Haven been here in a while. The questions sure pile up. Here I go!
This isn't a binary thing really... unless of course you think Antifa is some sort of monolithic body. For example there are anarchists in antifa, but to say that all antifa are anarchist would probably be incorrect. The rise of antifa in the US is a direct response to the rise of nationalism.
It's not just a person who is anti-fascist as their are obvious shared beliefs, but that doesn't justifiably earn them a terrorist designation. At least, not any more than any number of far-right groups that have existed for far longer.
And yeah, regardless of the actual hard numbers,
far-right groups are responsible for far more deaths in the US. At least Barr cared to mention the Boogaloo Boys in his own writings, but you definitely don't get that kind of even-handedness on this topic anywhere else in the Trump administration. It's a political football to them and nothing else.
The first paragraph of that article states that Antifa is responsible for zero deaths. But I have already show in a previous post that they have killed at least 18 people just from my memory. So not a good start. The rest of the article states numbers without any sources other than a leftist think tank. They also dont take up even a single specific example of a right wing murder so there is nothing for me to refute.
Oh yea, I have not seen this in the thread yet.
A group of antifa hunted down and killed a Trump supporter outside of his home in Portland in an apparent execution. (The shooter also called himself 100% antifa) I wonder, have the main street media in america said anything about this? Did anyone here know about it earlier? Because this is way worse than the Kyle Rittenhouse shootings.
He at once got a big interview in Vice before the police catches him. He later committed suicide by cop by firing at the people arresting him with a gun.
Later another Antifa seriously injured a person by attacking a funeral gathering for the killed Trump supporter with a car.
They don't add US income taxes to internet/telecom taxes to gas taxes to alcohol excise taxes to tobacco excise taxes to sugar excise taxes to road taxes to water taxes to property taxes to all the other taxes to derive the true tax rate.
They only look at income taxes.
Sorry but the USA have no were near as high taxes as say, Sweden. USA has a median tax pressure of about 41%. Sweden has a median tax pressure of 60% This means that for every $100 the median person in these countries make, the American gets to keep $59 and the Swedish person gets to keep $40. Granted, the American would also have to pay for healthcare which is now mandatory with Obama care. And because some states have only one licensed insurance company left it is pretty much a private compulsory monopoly enforced by the state. That probably adds a bit to the tax bill in practice.
Trump is definitely the main antagonist in terms of division. His tweets and interviews don't help and when the opposition calls him out for it and/or criticize him, his hardcore fan-base come rushing in to defend his every word.
Similarly with the Democrats, they say stupid things as well that create division (Biden most of the time) and that's when Republicans come to criticize it.
Are you sure that its Trump that is sowing division and not the left. Here is a little compilation of things leftist politicians have been saying lately.
Find me something that Trump has said in the last year that was worse. Please.
It also doesn't help when terms like "Bolshevik" and "Fascist" get thrown around like it's nothing. No, Republicans, the Democrats aren't Marxist and even the most far left candidate (Bernie, AOC) aren't close to being Marxists either.
But a lot of people in the BLM movement are Marxist and call themselves that. And as long as the left keep allying themselves with BLM they will get called Marxist by proxy. After all they do march with and support Marxists.
Some business owners have said that they're okay with their property burning up if it means preventing Black lives from being lost to police violence.
No they do not support BLM. Here I will translate what they say from hostage speak:
Oh god please dont hurt us anymore! We'll do whatever you say just dont beat us or burn down what little we have left!
Those Democrats that you're talking about are corporate Democrats.
People like AOC, Bernie and such are SocDem. It's what the Nords practice. Capitalism with heavy regulation, social programs, and has a bit of leftist influence.
This is one of the major misconceptions that leftist in America have about social democracy. Americans think that all types of socialism are shades of the same thing. But it could not be further from the truth. Historically, in Sweden, from the perspective of a SocDem there is very little difference between a communist and a fascist. Almost none! And the SocDems have zero tolerance for either!
The reasons for this are many, but initially historic. When Lenin won the Russian revolutionary war they held the first and only democratic election in the history of the new USSR. And to Lenins great shock it was won by the Social Democrats that were the allies of Lenin during the war. The communists got much fewer votes but were nevertheless accepted in to a coalition government with the SocDems. But it did not last long until Lenin started a second revolution where he overthrew the SocDem and pretty much hunted down and executed its members as enemies of the revolution. After that Lenin decided to never allow any other parties in any of USSRs "elections".
The European SocDems saw all of this happening and realized that communism was probably the greatest threat to their existence on the planet. In Sweden they institutionalized that SocDems must never cooperate with communists about anything. There have been a communist party in Swedish politics for more than a hundred years. And for most of those years Sweden have been run by the left. But a communist party have never been part of those governments even once. In fact, the communist party is usually the place were the SocDems exile people whom they consider mentally unsound.
Anyway. Americans might think that Bernie and AOC are SocDems. But if they had lived in Sweden their speeches and actions would have gotten them exiled from the party many times over due to the zero tolerance policy.
Back in the eighties the SocDems even had the secret service conduct opinion mapping to find secret communists in public positions so that they could fire and black list them from government jobs. This was highly illegal, but they hated communists so much that they did it anyway.
I am, but I admit that I am wrong for generalizing here, as there are protests that have turned into riots. Problem is, I'm not sure how many were the result of police brutality. Prosecution seems hard to do when there's a lot of people who are masked. But there have been reports of authority figures taking people off the streets and throwing them into vans.
Its not the arresting people that is an issue, its that activist prosecutors refuse to prosecute anyone and just let every one go.
(I like Tim Pool. His podcast is a good source for american news.)
But fear not because Trump has a workaround for this problem. The DOJ have deputized all the state police in Oregon as Federal troopers. Which means that they can send the people they arrest to federal courts. This in combination with Trump sending a number of federal prosecutors to Portland and other cities means that looters might finally get noticeable punishments again.
ALso, anyone hear about Trump calling vets who were prisoners of war losers?
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Anonymous sources say" If it was not obvious that it was a lie from the beginning. (It reads like what someone who hates Trump think that Trump might say. Rather than what he actually tend to say. ) This has been completely disproved by John Bolton of all people. Bolton hates the president with a fury of a thousand suns. He even wrote a book about all the bad things he remember Trump doing while he was a security advisor for the white house. The thing is, he was with the president all day when these things were supposed to have happened. And if he had heard anything then he would definitely have put it in his book. He also denies it ever happening. If a guy that hates Trump denies it happening. Then it did not happen.
Didn't he do that publicly few years ago as well?
You were again only told half the truth. He did not call veterans in particular losers. He called John McCain (who is a veteran) a loser during the primaries 2015. And he deserved it and much more. McCain was the incarnation of The Swamp and everything thats wrong with american politics. For example: He was one of the main people that got america to arm and train IS in Syria when he was senator. Because he though he could use them to get rid of Assad. Instead he created a genocide machine and caused a bloody civil war that goes on to this day!