All Of A Sudden, Fascists Are Everywhere In Italy

Via GEFIRA,

Headlines were made in Italy a few days ago when a “casual, unidentified photographer” happened to walk in the streets of Florence and had the uncanny ability of taking a snapshot of an inside wall of the Carabinieri barracks that are literally steps away from the city center.

The flag was not hanging outside a window, as it was inside the private dormitory of military personnel, but it could be partially visible from the outside as the window was open.

The drums of politically correct outrage (“a nazi flag in a Carabinieri barrack”) started beating in the media, and the frontrunner of this public outcry was the Minister of Defense Roberta Pinotti.

Pinotti is another minister, in this fourth consecutive non-elected government of Italy, for which one comes to wonder (not knowing Italy, of course) how she became head of such a sensitive department. According to her official resumé, she started her political career “from the bottom”, within her party, that is the old Communist Party of Italy (PCI) which then transformed itself into the now Partito Democratico. With a degree in Humanities, she became a teacher in secondary schools, and worked her way up the ladder of local politics in the Genoa district. So much for an extensive and consolidated expertise in military affairs.

The day after the first headlines, somebody started to question the minister’s knowledge not just about the single episode, but about flags and symbols in general. She joined the public outcry without the slightest investigation into the case, after having heard from the news that “a Nazi flag”, was “spotted” at a Carabinieri barrack in Florence. It turns out that the flag is simply a historic Reichskriegsflagge of Germany’s Imperial Navy, never used by the Nazi regime (1933-1945).

Pinotti makes no apologies for her lack of knowledge about historical flags nor for her impromptu behaviour, which, given her official position with direct jurisdiction over the Carabinieri (which is a military corp) would have called for a more careful investigation prior to an expected official statement. “It’s a flag often seen at neo-Nazi rallies in Germany”, quips the minister, and that’s enough to satisfy her ego and to placate the politically correct media.

Much ado about nothing, then? Not quite. The episode is only the latest of a trend that is picking up momentum in Italy. Without boring the reader with extensive socio-anthropological dissertations, the explanation of this latest witch-hunt (or “fascist-hunt”, if you will) could be dramatically simple. The center-left coalition forming the fourth-in-a-row-non-elected Italian government is perceiving a looming defeat in the upcoming general elections of 2018, and is taking countermeasures.

Recent local elections in various parts of Italy have firmly confirmed that even in traditionally leftist areas of Italy the forced invasion of “migrants” from Africa is a disaster and a threat to the welfare of Italians, especially those of lower classes, therefore a new “enemy” capable of recreating a credible coalition had to be found, and in a hurry. So why not bring back to life the “good-ol” ghost of fascism always looming in Italian political life? After all, good zealots (or useful idiots) to this cause can always be recruited.

Italy still has a plethora of associations of “veterans”, whose existence is guaranteed by generous, if not lavish, state funding. Some of these associations are anachronistic if not outright ridiculous. It goes from the “Veterans of Garibaldi” (19th century) to the “Veterans of the anti-fascist war in Spain” (1930’s), to “Federation of volunteers for freedom” to others whose name would require a line just to copy. You may wonder what’s the use for the government for all these “veterans”, whose actions in the battlefields for the cause of “freedom” is not to be questioned.

You guessed right. All these associations simply constitute a sure reservoir of votes for a center-left government, and as such, they must be kept alive with public money, and lots of it. Then you have, at the forefront of these groups, federations, associations and what not, the leader group: ANPI (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani Italiani), the Partisans who fought fascism in the civil war between September 1943 and the spring of 1945. ANPI can be compared to Pavlov’s dogs: whenever the word “fascism” is heard, ANPI can be called for action to reestablish the dogma of truth with uncompromising faith and devotion to the cause of “antifascism”.

Never mind that anagraphical reasons would suggest that all these partisans should all be gone or have reached an age in which “militant political activities” would be discouraged by their geriatric doctors. All these associations have found the “rightful heirs” willing to pass on the torch of truth and justice (and get the money) for future generations.

Finally, you have those like Laura Boldrini and Emanuele Fiano who have made “militant antifascism” more than a cause, a personal obsession. “Presidentessa” Boldrini, with a keen sense of reality, has gone as far as to call upon a sort of tabula rasa toward all public buildings dating back to the fascist period: practically entire sections of Italian cities would be demolished, from train stations to public libraries and schools, not to mention the headquarters of ministers and even of the Italian postal service.

Emanuele Fiano is on a personal crusade. He comes from a Jewish family and his father was the sole survivor of the entire family deported to Auschwitz. His political history has gone from being a Jewish activist to be nominated in the Italian chamber of deputies member of PD (Democratic Party). In September 2017 the Italian parliament approved a law, introduced by Fiano, that would make illegal for anyone to display “any” sign of propaganda related to the fascist regime, whether it has to do with the production and distribution of any object that can be related to Fascism or showing on “public display of Fascist signs” like (we imagine) raising your right arm above a certain height in what may be considered a fascist salute, even if you are simply asking for a cappuccino. Such heinous criminal acts can be punished with jail terms ranging from six months to two years.

Italy has well over 7 million of its citizens officially classified in a “condition of absolute or near absolute poverty”. Translated in simple English, it means that more 10% of Italians cannot have the “luxury” of three decent meals a day, buy basic items, afford a dentist or a medical treatment not covered by the public health care system. More and more Italians, even many who had a relatively middle-class status until only a few years ago are now forced to ask for basic food items at the various charity centers.

But “Presidentessa” Boldrini and Emanuele Fiano cannot waste their precious time on these trivialities. They are set on a mission (and paid well over €10 000 EUR/month by Italian taxpayers for their mission) to finally rid Italy of any nefarious memory of an evil past. When their mission is accomplished, and each and every sign of fascism has been erased, we are sure that poverty in Italy will also disappear, and social justice will triumph.

Every Italian is therefore duly warned: if next elections bring defeat to the present never-elected center-left coalition and all their “veterans”, Fascism is assured to be back in Italy, just waiting outside the door.

Millennials Prefer Socialism To Capitalism

Donald Trump Jr. was right: It’s never too early to start teaching your kids about socialism. At least that’s what a survey published Thursday by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation appears to suggest.

 

I’m going to take half of Chloe’s candy tonight & give it to some kid who sat at home. It’s never to early to teach her about socialism. pic.twitter.com/3ie9C0jv2G

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 31, 2017

 

Because for the first time in the study’s history, the VCMF said a majority of millennials prefer socialism to capitalism.

But there’s one catch…

Only 34% of millennials could accurately differentiate between communism and socialism.

...and seven in ten couldn’t accurately define communism.

Considering the extent to which radical leftist idealism permeates contemporary college culture, the fact that millennials feelings toward socialism. It also should come as no surprise that 70% of millennials underestimated the number of victims of communism. Nearly half were off by 50 million or more.

