From the New York Post: "Trump announces ‘sick, dangerous’ Antifa will be designated ‘a major terrorist organization’." From the lede:
President Trump announced Wednesday that he will designate Antifa as a “MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION” and push for investigations of backers of the radical, left-wing group.
“I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices,” the president added. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
This is something I predicted and discussed in last night's Bombs & Bants podcast. While much of the focus on the impact of the Charlie Kirk assassination has been on its cultural impact, I've also been thinking about the broader impact on competition between different factions of elites. Trump isn't where he is simply because of popular support, but because he represents a faction or coalition of elites challenging the faction or coalition that have controlled things for the past 50 years or so. What the Charlie Kirk assassination has done is provide Trump with both the political capital and the excuse to go after the old guard elites--the ones that have attempted to destroy him over the past decade. And the way he will do this will be by digging into the street level groups and working backwards. Antifa is an easy target, as will similar violent radical groups. But behind those groups are whole networks and webs of "charitable" foundations, trusts, and other NGOs that have been funding them or providing material support.
The problem is "Antifa" isn't a group, it's a loose association based on leaderless resistance. So "it" isn't something you can designate. On the other hand those groups funding it can be identified and prosecuted for engaging in a conspiracy to use violence to disrupt civil government (i.e., insurrection). Apply RICO, remove money, and repeat.
ReplyDeleteYes, the left has followed the old communist model of separating legitimate fund raising organizations from legitimate political organizations from the operational "cells" that actually riot (or worse). And one of the reasons for all the intermediary NGOs is to provide plausible deniability for the key actors. But I doubt that their operational security is up to snuff because they haven't had to operate in an environment where poor OPSEC would result in whole groups being rounded up.
Delete"Follow the money" always works. Often, the money trail is very convoluted, but someone has to release the money, someone has to receive it, and someone has to distribute it to a bunch of someones to turn it into results. No small amount of skull sweat, and time, will be involved in unraveling it, but unraveled it will be.
ReplyDeleteThe best part is that the unraveling will reveal a multitude of other crimes unrelated to Kirk's death.
DeleteAbout time.
ReplyDelete