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Antifa unmasked…

Two flashpoints for a second civil war would be attempts to end free speech and of course, to seize guns.  This should be no surprise.  No dictatorship can allow Deplorables arms or the freedom to criticize the dictator. Any widespread seizure of arms can achieve any degree of success only if the government controls the means of disseminating information.  Think I’m exaggerating?  Name one totalitarian regime that allows free speech and keeping and bearing arms. Venezuela?  Cuba?  North Korea? China?  California? New York?  Go ahead; I’ll wait.

Gun control cracktivists in Congress and elsewhere never relent on their schemes for disarming the law abiding, but this article will focus on recent, and very overt attempts to eliminate free speech. We begin with Fox News:

Journalist Andy Ngo, a victim of Antifa non-violence and free speech

Authorities in Portland, Ore., are calling for a series of laws to curb violent clashes at demonstrations that include prohibiting masks worn by protesters, allowing police to videotape demonstrations and giving the city greater control over events organized by groups with violent histories.

‘We cannot allow people to continue to use the guise of free speech to commit a crime,’’ police Chief Danielle Outlaw said in a Wednesday news conference addressing last week’s violence that occurred when three competing demonstrations converged downtown.

It’s about time.  Unless she has gotten permission from the Leftist mayor, expect Outlaw to soon be an ex-police chief.  Unless, of course, they doing this because they know it will never happen, but feel the need to appear to be for the rule of law.

About 15 states and some countries have anti-mask laws, the Oregonian reported. Opponents argue such laws would deprive people anonymity to express their views and would violate their First Amendment rights. [skip]

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon said it doubts a policy prohibiting masks could be enforced in a constitutional manner.

‘A policy that prohibits wearing a mask to a protest will have police focusing on the wrong issue,’ Sarah Armstrong, a spokeswoman for the group, told the paper. ‘Behavior is the issue, not the mask,’ she said. ‘It could be argued that the mask is an important symbolic part of a protester’s message. …  There are many legitimate reasons people wear ‘masks,’ including political and religious reasons.’

Nonsense.  Armstrong is ignoring mob psychology.  Even people with no criminal intent, finding themselves, without masks, in a large, raucous crowd, will do things they would never do without that group pressure and the relative anonymity numbers provide.  Every competent police officer understands how dangerous mobs can be.

And what, pray tell, essential message is a mask conveying?  What message that cannot be more effectively conveyed by speaking or writing?   Antifa thugs, like the three charmers in the header photo, plan these “demonstrations” with violence and destruction in mind, which is why they wear masks and their little faux-tactical black outfits.  They carry weapons, wear eye protection and helmets, even carry shields.  Some are now carrying firearms.  The masks are part and parcel of their criminal plans.  They make criminal acts more likely because of the anonymity they provide. They wear the masks not to make a First Amendment protected statement, but to make it easier to commit crimes and get away with them.  This is criminal conspiracy, not an honest, peaceful exercise of free speech.

Antifa exercising their version of free speech as the Police watch

Outlawing masks at such events will do nothing to stifle free speech, but much to prevent violence, destruction of property, arson, and the other crimes for which supposed anti-fascists are justly infamous. It is therefore, unlikely such a law could be passed in Oregon.

Project Veritas, which recently exposed Facebook’s attempts to manipulate the 2018 election and their plans for doing even more in 2020 has been excommunicated from social media, as has Steven Crowder, Dennis Prager, and other conservative voices.  The social media totalitarians are still pretending to be non-partisan, but their own actions are becoming more and more overt. This will likely not lead to federal legislation unless Republicans can regain complete control of Congress, and probably, not even then.

The left’s viciousness extends even to attacking children, as Fox also reports:

The 8-year-old child actor who went viral for impersonating Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, is no longer going to make videos due to death threats and harassment she and her family have received.

Earlier this year, Ava Martinez, known as ‘Mini AOC,’ brought joy to her fans with several videos poking fun at the socialist darling, collecting millions of views on social media.

I’ve seen her videos. Not only is she as cute as little girls get, she’s a natural actor and mimic, and hilariously funny.  In her case, however, imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery, for the Left has no sense of humor.  Vengeance, certainly; humor, never.

However, the fun came to a screeching halt on Wednesday when Martinez’s family announced that she would no longer be impersonating Ocasio-Cortez and that all the videos created would be removed.