Oddly, a small percentage of Americans view communist leaders like Joseph Stalin favorably, despite his massive body count.

But while millennials still harbor generally more favorable views about communist icons like Stalin and Che Guevara, their numbers have dropped since last year.

Despite President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, only 60% of Americans are aware of the economic calamity taking place in Venezuela.

In summary, millennials, who now comprise the largest plurality of American voters and the largest generational cohort in the workplace, are decidedly more liberal than their older peers. Perhaps the fact that many millennials are too young to remember the Cold War has something to do with it. But one thing’s for certain, with polling showing Bernie Sanders to be the most popular politician in America, Nancy Pelosi and her corporatist cronies might see their grip on the party continue to weaken amid a resurgence of the American left.
 

Meet 6 College Professors Who Promote Violence

Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

Colleges and universities are breeding grounds for the Radical Left, encouraging Antifa violence and would-be Communist revolutionaries. That sounds outrageous, but it’s absolutely true. More and more, we’re hearing stories about instructors supporting Antifa, leading “resistance” groups, and making genocidal comments about white people. The Radical Left has taken over the higher education system.

It’s pretty hard to hope for unity when our halls of higher education are hard at work creating a generation of young people who hate everything for which America stands. The backward logic used to sway the feelings and opinions of students is obvious to us, but to younger, idealistic people without experience in the real world, it can seem like these instructors are brilliant souls marching to the beat of a drum so escalated that mere mortals can’t even hear it, much less understand it.

When I wrote an article last week about plans for an attempted Communist revolution on November 4th, it was met with the expected amount of trollery and denial from people who said I was full of it. Lots of people who disagree like to call this a crazy conspiracy theory, but if I’m using their own words and actions to paint a picture, I hardly see how this could be my vivid imagination. They also argued that they were on the side of the angels. “Antifa is good,” they said. “If you are against Antifa, that means you are FOR fascism,” they opined. Obviously, that is a fallacy of relevance, because instead of arguing a point, it misrepresents the opposing opinion. But to the people who want to believe that anyone who differs is the enemy, it holds more weight than a tank full of actual evidence.

Part of the issue is the population of the ivory towers of academia. For some reason, the people who end up teaching young people – at least the ones getting media attention – are extreme in their views. These professors and instructors are held in such esteem by the universities that the students, if they aren’t the critically thinking type, believe every word they speak to be gospel. And their Communist leanings aren’t discouraged at all. In fact, in many colleges and universities, these inmates are running the asylums. Liberalism has so overwhelmed the system of higher education that this list of the most liberal colleges in America took up 28 pages.

The Marxist agenda in many of these colleges and universities is so blatant that many parents no longer encourage their children to attend. (I’m thrilled that my homeschooled youngest daughter opted for a vocational program instead of college.)

Here are just a few examples of Radical Left teachers influencing the next generation.

If you wonder why we’re divided, look no further. This is only a handful of incidents that decry white people, promote Communism, and support violent resistance.

1. An instructor at Clemson University was recently outed by College Reform for volunteering his graphic design skills to help a local Antifa chapter that made headlines in February for openly promoting violence on campus. He replied to this request for help that was posted on the Upstate Antifa Facebook page.

2. Assistant Professor Bart Knijnenburg, another notable member of Indivisible Clemson, caused national outrage when he wrote that “All Republicans are racist scum” in a Facebook post.

3. A professor from Drexel University was recently put on leave “for his own safety” after blaming the Las Vegas Massacre on the white patriarchy. Professor George Ciccariello-Maher posted a heated series of Tweets that said:

This is the same professor who tweeted last December of his desire for the deaths of white people. Interestingly, Ciccariello-Maher appears to be white and is a self-proclaimed “actual communist.”

4. Another example of this is Rashida Love, director of First Peoples Multicultural Advising Services at Evergreen University who demanded “A Day Without White People” at the Oregon institution. When another member of the staff, Professor Bret Weinstein, rightly objected, he had to be escorted from the campus for his own safety as protests became heated. Then, a bunch of self-proclaimed Neo-Nazis decided to counterprotest the protest and things really went downhill. (The whole story is here.) What this tells us is that when professors speak up against the Radical Left agenda, they lose their jobs and face real threats to their physical safety.

5. Professor Michael Isaacson is a member of Antifa who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He was quoted in an article on The Hill justifying violence against “Nazis.”“The justification [of the use of violence] is that Nazi ideology at its very core is founded on violence and on wielding power by any means,” said Mike Isaacson, one of the founders of Smash Racism D.C., an Antifa organization in Washington.Isaacson is unequivocal in his defense of violence as a legitimate tool to combat the creeping threat of what he deems authoritarianism.

“There is the question of whether these people should feel safe organizing as Nazis in public, and I don’t think they should,” said Isaacson.

“I don’t think anyone should think that someone who is intent on politically organizing for the sake of creating a state-sponsored genocide — I don’t think is something that we should protect,” he said. (source)

He also posted this Tweet, which finally cost him his job.

His account is awash with violent rhetoric, although he himself isn’t violent “if for no other reason than I’m rather slight of frame,” he said with a chuckle.  “I’m not so good in a fight.” (source)

6. A Dartmouth professor published The Antifascist Handbook, complete with a call to arms. Mark Bray calls his book an “unabashedly partisan call to arms.”

The President of Dartmouth repudiated Bray in a statement saying he was “supporting violent protest.” He continued, “As an institution, we condemn anything but civil discourse in the exchange of ideas. The endorsement of violence in any form is contrary to Dartmouth values.” (source)  But Bray’s colleagues were livid and a hundred of them signed a petition asking the president to retract his statement. Doesn’t this just underline how many other professors feel the same way?

Why are these people in leadership positions in our education system, influencing young people with their hatred?

There is a Radical Left in America, and it is represented in our colleges and universities. How long will it be before Conservative or Libertarian kids can’t even safely attend a university?

It’s incredibly naive to think this won’t boil over.

While there are plenty of people who are left-leaning and dislike President Trump who would never dream of behaving violently toward their neighbors. we can’t use those examples to deny what’s actually happening. There are factions out there who want nothing more than to further destabilize America and force their radical beliefs on everyone in the most militant way possible. Undercover recording after undercover recording has disclosed the plans and the methods that are being discussed, but the mainstream, in their blind hatred of Trump, is glossing over all of it.

The Radical Left has shut down parades with their threats, violently attacked Trump supporters or those whom they believe to be conservative, boasted of “righteous beatings,” and have blatantly plotted sedition with no fear of reprisal. Militant groups believe they should be able to “expropriate” the property of those with whom they disagree and distribute it to others. They no longer want free speech at all if the opinion expressed isn’t straight out of the Politically Correct Opinion Handbook and they’ll silence it by any means necessary.

