(Quin Hillyer, Liberty Headlines) A backlash is growing against the radical-Leftist “Antifa” movement, but the question remains whether authorities will actually use effective force against Antifa’s violence.
The backlash grows even as Antifa finds allies in the official U.S. labor movement and as Antifa’s ideological cousins abroad run rampant in places like Greece. Increasingly, observers across the non-radical political spectrum – even liberal former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – are beginning to see Antifa not as truly “anti-fascist,” but rather anti-civilization itself.
National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg wrote this week that it’s too early to call Antifa “an actual terrorist organization,” and his NR colleague Andy McCarthy, a celebrated former federal prosecutor, explains the legal reasoning behind the hesitance. Still both say there is good reason to consider Antifa’s goons to be in many ways akin to terrorists – and Politico reported Sept. 1 that even the Obama Department of Homeland Security and FBI had formally classified Antifa’s tactics as “domestic terrorist violence.”
Politico quoted a “senior law enforcement official” who works against domestic terrorists saying “These antifa guys were showing up with weapons, shields and bike helmets and just beating the s*** out of people. … They’re using Molotov cocktails, they’re starting fires, they’re throwing bombs and smashing windows.”
The “terrorist” label is fraught with legal complications, but there could be a serious and very practical effort to label the group as a “street gang“…. [The full story is here.]
AND ANOTHER STORY AT LIBERTY HEADLINES:
HOW TRUMP AND SCHUMER CONSPIRED ON THE DEBT CEILING:
Not only is Congress facing gale-force budgetary winds this month, but not even conservatives within Congress can agree on spending priorities when faced with high deficits, a debt ceiling, and a public demanding significant hurricane relief.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has informed Congress that the nation will hit its statutory debt ceiling no later than the end of this month – meaning that unless the debt ceiling is lifted, the nation will start defaulting on some of its debts. Various steps can be taken to ward off the worst of the defaults, but if they build up substantially, at some point the national economy would start to collapse.
Conservatives usually oppose hikes in the debt ceiling unless some sort of spending cuts or disciplines are paired with it. Congressional leaders, however, seem determined to go in the other direction: They plan to raise the debt ceiling in conjunction with providing relief for victims of Hurricanes Harvey and (in anticipation) Irma….
[Later in the story]…. alas…. President Trump sided with Democratic leaders to support a short-term debt-ceiling-relief provision, tied to disaster relief. If passed, it will require yet another debt ceiling battle in just three months.
