York Times

President Trumps obsession with the bogeyman threat of antifa led law enforcement agencies to direct resources away from right-wing threats and may have affected their ability to anticipate and prepare for the far-right attack on the Capitol, current and former officials told The New York Times. The DOJ pulled some prosecutors and FBI agents away from assignments focused on white supremacists and asked them to instead investigate anarchist groups like antifa over summer, the officials said. One official was concerned enough to go to the agencys independent inspector general.

Officials said efforts to alert colleagues to white supremacist activity were tamped down and mentions of domestic terrorism were discouraged. Requests for funding to track white supremacist activity online were denied. Meanwhile, threats of violence at the Capitol were visible on social media in the days preceding the Jan. 6 attack, an event for which law enforcement agencies have admitted they were unprepared.

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Trump's Antifa Obsession Diverted Feds From Right-Wing Threats: Officials - The Daily Beast

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, The Post Millenial Editor-at-large Andy Ngo joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to offer insight into the rise of the infamously secret radical group Antifa and discusses his new book, which documents how the left-wing organization uses violence to destroy democracy.

They dont just attack different institutions or state buildings or people affiliated with the state, but law enforcement, politicians, and people who support a particular party, Ngo said. They systematically go after the founding ideals of the U.S. They believe its all linked to fascism, white supremacy, racism.

Radical ideologies and teachings such as critical race theory, Ngo explained, play a large part in motivating Antifas destructive behavior.

I think its really the rational, logical outcome of ideologies that many of them are introduced to, and that could be critical race theory and all that, which is all about deconstructing and dismantling systems of oppression. And they view the United States as a system that enforces oppression, not just here but around the world, Ngo explained. In every way, this is like an anti-government insurrectionary movement, but yet theyre not treated that way.

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Inside Antifa With Andy Ngo - The Federalist

Donald Trumps personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday responded to a scathing letter from the Lincoln Projects lawyersin, perhaps, the most amusing way imaginable: with a letter saying he will not respond to their letter.

The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group that madenational headlines over the last few days because its co-founder John Weaver was accused of serially harassing young men online, recently demanded through attorneys that Giuliani preserve all relevant documents regarding alleged false and defamatory statements made against the organization. Giuliani, it turns out, was on the receiving end of at least one other demand letter recently. A billion-dollar lawsuit against him soon followed.

During an appearance on pardoned former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannons War Room podcast, Giuliani explained that he would respond to the Lincoln Project by saying he will not respond.

Well, heres what Im doingIm writing them a letter back telling them that I will not respond to their letter because they make this one rather sketchy, defamatory allegation about a tort that I committedI counted four that they committed in their letter, Giuliani said.

He then ostensibly confirmed that he had already responded to the groups attorneys in writing.

So I wrote back to him, You know son, Ive represented Dow Jones, Barrons, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily NewsI did this for a livingand youve made a classic mistake. At the very end of the letter you claimed that I defamed the Lincoln Project, except in the first seven paragraphs of the letter you defamed me at least four or five times, Giuliani went on.

Law&Crime asked the Lincoln Project whether they had received a letter from Giuliani, but the group has not responded.

The Lincoln Projects demand letter was prompted by the former New York City mayors previous appearance on Bannons podcast last week, during which Giuliani baselessly claimed that the anti-Trump group helped plan the Jan. 6 Capitol riots that led to the former presidents second impeachment.

Asked about the impending Senate trial, Giuliani laid out what he thought was Trumps best legal strategy.

If the case is mainly that he caused thishe caused the insurrectionthen the defense is going to have to show that this thing was planned and that a lot of the people involved in the planningAntifa, and then even some right wing groups who are enemies of hisand that they were doing it in order to hurt him. Including some right-wing groups that operate for the Lincoln Project or have been working with the Lincoln Project at various times, Giuliani said.

Bannon then interjected, asking what groups Giuliani was suggesting were working with the group.

One of the people who organized this is well known to have worked with the Lincoln Project in the past. One of the people involved brought in right-wing groups that opposed Trump, and he brought them in specifically to blow this thing up, Giuliani responded.He had the same motivation the Antifa people had. So it isnt as if all these right-wing groups were all pro-Trump. And the biggest problemsviolent problemswere caused by Antifa. Thats where the shooting took place.

The shooting Giuliani mentioned was of Ashli Babbitt. Babbitt, aTrump supporter, QAnon believerand Air Force veteran, was shot and killed by police while trying to vault through a broken window inside the Capitol. Giuliani claimed Babbitt was surrounded by all Antifa people. That claim about all Antifa peopleis easily debunked.

David Charles Mish, Jr, was also an avid supporter of the former president. Court documents show that Mish wasamong those standing next to Babbittwhen she was killed. Several other Trump supporters wereidentifiedas being within several feet of Babbitt when she was shot, includingChristopher Ray GriderandChad Barrett Jones. Just the other day,Zachary Alam was added to the list.

There he is in a fur hat next to Babbitt just moments before she was fatally shot:

Image via Washington Post screengrab

And here he is, MAGA hat in his hand, smashing a Speakers Lobby window with a helmet.