As I have written before, the laws of physics apply here just like they do in the rest of the natural world. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Even those who have no wish to fight may one day be placed in situations when they must defend themselves. If you become a target, the attack will be relentless and will only be stopped if you persevere.

At some point, government crackdowns will begin. We could be looking at martial law to quell the violence and tanks rolling through our streets. If things continue to escalate with this so-called “justifiable violence,” we’re going to be facing the ugliest time in American history. as violence begets further violence.

Antifa Groups Plan Nationwide "Deface Columbus Day" Acts For Monday

Tomorrow"s Columbus Day celebrations could turn violent, as various "antifa" anarchist groups have announced a nationwide campaign to deface Christopher Columbus statues during Monday"s holiday.

According to PJ Media, at least five Christopher Columbus statues have already been vandalized in New York City in recent weeks, based on reports from Far Left Watch. In one case last month, vandals defaced a "larger-than-life" statue of Columbus in Central Park, leaving blood-red paint on his hands, and scrawled, "Hate will not be tolerated" and “#SomethingsComing” on its pedestal.

What is coming appears to be a coordinated campaign to destroy or deface monuments across the country on Columbus Day.  The NYC-based antifa group Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement (RAM) made the announcement on Thursday, September 21, calling on antifa groups nationwide to “decorate” their neighborhoods.

According to Far Left Watch, RAM is "an extremely militant group that advocates for the violent redistribution of property" and for "the abolition of gender."

The militant group recently hosted an "Our Enemies in Blue" anti-police workshop at its branch in Brooklyn, NY. RAM posted a video called "Against Columbus Day" on the antifa website It’s Going Down, showcasing destroyed monuments across the country and black-clad antifas pacing around menacingly to what appears to be 1980s German electropop.

Call to Action! Deface Columbus Day
Hashtags: #FuckColumbusDay #DestryColonialism
10/9/17https://t.co/JYYZRSvCQ9 pic.twitter.com/5Yy98gIci4

— RevAbolitionMov (@RevAbolitionist) September 21, 2017

"The battles lines have been drawn and white supremacists are on notice," the RAM group wrote in a statement on the website. "White nationalist statues are crumbling all over the US as our collective revolutionary power is growing."

While a recent poll showed that a majority of Americans support a holiday honoring Christopher Columbus, RAM called Columbus Day, October 9, "one of the most vile ‘holidays’ of the year." The group called on supporters "to take action against this day and in support of indigenous people in the US and abroad who have been victims of colonialism and genocide."

We are calling for groups to “decorate” their neighborhoods as they see fit: put up murals, wheatpaste posters, drop a banner, etc. On October 9th put a picture of your action on social media and use the hashtags below. With these actions multiplied around the country, we will make it unequivocally clear that revolutionaries will always stand with the indigenous!

Conveniently, the anarchist organization encouraged supporters to record and broadcast their crimes by using the hashtags #F*ckColumbusDay and #DestroyColonialism. By making it that much easier for the police to capture any potential lawbreakers tomorrow, we wonder how long before this "antifa" group is portrayed as yet another subversive infiltration organization used by Putin to sabotage and destroy the United States.

As far as the police is concerned, with antifa having given advance notice days in advance of its intended criminal acts, the arrests should be easy to make.

WSJ Turns On Antifa: Violent, Black-Clad Protesters Are "Dividing The Left"

Since Bay Area TV anchor Frank Somerville published an honest description of "the hate" he experienced from "violent, clad in black" protesters while trying to document a right-wing rally in Berkeley, the liberal media has decidedly turned against AntiFa – the loosely organized band of black-clad thugs who show up to “counter-protest” at conservative events and demonstrations around the country. WSJ"s report describes the group as the left-wing equivalent of the fascists and white supremacists that AntiFa claims to oppose - characterization that the media has so far been reluctant to embrace.

This week, The Wall Street Journal has jumped on the bandwagon, publishing a deeply researched history of the group, and interviewing other leftist organizers who’ve criticized the group for being too violent and damaging the credibility of the left. 

In one scene, WSJ recollects how Antifa protesters viciously attacked a small crowd of right-wing demonstrators who showed up last month’s “No to Marxism” rally in Berkeley, even though the rally had been canceled. Using clubs and wooden shields emblazoned with “no hate,” groups of around half a dozen beat and chased their outnumbered “adversaries” out of the park.

As one long-time liberal activist in Massachusetts noted, Antifa’s tactics are dividing the resurgent leftist movement that has coalesced around opposition to President Donald Trump.
AntiFa “doesn’t represent us,” she told WSJ.

“The antifa tactics are testing the liberal movement that has galvanized in opposition to Mr. Trump—creating a rift among its leaders, organizers and demonstrators about whether to denounce a radical fringe, some of whose antidiscrimination objectives, if not tactics, they share.

James Hannon, a psychotherapist and seasoned liberal organizer in Massachusetts who marched at a recent Boston rally against racism, said elements of the antifa movement that use confrontational tactics allow others to blur the line between leftist groups and the hate groups against which they protest.

“The social justice, the peace movement, the left or just progressives really have to start calling out the antifa and say, `Hey, hey, hey, you don’t represent us,’ ” said Mr. Hannon, 67 years old. “’We’re surrendering a moral high ground.’”

As we reported last week, one leader of an AntiFa group based in Washington DC explained in an editorial published by the Hill that violence is a core tenant of the group’s philosophy. He also explained his bizarre belief that Nazis and fascists have infiltrated the highest levels of US police departments and the military.

One WSJ reporter described being threatened by an AntiFa protester while attempting to peacefully document the rally.

“Protesters in dark get-ups set off smoke bombs, toppled police barricades and smashed the cameras of some journalists and bystanders. “You do it again, I’ll break your phone,” a man in a Spider-Man mask told a Wall Street Journal reporter who was taking photographs.”

Even Berkeley’s major condemned the black-clad protesters following last month’s rally.

Mayor Arreguin of Berkeley disagreed: “We saw a large group of black-clad extremists who really turned a peaceful protest on its head.”

A Green Party organizer who spoke with WSJ said she opposes AntiFa’s willingness to resort to violence, and its anti-democratic messaging.

“At a March antiracism rally in Minneapolis, she said, activists chanted “punch a Nazi in the face” and lighted on fire a scarecrow dressed as a white nationalist. “The people who end up taking the rap for it are black organizers,” said Ms. Pree-Stinson, 36, who described herself as a black Latina.

In Boston, masked counterprotesters distributed fliers titled “WHY ANTIFA?” The leaflets criticized the “liberal” approach of believing that elections, courts, the Constitution, a free press and other institutions would “prevent things from going too far.”

They called for “uncompromising militancy” against fascists and said antifa “must force their hate out of public spaces by any means necessary.”