‘The Left’s Harassment and death threats have gone too far for our family. We have been getting calls on our personal phone numbers,’ Martinez’s stepfather Salvatore Schachter tweeted. ‘For our safety and for our child’s safety, we deleted all Mini AOC accounts.

Anyone satirizing leftists understands there will be a personal and vicious response, but what was the last straw for Mini AOC?

Schachter told Fox News that the feedback from ‘Mini AOC’ was overwhelmingly positive, but the negativity ‘became too much’ after she reenacted photographs the congresswoman had taken at the southern border last year, adding that the comments were ‘increasingly personal, dark, and dangerous.

She’s referring to the viral photos of AOC, in badly posed photos, faux-weeping as she peers through a chain link fence at an empty lot.

‘The world has seen Ava’s beauty, talent, and charm, which was the whole reason for Mini AOC to begin with and no amount of hate or anger will change that,’ Schachter told Fox News. ‘Also, like Ava says, ‘try using your words.’

No one can be allowed to mock holy socialist “it girls”.  It’s blasphemous.  And only recently have we learned that the flag Betsy Ross made is racist.  Of course with Leftists, everyone and everything–except them–is racist, as National Review reports:

Even so, the shift of the Betsy Ross flag, from worth showcasing for the Obama inaugural planners in 2013 to unacceptable for a big company in 2019, has been very quick. That timeline actually downplays how quick it has been: It was nearly instantaneous. The vast majority of people hearing about this controversy, including me, had never previously been exposed to the idea that there was anything malevolent about the flag.

Political correctness, which means attacks on the enemies of the woke, is now overpowering, universally accepted on the Left, and spread with nearly the speed of light.

And even as specimens of woke culture go, this one also stands out for the tenuousness of the connection between the newly unacceptable thing and the evil it is supposed to represent.

This is true. In a couple of days, we’ve gone from a celebrity saying a flag is bad, to a major corporation indulging that judgment, to presidential candidates and governors blithely confirming and cementing it. In my view, though, the scariest part is not so much ‘how quick it has been,’ but that there has been no argument or explanation to speak of. Upon the instant, professional progressivism has accepted the change as if it were taking orders from on high. ‘The flag is in the bad column now? Got it. Will amend attitude and proceed accordingly.

The level of group-think is no less dangerous than an Antifa mob, and actually more dangerous to our representative republic.  A single Leftist twit–in this case, Colin Kaepernick, a failed, mediocre football player–declared the Ross flag a symbol of Slavery.  Nike, possibly the most work company extant, immediately canceled a line of athletic shoes sporting an image of the flag, and Leftist everywhere, including the Democrat presidential candidates immediately screamed: “The Ross flag? Yeah!  It’s racist!  Slavery! Bad, bad!”

Hillary Clinton has always been infamous for demanding that all speech critical of Democrats, and particularly of her, be banned outright.  She has never been alone in this unconstitutional pursuit, Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida, she of the Ministry of Silly Hats, has taken up the banner, as Fox News reports:

Democrat Rep. Frederica Wilson said people who are ‘making fun’ of members of Congress online should be ‘prosecuted.’

The Florida congresswoman made the comments on Tuesday outside of the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children in her home state.

‘Those people who are online making fun of members of Congress are a disgrace, and there is no need for anyone to think that is unacceptable [sic],’ Wilson said.

‘We’re gonna shut them down and work with whoever it is to shut them down, and they should be prosecuted,’ she added. ‘You cannot intimidate members of Congress, frighten members of Congress. It is against the law, and it’s a shame in this United States of America.

Criticizing members of Congress is not, in fact, illegal, at least not for the moment.  Despite the fact that Wilson is one of the, should we say, least intellectual members of Congress, her lunatic blathering have wide support on the Left.

But don’t these people understand if they succeed in destroying the First and Second Amendments, those strictures will apply to them too?  Yes they do, which is why they intend not only to seize complete control of Government, but to ensure, through the elimination of individual rights, they retain power forever.  That’s in large part what their embrace of illegal immigration and convicted felons is all about.  The current electorate doesn’t vote the right way, so they’re trying to create an electorate that does.  Once they’ve seized power again, they’ll do whatever is necessary to see that no one will ever be able to challenge their reign.

For the first time, Leftists are telling us, directly, through their words and actions, exactly what they want to do to us.  We’d be wise to listen, and to prepare.