Giulianis claims regarding the Lincoln Project or Antifa being responsible for orchestrating the Capitol riots is undercut daily by copious amounts of mounting evidence showingthat Trump and Giulianis supporters, believing the lie that the election was stolen, stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. The Justice Department has charged at least 150 people for their involvement in the insurrection, nearly all of whom were unapologetic supporters of the president.The FBI has said publicly that there is no evidenceto support the Antifa just tried to make Trump supporters look bad conspiracy theory.

[image via YouTube screengrab]

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Rudy Giuliani Responds to Lincoln Projects Litigation Threat: Im Writing Them a Letter Back Telling Them I Will Not Respond to Their Letter - Law...

The following essay is excerpted from Andy Ngo's forthcoming book Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy, due out from Center Street on February 2.

On July 5, 2020, hundreds of militant Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists returned to again attack federal law enforcement officers outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in downtown Portland. They were masked and dressed in black as they tried to burn down the federal building. They also assaulted construction crews who were working around the clock to replace wooden barriers that were torn down by Antifa rioters the previous night.

Christopher Fellini, 31, was arrested that night and charged with assaulting a federal officer. In his possession, officers found a knife, pepper spray and a powerful laser. For weeks on end, rioters had organized into subdivisions that used laser pointers to blind and injure the eyes of cops. Fellini's name stood out because he was previously charged at another fiery Portland Antifa riot in 2017 (his charge was ultimately dropped).

Another federal arrestee was Andrew Steven Faulkner, 24, who was also charged with assaulting an officer. During his arrest, he was found carrying pipe bomb components and a sheathed machete. He later pleaded guilty but was not given prison time.

For the next four weeks, Antifa's plan of escalating attacks on federal property to provoke a federal response for the cameras produced the exact propaganda they wanted. On any given night, there were dozens who identified as press. At its peak there were probably more than a hundred journalists and live streamers, most of whom were sympathetic to the rioters and protesters. Instinctively, and at the urging or demand of others, their cameras were trained solely on law enforcement to capture their every move. Those who ran afoul of Antifa's rules were forced out or assaulted and robbed. Leftwing live streamer Tristan Taylor was beaten to the ground and had his recording equipment stolen.

Every use of force by officers, whether it be tear gas, smoke, pepper balls or arrests, was heavily scrutinized. Outofcontext video snippets were released on social media and published by news outlets, generating mass rage and universally negative press for law enforcement and the Trump administration. The officers were called "Trump's gestapo," "storm troopers" and "thugs" by Democratic politicians and the media.

Erin Smith, a conservative trans woman and writer who goes undercover at large Antifa riots on the West Coast, tells me Antifa use a "calibrated level of violence" to provoke reactions by law enforcement for propaganda purposes.

"Antifa seek to force law enforcement into a dilemma action, where there are simply no good responses from a public relations standpoint," Smith said via email. "They either fail to respond to Antifa harassment and look weak, or react in ways likely to be perceived by the casual observer as an overreaction. Both choices undermine the legitimacy of the state and its security forces."

As useful idiots for Antifa, the press predictably published reports that helped provoke more hatred for law enforcement, contributing to more people showing up to the protests-turned-riots.

"Trump sent cops to Portland and they're 'kidnapping people off the streets,'" read a Vice News headline. "'It was like being preyed upon': Portland protesters say federal officers in unmarked vans are detaining them," read another from The Washington Post.

All these stories based on Antifa talking points were meant to create an impression that Trump had literally sent secret police to disappear leftwing opposition. It was false. Using unmarked vehicles to make targeted arrests is neither illegal nor unusual. Every law enforcement agency around the world uses unmarked vehicles. When officers had attempted the usual route of moving in to physically arrest someone at the riots, they were mobbed by rioters who "dearrested" their comrades by surrounding police and pulling them away. Antifa claimed victory online each time this happened.

Accusations of there being "secret police" and "unidentified federal agents" were also false. Every officer wore official uniforms that displayed their federal agency via badges on the shoulders with clear words on the front that read "POLICE." That politicians and journalists did not or pretended not to recognize the uniforms is not an excuse. And no one was ever "disappeared." All those detained were properly processed and read their Miranda rights. Most were released within hours and later had their charges dismissed.

As bad as the riots already were, Portland City Council and local politicians actively worked to undermine the federal government's attempts to protect federal property. In effect, they were acting as cobelligerents with Antifa in their uprising. When ex-acting secretary Chad Wolf of DHS flew to Portland from Washington, D.C., in midJuly to survey the extent of the violence and destruction, local officials preemptively refused to meet with him.

"We're aware that [DHS leadership is] here. We wish they weren't," tweeted Mayor Wheeler. "We haven't been invited to meet with them, and if we were, we would decline."

Oregon Democratic senator Ron Wyden called federal officers an "occupying army."

Oregon governor Kate Brown echoed and amplified the false media headlines. "This is a democracy, not a dictatorship. We cannot have secret police abducting people in unmarked vehicles," Gov. Brown tweeted. By midJuly, the Portland City Council officially banned Portland Police from cooperating in any way with federal law enforcement.