By our count, WSJ is the fifth mainstream media organization to publish a story criticizing the group, which came to national prominence after its involvements with rioting at President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Here"s a collection of some of the other headlines...

Bloomberg:

The Washington Post:

The Atlantic:

The LA Times:

A Whitehouse.gov survey published last month demanding that the White House label AntiFa a terrorist group received the 100,000 signatures needed to demand a response. Meanwhile, last month, the media reported that the Department of Homeland Security described AntiFa as a purveyor of "domestic terrorism" in internal communications.

Globalists Will Throw Antifa To The Wolves To Further Their Agenda

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

In numerous interviews and articles, including my essay "Globalist Strategy: Use Crazy Leftists And Provocateurs To Enrage/Demonize Conservatives", I have warned leftists that they are being exploited by globalists as a means to drive conservatives towards greater centralization under Trump and the federal government and that if they continue on the path they have embraced, a totalitarian response may be imminent.

I have also made it clear to conservatives that cultural Marxist groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter as they exist today are paper tigers; they are not physically or strategically capable of backing up the viciousness of their ideologies. Meaning, a totalitarian response is not warranted (a totalitarian response is NEVER warranted) and would in fact only help the globalists in their long term efforts to destroy our Constitutional principles.

To summarize, the goal of the establishment is to use extreme leftist groups like a short stick to prod the real tiger - conservative movements. The goal, I believe, is to enrage liberty champions to the point that they are willing to "bend the rules" and rationalize the abandonment of their morals in order to defeat what they think is a great evil. Like all morally relativistic shifts in society, there is always the claim that it is for "the greater good of the greater number", or, "the other side is much worse, therefore we are justified in our tyranny...".

In the end, groups like Antifa will be thrown to the wolves, because the globalists do not intend for them to "win" any engagement with conservatives. This was never the plan.

If you want to measure the speed at which our nation is destabilizing under this agenda, it is helpful to watch how quickly government institutions and politicians abandon or turn on the leftists. The faster they do so, the more likely it is that a major crisis event is in the making.

In the past week alone, the entire narrative surrounding the mainstream relationship to Antifa has turned sour. For example:

According to documents obtained by Politico, the FBI and DHS have now officially classified Antifa as a terrorist group. The DHS has stated that these documents were not meant to be made public.

The mainstream media, the largest backers of cultural Marxist groups, must have received a memo, because their tune has quickly morphed to the negative when dealing with Antifa. The Washington Post chastised them for attacking "peaceful right-wing demonstrators" (did you EVER think you would see the words "peaceful right-wing protestors" in an establishment rag like The Washington Post?).

The Los Angeles Times also admonished far-left violence, while The Atlantic warned of the "rise of the violent left."

Even crazed leftist zealot Nancy Pelosi has publicly turned against Antifa, stating that violent members should be "locked up."

This is a rather fascinating 180-degree turn from a couple of weeks ago when all eyes were on "white nationalist" groups as the primary threat to America. But does this mean that the establishment did some soul searching and realized who the real purveyors of violence and conflict are? No, it does not.

As I have been predicting since before the 2016 elections, the left"s usefulness has a shelf life. If the establishment was interested in following through with the concept that Trump must be "unseated," then they would retain full public support behind groups like Antifa. Instead, the establishment is playing the game of the hidden hand.

Right now,it would seem that Antifa groups are to take on the role of the underdog — the battered but still active insurgency against an "increasingly fascist regime." A few events need to take place in order for this narrative to hold any weight in the national consciousness, however. For example, while globalists may back away from support of extreme leftists in public, they will most likely continue with private support and funding as men like George Soros have always done. Leftists will also have to be inspired to even greater violence than they have already committed.

As I discussed in my article "Militant Leftists Are More An Annoyance Than A Real Threat To Liberty", published in May, regular Antifa protest organizations are not a true threat. That said, eventually there will be Antifa groups that are directly trained by government agencies to commit terrorist acts, much like The Weather Underground in the U.S. in the 1970s, or the controlled and well armed terror groups in Europe during Operation Gladio from the 1950s to the 1990s. In the end, all leftists will be associated with the actions of these false-flag groups.

In the meantime, the Trump administration is playing its part by preparing the ground for a future martial law-style crackdown. Trump"s latest executive measure? Bringing back Department of Defense program 1033, which funnels considerable amounts of surplus military hardware to police departments across America.

What happens next?  Well, in my view the next most logical step for the globalists would be to initiate an attack of some kind on a civilian or government target and ensure that leftists are involved or blamed.  With the fanaticism of the left today almost on par with the fanaticism of Islamic fundamentalists, I imagine it will not be very hard to find some useful idiots to carry out such an action.

Most likely attack scenarios in my view? Leftist terror groups supported covertly by governments have often gravitated towards bombings as their preferred method. On a larger scale, I would not rule out assassinations of politicians or even a FAILED assassination attempt on Donald Trump. These would be perfect triggers for a wider federal crackdown on leftists, fueling even greater animosity for Trump by progressives and providing a rationale for martial law for conservatives.

For some people uneducated on the finer points of false flag terrorism, this will sound like "conspiracy theory." Some of it is indeed speculation on my part, but all of it is based on exposed programs of past high profile operations by various establishment entities to engineer civil unrest or to manipulate one part of a society to support more centralization and less freedom.

Again, as I have said all along, the real target has always been conservatives. Conservative principles are the primary threat to globalism. In order to eliminate these principles, it is not enough to attempt to eliminate the people that hold them dear. This will only inspire the spread of such ideals; the globalists would achieve the opposite effect they desire. Therefore, they need to manipulate conservatives into voluntarily abandoning those principles of constitutional liberty and limited government. Conservatives must be made into tyrants. Only then will conservative principles truly die out.

Leftist groups like Antifa are meant as a catalyst for this transition, much like their communist forebears were a catalyst for the rise of fascism in Italy in the early 1920"s. They will not be the only mechanism, but they will be an important mechanism. As we witness the mainstream turning on the extreme left, the temptation will be to assume victory — that we have won and that the fighting will soon be over. Nothing could be further from reality. Antifa is not going away, it is merely changing into something worse; something more useful to globalists like Soros. If we find ourselves distracted from Constitutionalism and our pursuit of the globalists by this new and more violent incarnation, it will be conservatives, not leftists, that will end up becoming the pinnacle threat to our own ideals.

The Hypocrisy Of AntiFa

Authored by Jonathan Turley via The Hill.com,

The University of California in Berkeley was again the scene of violence recently, as protesters claimed license to silence those with whom they disagree. Their fight against “fascism” took the form of not just stopping a speech, but assaulting those who came to hear it.

For those of us at universities and colleges, these counter-demonstrators, and in particular the masked antifa protesters, are a troubling and growing presence on our campuses. They have been assaulting people and blocking speeches for years with relatively little condemnation. They flourish in an environment where any criticism is denounced as being reflective of racist or fascist sentiments.

However, as the latest violence in Berkeley vividly demonstrates, there is no distinction between these protesters and the fascists they claim to be resisting. They are all fascists in their use of fear and violence to silence others. What is particularly chilling is how some academics have given this anti-speech mob legitimacy through pseudo-philosophical rationalizations.

At Berkeley and other universities, protesters have held up signs saying “F--k Free Speech” and have threatened to beat up anyone taking their pictures, including journalists. They seem blissfully ignorant of the contradiction in using fascistic tactics as anti-fascist protesters. After all, a leading definition of fascism is “a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control.”

CNN recently interviewed antifa protesters who insist that violence is simply the language that their opponents understand. Leftist organizer Scott Crow endorsed illegal actions and said that antifa activists cover their faces to “avoid the ramifications of law enforcement.” Such violent logic is supported by some professors.

Last week, Clemson University Professor Bart Knijnenburg went on Facebook to call Trump supporters and Republicans “racist scum.” He added, “I admire anyone who stands up against white supremacy, violent or nonviolent. This needs to stop, by any means necessary. #PunchNazis.” He is not alone. Trinity College Professor Johnny Williams, who teaches classes on race, posted attacks on bigots and called on people to “let them f-----g die.”

These voices go beyond the troubling number of academics supporting speech codes and the curtailment of free speech. These are scholars who have embraced the antithesis of the life and values of academia. They justify violence to silence those who are deemed unworthy to be heard. Dartmouth Professor Mark Bray, the author of a book entitled “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook” is one of the chief enablers of these protesters. Bray defines antifa as “politics or an activity of social revolutionary self defense. It’s a pan-left radical politics uniting communists, socialists, anarchists and various different radical leftists together for the shared purpose of combating the far right.”

Bray speaks positively of the effort to supplant traditional views of free speech: “At the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase… that says I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” He defines anti-fascists as “illiberal” who reject the notion that far right views deserve to “coexist” with opposing views.

Bray says that the protesters do not “see fascism or white supremacy as a view with which they disagree as a difference of opinion.” Their goal is not co-existence but “to end their politics.” Bray and other academics are liberating students from the confines of what they deem the false “allegiance to liberal democracy.” Once freed of the values of free speech and democratic values, violence becomes merely politics by other means.

When pushed, Bray’s rationalization for the antifa movement rapidly descends into intellectual gibberish:

“There is a certain political lens that - agree or disagree with the lens - there is an element of continuity in terms of the types of groups targeted. I don’t know of any Democratic Party events that have been ‘no platformed,’ or shut down by anti-fascists. So there is a political lens, people will quibble about what the lens is, who designs the lens, but I don’t think the slippery slope is actually, in practice, nearly as much of a concern as people imagine it would be.”

There does not have to be a “lens.” Indeed, that it is the principle of the “liberal democracy” so casually cast aside by Bray and his braying followers. While Bray insists that he is not in favor of violent protests or even free speech, he insists that there is a duty to stop those who threaten the existence of others and the antifa protests are a form of “community self defense.”

Ironically, Bray and others have come to use the intellectual freedom of our universities to advance the most anti-intellectual movement in our history. They are destroying the very academic institutions that have protected their extreme views. Just as the father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, said that “physicists have known sin,” the antifa movement is the sin of academia in abandoning our core values.

These protesters believe that history shows the dangers of free speech and the need to deny it to those who would misuse it. It is a familiar sentiment that “all the experience... accumulated through several decades teaches us... to deprive the reactionaries of the right to speak and let the people alone have that right.” Those were the words of another early anti-fascist, China"s Communist Party leader Mao Zedong.

Establishment Turns on ANTIFA; It's Now Quite Fashionable to Condemn Them

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

In the September issue of The Atlantic, the cosmopolitan political magazine for globalist elites, the topic of ANTIFA was broached. I wouldn"t call their assessment of the alt-left group a rebuke, but instead a mild chastising.
 

Antifa believes it is pursuing the opposite of authoritarianism. Many of its activists oppose the very notion of a centralized state. But in the name of protecting the vulnerable, antifascists have granted themselves the authority to decide which Americans may publicly assemble and which may not. That authority rests on no democratic foundation. Unlike the politicians they revile, the men and women of antifa cannot be voted out of office. Generally, they don’t even disclose their names.
 
Antifa’s perceived legitimacy is inversely correlated with the government’s. Which is why, in the Trump era, the movement is growing like never before. As the president derides and subverts liberal-democratic norms, progressives face a choice. They can recommit to the rules of fair play, and try to limit the president’s corrosive effect, though they will often fail. Or they can, in revulsion or fear or righteous rage, try to deny racists and Trump supporters their political rights. From Middlebury to Berkeley to Portland, the latter approach is on the rise, especially among young people.
 
Revulsion, fear, and rage are understandable. But one thing is clear. The people preventing Republicans from safely assembling on the streets of Portland may consider themselves fierce opponents of the authoritarianism growing on the American right. In truth, however, they are its unlikeliest allies.

After the events in Berkeley this past weekend, where ANTIFA thugs went haywire, beating Trump supporters up for sport, support for the violent leftist group has plunged.

I am concerned that this video of Antifa beating a 16 year old Trump supporter will cause the public to turn on us. pic.twitter.com/e72n3agbDx

— Beverly Hills Antifa (@BevHillsAntifa) September 1, 2017

Now we"re seeing widespread condemnation from both the media and establishment hacks, deep state troglodytes and politicians alike. Clearly, someone pulled the plug on ANTIFA. Perhaps an important think tank did some proprietary polling and concluded the risk-reward analysis wasn"t worth shilling for them anymore, especially in light of the events in Texas. Back in June, Trump supporter and advocate, Jack Posobiec, wondered why CNN didn"t even acknowledge the group"s existence.

Hi @BrianStelter! Why does CNN cover-up Antifa? pic.twitter.com/ioQRqWcVbk

— Jack Posobiec ???????? (@JackPosobiec) June 4, 2017

Here"s a brief rundown of some of the recent remarks. Bear in mind, about a fortnight ago, the media and a whole slew of politicians, on both the right and the left, condemned President Trump for criticizing ANTIFA. Both Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney praised the group as being "anti-fascist."

Remember this?

The worm has turned.

Let"s cut the crap from the @TheDemocrats. Obviously @GeorgeSoros pulled the plug on #Antifa, and suddenly @NancyPelosi has a conscience.

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 31, 2017

The Morning Shill got the go ahead to condemn the masked marauders.