The antipolice and antiTrump echo chamber involving Antifa, the media and local politicians brought Portland into international headlines. With that, protesters from the region and around the country descended on the city, believing they were opposing "fascist" cops. Gatherings in front of the federal courthouse swelled from a couple hundred to more than five thousand by mid-July. Antifa now had the perfect opportunity to carry out attacks they planned using huge numbers of protesters as human shields. It worked incredibly well. When I was undercover on the ground, what I saw was a war zone with armed belligerents. And they were just getting started. Over time, they came better and better prepared with explosives, guns and even power tools to cut into the courthouse's defense barrier.

Andy Ngo is author of the upcoming book Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy. Twitter: @MrAndyNgo

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

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How the Media and Politicians Aided Antifa Rioters in Portland | Opinion - Newsweek

TFW you try to blame Antifa, but only incriminate yourself.

Ohio man Stephen Ayres claimed to have special knowledge that it wasnt Donald Trumps supporters who orchestrated the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. He tried to blame Antifa, but the only thing he ended up accomplishing was implicating himself in criminal offenses.

Ayres was arrested in the Northern District of Ohio on Monday. According to the FBI, Ayres and two unnamed associates took it upon themselves to post a video on social media after the Capitol siege. In that video, Ayres allegedly blamed Antifa for breaking into the Capitol. Dozens of federal criminal cases against Trump supporters show otherwise. In any event, the feds allege that Ayres blamed everyone but Trump supporters for what happened that day. It was just a vast left-wing conspiracy between police and the media against pro-Trump individuals, Ayres suggested while acknowledging that he was inside the Capitol that day:

Male 1 stated that he and AYRES walked right into the Capitol building afterAntifa breached the door so it was left open. Male 1 stated that the police escorted them from one end of the building to the other, and AYRES added, they walked us, yep, yep. AYRES stated that the police basically let everyone walk in. Male 1 stated that it wasnt just all these hostile Proud Boys people and that multiple types of people were there. Male 1 explained that the police marched them down, and AYRES added that the police did a bunch of chanting and then they basically marched them out to go out that door, so everybody walked out the other door. Male 1 said that they just wanted that footage of people inside the Capitol building to make it seem like all the Trump people bum-rushed the Capitol.

Also in the video, Female 1 stated that the police moved the barricades and let people through. The female said she had her picture taken with an individual whom she later learned was a member of Antifa and who was at the Capitol to make us look crazy. Male 1 stated that it was a staged Antifa setup coordinated by the media, police, and the Mayor of Washington, D.C. AYRES agreed that the entire incident was definitely planned out. AYRES said that, at one point during the incident, the police flipped the switch and everyone dispersed from there after the police got what they needed. Female 1 stated that, when it was time to clear everybody, they were like really rough and physical with people, and someone was jabbing [her] with his club.

The affidavit stated that Ayres agreed with Male 1 when he said that the whole point of Jan. 6 was to expose [Mike] Pence as a traitor.

An unnamed tipster who said that they witnessed Ayres Facebook Live video described the defendant as acting like he was at war.

At some point during the streaming video, AYRES stated that the incident at the Capitol was just the beginning because there was more to come next week,' the affidavit said.

The FBI said that Ayres posted on Dec. 27 that he would be heading to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. He allegedly hoped to hear that Trumps enemies would be tried for treasona crime punishable by death. Trump falselysaid on numerous occasions that his political enemies committed treason, but the affidavit indicates those falsehoods were taken very seriously by this defendant:

In another post made on December 27, 2020, AYRES stated that he and a handful of other people are headed to D.C. for the Trump rally on the 6th!! . . . . So hopefully we are going to hear about [how] all the DS are being tried for treason!! In the comment section of the same post, AYRES commented that it was time for us to start standing up to tyranny! History is happening as we speak! . . . Its time for us partiers to stand up and act! Before its too late!!

On Jan. 3, Ayres allegedly posted that all of his and Trumps perceived enemies had committed treason and are being put on notice by We the People.

In a post made on January 3, 2021, AYRES stated: Mainstream media, social media, Democrat party, FISA courts, Chief Justice John Roberts, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, etc.all have committed TREASON against a sitting U.S. president!!! Allare now put on notice by We The People!

The feds said that Ayres posted on Dec. 28 about a Trump tweet that urged supporters to go to D.C. on Jan. 6. That response used language that the then-president would later utter at the rally he held just before the deadly violence broke out at the Capitol.

Where will you be on January 6th? Chilling at home? HOPING this country isnt going to hell in a hand basket? Or are you willing to start fighting for the American Dream! Again!?!? Ayres asked.

On Jan. 6, Trump told his supporters they needed tofight like hell or else they wouldnt have a country anymore.

According to the affidavit, Ayres gleefully posted on Jan. 1 about Speaker Nancy Pelosis home being vandalized and ominously posted about things to come:

d. In the following post made on January 1, 2021, AYRES shared a picture and link to an article that purports to show that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosis home was vandalized. AYRES added a caption to the post that stated, This is just the beginning! The governors, senators, representatives, etc..Really dont have a clue what is coming!!