Glad you finally got shamed into doing the obvious, Paul! https://t.co/SjcveSLhbC

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 1, 2017

.@TheDailyShow"s Trevor Noah rails against Antifa: They are "vegan ISIS" https://t.co/JwuBpF5W7m pic.twitter.com/Y4V0GDopke

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 1, 2017

#NeverTrump. #NeverAntifa.https://t.co/3rPBsRsyLf

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 1, 2017

Apparently, some didn"t get the memo.

All of us should be anti-fascists. I am anti-fascist

That the abbreviation for that, Antifa, is now some kind of bad thing, is ridiculous.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 31, 2017

Bloomberg Jumps On The 'AntiFa'-Bashing Bandwagon "More In Common With Nazis Than American Ideals"

It appears Bay Area TV anchor Frank Somerville"s honest description of "the hate" he experienced from "violent, clad in black" protesters in Berkeley was the tipping point for the liberal media to turn against AntiFa en masse.

I experienced hate first hand today... It came from these people dressed in all black at a protest in Berkeley.

Ironically they were all chanting about NO hate.

Some had shields and gloves. Some had helmets. Some had gas masks.

And then, for the first time since the campaigns began late last year and protests broke out, The Washington Post unleashed this shocking headline.

That was quickly followed by The Los Angeles Times...

Then, The Atlantic...

And now, liberalist of them all, Bloomberg...

Authored by Eli Lake,

The masked "antifa" anarchists have more in common with the Tiki-torch Nazis than with American ideals.

As America feels like it"s coming apart at the seams, I have a modest proposal. The hard-right and hard-left activists who so enjoy protesting one another should meet every few weekends in a large national park and have at it.

The rest of us could begin to treat this wave of street agitation as the sideshow it is.

After all, this is not a fight for the soul of America. Neither the Tiki-torch Nazis nor the masked anarchists represent a viable American future. They are simply engaging in nostalgia, a scarier version of Civil War battle re-enactments.

Lumping them together does not equate two unequal sides. The cause of anti-fascism is noble, whereas the racists marching in Charlottesville are telling journalists like me I should be sent to the ovens. I"m not talking about the folks on the left who are nonviolent and unmasked, showing up to protest the fascists. I"m referring to the extreme wing that invites itself to these gatherings to "protect" these model citizens. Those "antifa" are something altogether different.

You may have heard of them recently. Human rights historian Mark Bray, who has recently become an unofficial spokesman for the movement, says that "its adherents are predominantly communists, socialists and anarchists who reject turning to the police or the state to halt the advance of white supremacy."

Recently this crowd has been getting some good press. No less a public intellectual than Cornel West said after Charlottesville that had it not been for antifa, "we would have been crushed like cockroaches."

Following the president"s vacillations and equivocations after that horror, a popular Twitter meme emerged comparing the antifa to the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy.

Not quite the most apt historical parallel. Zoom back to between the world wars. Most of the people who fought the fascists in Europe"s streets were themselves radical leftists. Both extremes helped to weaken already weak governments in Germany, Italy and Spain.

To get a sense of the depravity of that political moment, read George Orwell"s "Homage to Catalonia," a brilliant memoir of his time fighting in the Spanish civil war. Spoiler alert: The socialists and the fascists fighting for Spain were both authoritarians. Antifa today is the heir not to the Western allies who fought the Nazis, but rather the Soviets who bled them out on the eastern front. After the Third Reich fell, the red army turned the Eastern European states in its dominion into vassals. "Antifa" is a misnomer. It"s more like "also-fa."

This movement in the U.S. has been around for decades. Originally it confronted neo-Nazis at punk concerts and the like. Today though, antifa has become the violent vanguard of the censorious progressive "safe space" movement, in which ideas and speakers deemed offensive are equated with physical violence. It was the Berkeley chapter of antifa that prevented Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann Coulter from speaking at the college this year.

Now whatever one wants to say about those two, they are not Nazis. Indeed, the hysterical reaction to their appearances proves a point Yiannopoulos often makes, that political correctness on campus is a great menace to the principle of free speech.

Antifa"s vigilantism is dangerous in part because its aim is so poor. We can all agree in the abstract to oppose Nazis and other assorted fascists. The disagreement arises in labeling who"s a fascist. So far antifa has shown little discernment in this respect.

Many antifa activists showed up at Trump rallies, where presumably everyone supporting him was lumped in with the Nazis and Klansmen. Antifa activists this month clashed with the police at a rally in Boston, which was ironically called to support "free speech." It"s true that some of the speakers invited to this event were reactionaries. But the rally was open to people of all political stripes to support the idea that in America we are free to assemble and say what we wish.

So if any neo-Nazis or antifa activists are reading this, please agree on a schedule and demonstrate against one another far away from the rest of us. I recommend Yellowstone National Park. I promise to get the word out to the media to cover these events with the same seriousness we reserve for Renaissance fairs and Star Trek conventions.

*  *  *

Anyone who’s been paying attention has been presented with many examples of Antifa’s violent thuggery. Now, it’s almost encouraging to hear that the MSM at least has enough sense not to fall on its sword protecting a bunch of violent, embittered hoodlums.

So that"s four mainstream liberal media outlets decrying AntiFa... did they just admit - ever so sheepishly - that President Trump was right? There are "bad people" on both sides?!

Philly AntiFa 'Cell' Calls For All-Out Revolution, Demands "Gender Abolition", "Expropriate Land From Rich"

Authored by Ian Miles Cheong via DailyCaller.com,

An armed Antifa group is launching a new cell in Philadelphia, with support from the “alt-left” alternative media.

The group currently hosts anti-police workshops called “Our Enemies in Blue.” The group draws inspiration from convicted murderers and calls for violence against the police, theft of goods, and armed insurrection.

Antifa websites like It’s Going Down, Sub.Media and Insurrection News have been promoting the group, which calls itself the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement, calling on their readers to donate to a Fundrazr account for the creation of the new cell.

The press release the group published in far-left media is filled with hyperbolic claims about how “mosques are being ruthlessly bombed” and how “LGBTQ are being battered.”

“The destruction of black life continues unabated as millions languish in the plantations of the modern day slave system,” the group states.

Taking pride in the “legacy” of “Philadelphia’s rich revolutionary tradition,” RAM cites Mumia Abu Jamal, the Black Panther activist who shot and killed Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.

It also cites Russell Shoats, who shot a police officer in the back five times in 1970. Similar to Antifa, the actions of the Black Panthers have been described as having a “very undefined purpose of assaulting police officers.”

Like other Antifa groups, RAM claims to oppose the usual -isms and white supremacy, but a quick look at the organization’s “Political Foundation” page, as highlighted by Far Left Watch, notes the inclusion of several alarming points, including the “Abolition of Gender,” and the “Expropriation and the Cooperative Economy.”

Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement (Screenshot: RAM website)

The latter calls on members to “expropriate” or “take away” goods, lands, and tools to “begin the revolutionary process.” Expropriation is another way of saying “seize” or “steal.”