The defendant was apparently a reader of The Gateway Pundit; the FBI said he shared an article on social media on Jan. 4 claiming Joe Bidens Inaugural parade was in doubt, reinforcing his baseless belief that the election was rigged!!!

Interestingly, the FBI also said Ayres posted on Facebook derisively about Fox News at 7:15 p.m. on Jan. 6: Made it on Faux News!! Front and center!! [Male 1] on the left and me on the right!

The charges against Ayres are as follows:

Willfully and knowingly utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct, at any place in the Grounds or in any of the Capitol Buildings with the intent to impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress, or the orderly conduct in that building of a hearing before, or any deliberations of, a committee of Congress or either House of Congress.

[Image via FBI]

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Ohio Man Radicalized by Trump Tried to Blame Riots on Antifa While Admitting He Was in the Capitol. It Didnt Work. - Law & Crime

Kathleen Parkers column that appeared in the Nov. 14 Telegram was a written version of selective hearing and a lopsided view of what has happened.

According to the U.S. Constitution, it is the Electoral College that has the heavy lifting in determining who has won the election. There are many steps in the process that involve the voters, each states governor, sending of certificates of the vote to the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration), the deadline for receipts of the electoral votes (on Dec. 23 this year), the transfer of certificates to Congress and the counting of the electoral votes in Congress.

It is at that time that the number 270 becomes significant, as that is the determining majority needed for the president and vice president be elected.

Interesting side note: In the absence of a majority of Electoral votes the House of Representatives selects the president and the Senate selects the vice president. (see https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college)

Where, Kathleen, is your disgust and vitriol for the Not my President crowd? Have they contributed to our nations common sense of purpose? All I could see is that the group sows division and uses violence to promote hatred and keep peoples emotions so amped up that rational thinking is overwhelmed.

After voting, most people just went back to their lives. Antifa and BLM attacked and injured Trump supporters. Apparently, the Lefts definition of tolerance does not include people who dont think like them.

April Cousins

Little River-Academy

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Parker column, Electoral College, Antifa and BLM | Letters To The Editor | tdtnews.com - Temple Daily Telegram

Russell Schultz is a former member of the Proud Boys who offers some insight into why men would want to join the group and what happens inside of it. But while Schultz has quit the group, he hasn't quit the mindset.

On the night of a recent Million MAGA March in Washington DC, a large man in a Proud Boys polo shirt runs at a Black woman from behind and punches her in the head. She falls to the pavement.

Russell Schultz sent video of the episode to CNN, saying the puncher should go to jail. The sentiment is a bit of a shift for Schultz, a former Proud Boy whos been filmed in street brawls himself and who often shows up at protests in Portland, Oregon, with a giant black flag that reads, F**K ANTIFA.

The Proud Boys is the group President Donald Trump urged to stand back and stand by as he refused to condemn White supremacists during a political debate this fall. Members have become a recurring feature of political rallies across the country, whether at their own events, as counterprotesters at left-wing rallies or as security for other right-wing groups events. Some have been filmed getting into street fights.

Why do men join the Proud Boys? Most of it is just to fight, Schultz said. They want to join a gang. So they can go fight antifa and hurt people that they dont like, and feel justified in doing it.

Last year, he was indicted for rioting after a brawl between far-right protesters and anti-fascists in Portland. He pleaded not guilty, and with another activist involved in the brawl Joey Gibson of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer hes filed a federal lawsuit against the Multnomah County district attorney, claiming theyre being unfairly prosecuted because of their political beliefs. The case is pending.

Schultz, 51, joined the Proud Boys in the fall of 2017 and left in May 2019. He says he quit, but the Proud Boys say he was kicked out. His exit should not be interpreted as a total repudiation of all the Proud Boys stand for, or a new enlightened state opposed to all political violence. Schultz still shows up at rallies, and hes still motivated by antipathy toward antifa. He defends his past actions with the Proud Boys, including violent threats, as justified to fight antifa. Or he dismisses them as just jokes.

The blurred line between whats ironic and whats sincere is a feature of the new far-right that was born on the internet in the Trump era. (Schultz said the word joke about three dozen times in the couple hours CNN interviewed him.) Its harder for someone to be held accountable for what he believes if its not clear what, exactly, he believes. And it allows him to try on a persona with the safety valve of being able to say later it was all fake.

In person, Schultz is mild-mannered and polite. In his old Proud Boys videos, hes menacing. He now says he was just emulating the promo videos of professional wrestlers.

In 2017, Schultz was at a free speech rally with Patriot Prayer. All (of a) sudden fights are breaking out all over the place, and here come marching across a field are these guys in black-and-yellow-striped polos, Schultz said. And it, to me, it just looked like something from Braveheart.'

They were the Proud Boys. The first degree of membership in the Proud Boys is to declare you are one, which Schultz later did. The second degree is to be punched while reciting the names of five breakfast cereals, which he did, too.