The organization models itself after the so-called Rojava Revolution, a leftist guerilla movement currently active in northern Syria. RAM states that the communists offer a “foundation in communal and council based political organization and militant defense.”

The organizations within the Rojava Revolution are currently involved in combat against ISIS.

Far Left Watch notes that RAM has been hosting a variety of anti-police workshops including a “Legal Training” workshop, a class on the “Introduction to Anarchism,” and one called “Our Enemies in Blue,” which deals with anti-police action–or how to handle police officers during violent clashes.

Despite active calls for violence against law enforcement and revolution against the government, the liberal media has been surprisingly lenient in its coverage of Antifa, depicting them as righteous crusaders against the rise of white supremacy.

College Professors Begin Direct Support For AntiFa Groups On Campuses

Authored by Jacob Grandstaff via Campus Reform,

• Two professors, one from Purdue University and the other from Stanford University, are assembling a "Campus Antifascist Network" (CAN) to serve as a “big tent” for “anyone committed to fighting fascism.”


• Despite the reputation Antifa groups have cultivated for employing violence to shut down opposing speakers, the professors insist that they only support "self-defense" by "those who are being threatened by fascists.”

Two professors are organizing a campus Antifa (Anti-Fascist Action) organization with the goal of confronting groups it considers fascist and “driv[ing] racists off campuses.”

According to Inside Higher Ed, the Campus Antifascist Network (CAN) was organized by Purdue University Professor Bill Mullen and Stanford University Professor David Palumbo-Liu with the intention of serving as a “big tent” for “anyone committed to fighting fascism.”

“Since Trump’s election, fascists, neo-fascists, and their allies have used blatantly Islamophobic, anti-semitic, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, and ableist messaging and iconography to recruit to their ranks and intimidate students, faculty, and staff,” Palumbo-Liu wrote in the group’s invitation letter.

“The time to take action is now,” he maintained, saying, “we call on all interested individuals and organizations to support or join the Campus Antifascist Network (CAN).”

In an interview with Campus Reform, Palumbo-Liu reiterated that “the groups that concern [CAN] the most are fascist in the sense they espouse a hateful ideology that targets particular groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, [or] sexuality, and wish to dominate, exclude, drive out, and harm members of those groups with force and violence.”

As part of its efforts, CAN provides a syllabus which labels fascism as a “historical expression of capitalism’s tendency to dominate the poor, working class, and oppressed people.”

Mullen told IHE that the network has grown to 200 members, including students and faculty, in the wake of the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, adding that CAN will “build large, unified demonstrations against fascists on campuses” and protect groups that are vulnerable to attack.

While Mullen and Palumbo-Liu do not advocate direct violence, Antifa has been criticized for engaging in violent protests around the country, including riots against conservative speakers.

When asked about violent elements within Antifa, Palumbo-Liu told IHE that CAN would reject some elements of the movement and would only “advocate self-defense and defense in various forms of those who are being threatened by fascists.”

Palumbo-Liu likewise told Campus Reform that “physically attacking speakers is not [within the law],” and therefore is not something that his organization promotes.

“The issue really is not speech, but rather the kinds of actions a group is known to engage in that precisely impinge upon others’ free speech, academic freedom, and civil liberties,” he said.

“We are organizing to protect members of campus communities from groups that come to campus to provoke physical confrontations, purposefully destroy property, invade individuals’ privacy.”

The professor also pushed back on the view that President Trump is not a fascist, branding it as “literally an academic argument in the worst sense of the word” and declaring that “we need to pay attention to what is happening, not the labels that we feel are most fitting.”

Mullen did not respond to Campus Reform’s request for comment.

*  *  *

As Ron Paul explained earlier, the alt-right and its leftist opponents are two sides of the same authoritarian coin.

The alt-right elevates racial identity over individual identity. The obsession with race leads them to support massive government interference in the economy in order to benefit members of the favored race. They also favor massive welfare and entitlement spending, as long as it functions as a racial spoils system. Some prominent alt-right leaders even support abortion as a way of limiting the minority population. No one who sincerely supports individual liberty, property rights, or the right to life can have any sympathy for this type of racial collectivism.

Antifa, like all Marxists, elevates class identity over individual identity. Antifa supporters believe government must run the economy because otherwise workers will be exploited by greedy capitalists. This faith in central planning ignores economic reality, as well as the reality that in a free market employers and workers voluntarily work together for their mutual benefit. It is only when government intervenes in the economy that crony capitalists have the opportunity to exploit workers, consumers, and taxpayers. Sadly, many on the left confuse the results of the “mixed economy” with free markets.

*  *  *

Oh, and as a reminder, the petition to label AntiFa a terrorist group now has over 250,000 signatures.

Petition To Label Antifa A "Terrorist Organization" Reaches Critical Milestone

A petition calling for the White House to officially brand the Antifa movement as a terrorist organization has reached the threshold of signatures necessary to compel the Trump administration to reply, according to the Washington Times. The petition received its 100,000th signature around 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday. Though it had 30 days to reach that goal, the petition did so in less than a week.  

 The petition contends that Antifa deserves the terrorist designation because of its “violent actions” in cities like Berkeley, Calif, and Charlottesville, Va., as well as its “influence” in  the killings of police officers. 

The full text of the petition is below:

“Terrorism is defined as “the use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims”. This definition is the same definition used to declare ISIS and other groups, as terrorist organizations.

AntiFa has earned this title due to its violent actions in multiple cities and their influence in the killings of multiple police officers throughout the United States.

It is time for the pentagon to be consistent in its actions – and just as they rightfully declared ISIS a terror group, they must declare AntiFa a terror group – on the grounds of principle, integrity, morality, and safety.”

If the petition is successful, Antifa would differ from other terror groups in one unique respect: Antifa isn’t an organization, so much as a blanket term for far-left protesters known for their violent battles with right-wing groups, as the Washington Times explains.

“Antifa is short for anti-fascists, and the people involved are generally extreme leftists known for their face-offs with right-wing activists, including recently in Berkeley, Calif. Antifa counter-protesters made an appearance in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend and clashed with white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue.”

Antifa demonstrators are typically marked by their preference for black sweatshirts, and for wrapping dark bandannas around their faces. However, there"s at least one reason why the White House might de-prioritize the petition: The urgency surrounding the violent clashes that have erupted between demonstrators at various right-wing rallies and events involving conservative speakers has quieted somewhat after Saturday’s gatherings in Boston, which were largely peaceful.

As the Times notes, President Donald Trump has criticized what he calls “alt-left” groups that instigate violence at public demonstrations. Trump’s use of “alt-left” has widely been interpreted as another term for Antifa.