It was just a joke. No one hits hard, Schultz says. The five breakfast cereals is a joke thats supposed to emulate getting beat into a gang. You know, it is just a spoof, a parody, but it got taken too far.

Heres another supposed joke: An ex-member recently said on the encrypted messaging app Telegram that he was staging a coup so Proud Boys would no longer capitulate to the left: We recognize that the West was built by the White Race alone and we owe nothing to any other race. Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio said there was no coup. Then both sides said they were just joking.

Schultz is Jewish and says he voted for Obama twice before voting for Trump twice. He liked the Proud Boys joking and the drinking. But he began to notice some patterns among those who joined. They join the group now because it gives them a sense of belonging. They have this inner-person side that they want to be, but theyre afraid to be.

Theyre men whove never had wingmen before, he says. Theyre afraid to say whats on their mind for fear of getting into a fight. But if they have that guy or that group behind them, theyre more bold in saying what they think, because they think someone has their back. The Proud Boys are the vehicle that attracts those people and accepts them in.

In the fragments of his social media presence left behind from his Proud Boys days (he got kicked off Facebook and Instagram), Schultzs on-screen presence suggests hed found the confidence to be quite outspoken.

Ahead of what he called a pro-Jesus march in December 2018, Schultz posted a video warning antifa not to disrupt it. He says, in part:

At the last rally I nearly ran over you with a car and I didnt feel bad about it one bit. Youre lucky I didnt kill you because I wouldnt feel any remorse.

You shoot me with feces I cant prove you cant prove you didnt put something in it like HIV.

I am going to shoot you. And heres where the best part of the odds is, I still have a chance to fight for my freedom in court. You dont have a chance to fight for your freedom cause youre f**king dead. See Im going to shoot you in the chest or your head. Center mass.

It might be in your best interest not to show up with feces infested with HIV, whatever it is, and live, live so you can see what were planning in 2019. Cause if you shoot us with feces theres a good chance you might not survive to see 2019.

When CNN said these looked like violent threats, Schultz defended them. They are violent threats and its for good reason, too, he said. Antifa was saying they were going to come over and start throwing urine and feces on us. And so that was my way of saying, OK, if you do that, thats a threat. I dont know if it was AIDS-tainted. And I made that threat so they wouldnt come over. And they didnt come over. So, it worked.

CNN reached out to Rose City Antifa, the Portland-area anti-fascist group, about these allegations. No one from our organization threatened to throw poop at the Jesus thing. Rose City Antifa has never put AIDS in poop. Nor am I certain how one would do so.

This video had, in fact, been downloaded and posted by Rose City Antifa, which has been tracking Schultz for years. Though public protests are what get the most attention, most of what anti-fascists do and Schultz agrees with this is online. They research and document far-right activists they deem fascist and make that information public. This resulting document is called a doxx which can be a simple collection of biographical details but often functions as a kind of indictment, listing specific acts of racism or misogyny, as well as associations with other people deemed fascist.

In Schultzs case, they made fliers about him and posted them around his neighborhood and his local bar. Violent Alt-Right Organizer In Your Area, the fliers headline reads.

He was just one of the dudes in the crowd at rallies, explained A., an activist with Rose City Antifa who would not give a full name. (The vast majority of anti-fascist activists are anonymous, they say out of fear of far-right violence.) But outside of that context hes much more vocal, especially on social media. Schultzs social media presence was one of the most remarkable things about him, A. said, in that he made explicit threats.

Schultz, in A.s view, has this Im an operator mindset that older right-wing men have. They get really into the idea (that) this is like their war and thinking through and trying to get into the mind of the opposition. Its very Rambo-y, but it also descends into a misogynistic and creeper vibe by listing all the terrible things theyre going to do to you.

Included in Rose City Antifas doxx of Schultz is one of his old Facebook posts, which says, Feminism only works on and when there are guys willing to F**K you. Schultz said this, too, was just a joke, just trolling.

In fact, he had a reputation for being good at trolling, at saying things that would make antifa upset, Schultz said. Like what? Like what you just mentioned, about women only have power as long as theres men willing to you know which, coming from me, with two beautiful daughters, you know, its contrary to my whole life.

He explained all of his past commentary by saying, Anything I ever did that was incendiary was so that (antifa) would see it and react to it.

He says he wanted more antifa activists to show up at right-wing rallies not for the street battle, but for the more important media battle.

Im not baiting them into doing violence. Im baiting them into showing up in enough numbers. Because when you see enough people in Black Bloc, people get scared, Schultz said, referring to the activist tactic of wearing black clothes and face coverings to avoid identification. The people that arent involved in (the protests), that dont think about it they see all these people looking like ISIS.

A., of Rose City Antifa, said they did monitor the videos Schultz and his comrades made as a way to gauge how many would turn out at their rallies and what their emotional state would be. They took note when a far-right activist would give away a little more operational detail than he should have.

I think a lot of people assume the end goal of doxxing is to get Nazis to not be Nazis anymore by convincing them of the flaws of their ideology, A. said. Thats not necessarily the case. There are other organizations that help deradicalize people. The main goal, A. said, is to provide a community resource to people directly affected by activists like Schultz and then present clear obstacles to their continued organizing.

Before speaking to CNN, A. said, Rose City Antifa went through their old doxxes. They see them as successful, particularly for the less prominent activists theyve targeted. The older and slightly more marginal types they really do not come around anymore.

Schultz says he quit the Proud Boys in 2019 for a couple of reasons. One, the men who wanted to climb the ranks of leadership were taking it too seriously, he says. They were making a more formalized national hierarchy, Schultz says, and he thought that would bring more intense scrutiny from law enforcement and reporters and he worried that if one member committed a crime, they could all be liable for it. Schultz also felt pressure from one of his daughters to quit, he says.

The Proud Boys chairman says Schultz was kicked out, namely because he would make a complete ass of himself in videos on social media.

Scorned ex-girlfriends are the worst. As soon as you break up with them, they want to lie to the world and say how small your equipment is, Tarrio told CNN, in reference to Schultz. Currently there is no criminal activity happening in the Proud Boys.

Asked what Tarrio would say about him, Schultz said, Oh, hell probably talk crap about me. I dont care. Enrique always deflects.

As we watched the video of the man in the Proud Boys polo punch the woman in Washington, we asked Schultz: Did he feel like he helped bring the nation to this point, with his propaganda?

Yeah. Honestly, I had a role in it. I never advocated for the violence to come out of it, though.

In other words, he still says it was just a joke.

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What an ex-Proud Boy says happens within the groups ranks - WTOP

After months of carnage in US cities, tensions are rising between the two main perpetrators, Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Given their different ethnic make-ups and agendas, its a shock this unholy alliance lasted so long.

If there are two organizations that can be held most responsible for the riots that have scarred America throughout 2020, it is Black Lives Matter and Antifa. These groups have caused millions upon millions of dollars worth of damage and committed hundreds of crimes in the pursuit of what they consider justice.

I know the true end game for these groups is not the election of Joe Biden, but I get the sense that theyre at least happy that Donald Trump is going to be out of office (barring the biggest case of voter fraud in history). And with that small victory, it would appear that a divorce is under way between the two groups.

According to certainsources, there have been tensions for months over Antifas way of doing things and whether or not this has tainted the protests. After all, when you start lighting cities on fire across the nation, its pretty safe to assume that people are going to stop listening. You go from being someone with something to say to someone intent on destruction. Hardly the best way to get a point across.

There are also issues over authenticity. Some BLM activists are pointing out that many of the members of Antifa are white and privileged. And the Antifa groups are digging through social media trying to cancel social justice protesters. So, it seems like Antifa is too white and too rich for BLM tastes, and some organizers in BLM arent pure enough for Antifa.

As someone who has seen both of these groups do what they can to damage his country, its hard not laugh as I watch this all play out, mostly because its entirely predictable if you understand the reality of the situation. On one side, there are Black Lives Matter organizers with skeletons in theircloset. On the flip side, Antifas demographic tends to be rather similar to a Ku Klux Klan meeting.

These issues have been pointed out over the course of months. Many people on social media have seen videos of mostly white crowds, made up of Antifa supporters, chanting BLM slogans. The irony of the situation is that theyre usually chanting them at someone who is not white. And for all of their supposed attempts at seeking justice, all they have managed to do so far is light fires as another old white guy was nominated by the Democrats.

In a sense, all it was going to take was time for these groups to actually look at one another and realize that there is no natural fit. That is the funny part. Both of these groups are doomed to fail, because they do not seek anything positive. They say that they do, but actions speak louder than words. You cannot claim to want justice for one group while committing injustices toward another and expect people to pay attention.

The bitter irony? Two groups that say that they are battling for racial justice are dividing among racial lines. If the irony were any more delicious, you could serve it up as a Thanksgiving dessert.

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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Is ANYONE actually surprised that rioting comrades Antifa & BLM are seeking a divorce as racial tensions come to the fore? - RT

Members and allies of the far-right group the Proud Boys, some wearing bulletproof vests and armed with knives, marched through the streets of Sacramento on Saturday in a show of force, blasting loud music and chanting while attempting to provoke counterprotesters.

The day of political demonstrations began in the morning and stretched late into the afternoon; it was the fourth consecutive weekend of pro-Trump protests in the state capital, according to local news reports. A handful of arrests have resulted from the demonstrations. Another is planned for this coming Saturday.

The Proud Boys are a loose network of self-styled Western chauvinists that the Anti-Defamation League describes as a right-wing extremist group. In the hours following a peaceful demonstration at the state Capitol building two days after Thanksgiving, they spilled into the streets of downtown Sacramento, chanting Whose streets? Our streets! and F*ck antifa! while butting up against police cordons that blocked their path. The demonstrators exchanged insults and threats with roughly a dozen people identified as part of antifa, a loose connection of anti-fascist activists, often shouting across police blockades.

Each protest has followed a similar pattern, beginning with peaceful demonstrations and speeches in the public park outside the Capitol building, organized by President Trump supporters who believe the election was stolen, or anti-maskers furious at public health mandates implemented by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic leaders.

The San Francisco-based office of the ADL for the Central Pacific region is alert to the ongoing demonstrations, particularly the presence of the Proud Boys. In an email statement to J., the ADL said the events were a cause for concern for a number of reasons even though it had not noticed any overtly antisemitic expressions by demonstrators.

First, they bring attention and possibly attract new adherents to extremist agendas and groups like the Proud Boys, the statement said. Second, their provocative and divisive rhetoric can and does lead to violence, as we saw in Sacramento and elsewhere.

An ADL report describes the group, an all-male national network of die-hard Trump supporters who espouse traditional Western values and frequently find themselves in street brawls with counterprotesters, as bigoted, misogynistic and xenophobic. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls it a hate group. Many Proud Boys reject the racist label, instead describing themselves as American patriots who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.

Proud Boy leader and founder Gavin McInnes, a former media executive, calls the group alt-light, although members have partnered with more overtly white supremacist and antisemitic groups, such as those who participated in the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

The Proud Boys gained widespread notoriety during a Sept. 29 presidential debate when Trump, evasive when asked to condemn the group, instead haltingly told them to stand back, and stand by.

Autumn Gonzalez, an organizer with NorCal Resist, an immigrant-aid group in Sacramento that supports counterprotesters, described the melting pot of right-wing ideologies present at the pro-Trump rallies.

Theres a crossover between Jeffersonian-type conservatives who feel unrepresented by the state government in California, and more traditional hate groups like the Proud Boys, she said, as well as other various MAGA folks who arent necessarily in an organization, just big Trump supporter-type people.

The crowd matched Gonzalezs description representing a cross-section of Californias right-wing contingent united in their support for the president.

Among the attendees were anti-communist Chinese activists distributing flyers to expose the ills of the Chinese Communist Party; anti-maskers fuming at public health mandates they believe to be a violation of their liberty, average pro-Trump conservatives waving American flags, and petitioners making demands to recall Gavin Newsom. There was even a table set up by a fringe group of California secessionists advocating for New California, a 51st state, featuring low taxation and conservative values.

The rally had a strong Christian current running through it. At times it resembled an evangelical revival mixed with a political rally. One man flew a Christian flag a white banner with a navy square backgrounding a red cross alongside an American flag. On multiple occasions attendees bowed their heads in prayer.

Lydia Mitchell of the Path Ministry in Sacramento delivered a fiery sermon, railing against enemies on the left who want to take our country out and make it a one-world government.

Critiques of globalists were frequent; one demonstrator waved a sign reading defund George Soros and another wore a T-shirt with the QAnon motto: Where we go one, we go all.

We know our president stands for God and puts him first, Mitchell said. And his main agenda is to bring Jesus and the lord back to America.

The Proud Boys were a focal point of the event, celebrated almost like a high school football team symbols of manliness, if a bit amateurish. They even have team colors: yellow and black.

We support our Proud Boys! a speaker said to loud cheers, commending them for protecting demonstrators from these fools who try to come out here and harass us for being American.

The leader of the Central Valley branch, known as Shawn K., spoke to the crowd about his devout Christianity and his decision to homeschool his elementary school-age daughters to provide them a Christian education.

When the rally was over, the Proud Boys went on the march.

A crowd of supporters carrying American flags and Trump flags, wearing bandanas over their faces to conceal their identities and wearing bulletproof vests with Dont Tread on Me patches moved through downtown Sacramento, blasting music on boom boxes and yelling chants in rhythm.

Police cordoned off city blocks to prevent violent confrontations, lining up in rows from sidewalk to sidewalk wearing riot gear and holding batons. Some were on horseback. Their goal was to stand between opposing protest groups after earlier demonstrations led to scuffles and arrests.

There were roughly a dozen counterprotesters identified as members of antifa. Its adherents, like the Proud Boys, make up a loose network of activists united in their opposition to fascism, who will at times use force against it. Members range in their worldviews and political outlooks, though most are anti-capitalist, and identify as political anarchists or communists. Some antifa members engaged in destructive protests during periods of social unrest over the summer.

Protesters on opposite ends of the political spectrum frequently stood nose-to-nose exchanging insults and threats. At other times they stood silently facing each other, inches apart, daring someone to make a move, as police officers looked on.

At one point, a right-wing protester confronted a J. reporter, yelling insults and blocking the reporters iPhone lens. Asked if he was a Proud Boy, he responded, Im a white boy, motherf*cker.

Many Proud Boys reject the idea that they are racists or white supremacists. The group includes non-white members, although nearly all of the Proud Boys demonstrating in Sacramento were white.

J. interviewed a Proud Boy named Odin, who declined to give his real name for fear of retaliation from an employer. Odin, who wore a black cowboy hat and a bandana over his face, said he is a former Muslim and now a Christian, and that the Proud Boys accept people of all races, provided they believe in the foundational value of Western chauvinism.

He understood that to mean family values based on the traditional nuclear family, where men were men, women were women.

The problem is preserving those traditional Western ethics, morals, he said. A Western chauvinist is a proud American patriot.

Asked about the Proud Boys approach to violence, and why he carried a knife and wore a bulletproof vest, Odin said it was for protection. We never start the fight, but we finish it, he said.

Critics of the Proud Boys say the group often uses language that obscures some of its core beliefs, and that the phrase Western chauvinism is a smokescreen for a fundamentally white supremacist and xenophobic ethos.

Proud Boys also commonly flash a hand gesture associated with white supremacy. The OK symbol a circle formed with the thumb and forefinger with the other three fingers extended up, resembling the letters WP for white power became an internet meme three years ago.

Some have called the use of the hand signal an ironic joke. But it has been used by violent white supremacists like Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch mosque shooter, who flashed the gesture to reporters at a court hearing in 2019.

On Saturday, numerous Proud Boys made the OK or white power gesture while posing for photos.

The ADL warned about the type of political rhetoric advanced by the Proud Boys and others like it, which may work to divide Americans along racial, ethnic or other lines.

Their coarsened and extreme speech and conspiracy theories pit Americans against each other, the ADL statement read, which forms the basis for antisemitism and other forms of bigotry against marginalized groups.

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In Sacramento, Proud Boys take to the streets, and they're angry J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Michelle Dawson, a pro-Trump councilwoman in Yacolt, Washington, recently went viral for the tearful rant. She posted her tearful diatribe after her husband was fired for harassing a journalist at the so-called "Million MAGA March" held in Washington DC following the election.

In the video, Dawson sobs and blames "antifa" for her husband, Jeremy Dawson, losing his job as a construction foreman. She charges his employer with "bend[ing] their knee to fascism."

Michelle has since deleted her video, but not before Twitter account @JaredPushner snagged a copy. The account intercut Michelle's video with footage of Jeremy's interaction with the journalist that resulted in his firing.

The account called for people to be the judge of Dawson's actions.

Councilwoman Michelle Dawson is very upset that her husband Jeremy was fired from his job. She blames it on Antifa. https://t.co/TkGBPBgpQJ

In her portion of the video, Michelle is heard acknowledging her husband could have handled himself better. But she downplays his choices in behavior, calling them simply "probably not my husband's best moment."

Boys will be boys and everyone makes mistakes so let's overlook his actions, right Michelle?

The footage of Jeremy, however, tells a different story. In the clips shown in, Jeremy was seen both verbally and physically assaulting Portland, Oregon reporter Laura Jedeed, calling her a "bitch" and a "maggot-a**" and stepping on her foot.

Jedeed repeatedly asked him to step back away from her. Jeremy refused.

Jeremy then issued a veiled threat to Jedeed.

Jedeed asked for clarification as to what will happen in the lobby, but Jeremy doesn't respond.

The video then cuts back to Michelle, who is weeping while decrying the supposed violence of antifa.

At no point did Jedeed threaten, curse at or come in voluntary physical contact with Jeremy Dawsonnor were any "antifa" around.

The video concludes with shots of Michelle Dawson weeping and saying she's afraid to get out of her car, cut with shots of her husband physically shoving Jedeed while taunting her and yelling in her face. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the video did not garner much sympathy for the Dawsons.

People on Twitter were outraged.

@JaredPushner Actions have consequences. I have no sympathy for Michelle Dawson or her husband. None.

@JaredPushner Jesus.. all I see is this guy is dangerous. What kind of man speaks to and intimidates a woman like https://t.co/gmdxbPZR1f

@JaredPushner He got off easy being fired. He should have been arrested for endangerment and harassment. My money i https://t.co/dqVDug6Pq1

@JaredPushner His fault 100%, even if this actually was a member of Antifa (rather than a basic BLM protestor) ho https://t.co/yzFC5ls9ul

@JaredPushner @CopingMAGA Get in someones face, dont back off when politely asked, threaten them harm ..... the https://t.co/Gg5AaUQGBG

And on Reddit, where the video was posted to PublicFreakout, people were similarly unsympathetic.

"Well what did we learn? Actions have consequences." --Cjohnso186102

"I have never smiled so much watching someone cry as I did with this video. F'k her. Hope she gets fired too." --jkbpttrsn

"Well he will just have to pick himself up by his bootstraps." --MC_ScattCatt

"The "fu*k your feelings" crowd sure loves whining like a bitch about their feelings." --tylrmhnn

"Bunch of f'king hypocritical morons. It's ok for them to call people names, cuss at people that don't agree with them, act abusive as fu*k but when they suffer the consequences of their abhorrent behavior, omg then they're being unjustly attacked!!!" --pontedealma

The video posted by @JaredPushner has gone viral in recent days, racking up more than 400,000 views on Twitter and more than 46,000 upvotes on Reddit.

None of the parties involved in the video have made any comments to the press yet about the incidents.

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Pro-Trump Washington Councilwoman Tearfully Rants After Husband Is Fired For Harassing Reporter - Comic Sands