"What about the alt-left that came charging at, as you say, at the alt-right? Do they have any assemblage of guilt?" Trump told reporters at Trump Tower on Tuesday.

"What about the fact that they came charging with clubs in their hands swinging clubs? Do they have any problem? I think they do. That was a horrible, horrible day."

Though the president’s hostility is an encouraging sign, petitions that have taken aim at other protest groups since Trump took office in January have mostly fizzled, like a petition to label Black Lives Matter a terrorist group.
 

ANTIFA Clashes With Police in Seattle

Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

A right wing group was marching in Westlake (just north of Seattle), so naturally the leftists led by ANTIFA in Seattle attempted to disrupt their little shindig.

As always, the masked men clad in black didn"t fail to provide its audience with ample supplies of degeneracy and violence.

Here are the lowlights.

With a "Go Back to Europe" flag in the background, an gentleman from the ANTIFA organization burned an American flag.

Here they are trying to break through the police barrier of mountain bikes, most likely to say a few unkind words to the other gents in Westlake.

They caught one! An evil alt-right racist was snagged by ANTIFA, so naturally they tried to rob him of his phone.

Unable to break the barrier, ANTIFA resorted to third grade schoolyard assaults, spraying police with silly string.

The police get fed up with having silly string sprayed on their officers and decide to reply with flash bangs into the crowd.

Gameover.

Venezuela: Dictatorship, Collapse, And Consequence

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

If you want to outline the numerous failures of ideological and economic socialism, just name any socialist nation and you are sure to uncover an endless supply of examples. In fact, many countries where socialism is not total but making considerable inroads often suffer from severe decline — the U.S. being one of them. Whatever socialism touches it destroys, because forced interdependency does not work. It is a broken concept with no large scale successes (this includes China, which suffers from considerable poverty and a totalitarian government despite it being the most successful garbage economy out of a host of other garbage economies). Yet, proponents of socialism keep trying again and again claiming that "this time is different."

So ample have been socialism"s failures in the past several years that socialists have resorted to a classic blame game in order to maintain the delusion. You see, when you bring up nations at the very end of the socialist cycle on the verge of extinction — nations like Venezuela, all you are going to hear is the argument that it was "the evil western capitalists that sabotaged the experiment."

This is a fascinating journey into cognitive dissonance. Because in order to believe this nonsense, you have to first ignore the cold hard reality that socialist policies and politics have permeated every aspect of most western nations to the point that they can no longer be called free market societies. The fact is, IF sabotage of Venezuela can be proven as the cause of its economic ills rather than the inherent pitfalls of socialism, it would merely be a group of socialist nations sabotaging another socialist nation. "Capitalism" plays no part in this mess whatsoever.

In fact, it has been international banks like Goldman Sachs that continue to fund failed socialist projects like Venezuela through bond investment.  If anything, the banks have been artificially keeping the government afloat when it should be allowed to fail so that it can be replaced.

Venezuela is perhaps the easiest of modern examples of socialist collapse, and maybe it is lazy to pull the Venezuela card when discussing these issues, but consider for a moment that the country is important exactly because it is a cautionary tale. Venezuela as a disaster state is at the end of the path ALL other socialist nations are traveling down. Venezuela is the future, and the future is bleak.

Here is the problem: Human beings need some structure to function as a group, this is true. But, human beings also need participation in a structure to be voluntary, otherwise, they are unlikely to find meaning or happiness within that structure. Without productive and inventive individuals striving to improve a structure, the structure will eventually stagnate or implode. Without individuals to support it, the system is nothing; it does not exist.

Socialists tend to suffer from severe mental blockage when contemplating the idea of "voluntarism." They just can"t seem to grasp it. I believe this stems from a core assumption — the assumption that other people need to be forced to do "necessary" things, otherwise they will not do them. So, for example, socialists and big government champions will consistently argue that infrastructure like roads and fire fighting and police and schools could not exist without taxation; taxation being the stealing of other people"s money to pay for services that are supposedly vital to everyone. However, all of these services and more can and have been built and maintained in the past through free markets as well as through voluntary efforts. Force and taxation was not required back then, but for some reason it is required today.

What changed? Nothing. We have only strayed so far down the path of interdependency and government interference that most people can"t imagine life without it.

Another argument I hear often from pro-socialism types is the argument that interconnectivity is its own rationale. That is, they argue that the community requires dependency, because if you are independent then you are not supporting others and are thus harming the system. "We all have to live together within a society and if you are not helping us then you are hurting us," they state.

See how that works? You MUST participate, because if you don"t you are harming everyone else. It is not a victimless crime to walk away or to build a competing structure like those "selfish" libertarians claim. You are a part of the machine and if you stop serving your function then the whole machine may break and then we all suffer. Therefore, the application of force and coercion becomes morally acceptable because the "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

This is the horrifying perpetual circle that is collectivism; we all stand together or we all fall together, toe the line or else!

Well, as we have seen many times this ideology is not very practical or successful. If human beings were bugs with a central hive mind then maybe socialism would have some merit. But thankfully, most of us are not bugs and we do not thrive in environments that treat us like drones. We might tolerate them for a while, but we certainly do not thrive in them. Frankly, such systems should be allowed to collapse because they are a hindrance to mankind, not a beacon of progress.

When examining Venezuela, we see the classic big government collapse in motion.

First comes economic strife as the inability of the system to provide "equality" becomes apparent. All high minded socialist and communist (same difference) structures end up with an oligarchy. As long as big government is present, the power mongers will flourish.

Beyond the massive gap that inevitably develops between the power elite and everyone else, socialism is actually highly effective at creating wealth equality; in that it makes all other people equally poor. In Venezuela, the government has hiked the minimum wage three times this year, and surprise surprise, this has done nothing to alleviate the problem. Try explaining this to the leftists in the U.S. demanding a mandatory $15/hr minimum wage and they will dismiss the comparison outright. Explain to them how, just like in Venezuela, hiking minimum wage requirements results in more poverty rather than less, and they"ll start talking about what is socially "correct" rather than what is mathematically evident.

At bottom, wage increases and social welfare measures are meaningless in the face of severe currency devaluation.  Venezuela has seen its currency value disintegrate by 93% in the past two years.  So terrible are the conditions now that starvation is becoming normalized.  In Venezuela, they call it the "Maduro Diet".

The next phase of the socialist breakdown is usually dictatorship. When the fantasy of pure equality dies and people are left with very little to show for their faith in the system, they start to become disillusioned and angry. Some citizens will decide to try the peaceful method and walk away from the broken structure so that they can build their own. Ultimately though, this is nothing more than a stopgap.

The Venezuelan government has been cracking down on alternative markets (often called "black markets") for years in order to force the population to remain as cogs within the socialist system. You see, in a socialist framework, people are property to be used for promotion of the system. They are not allowed to leave while the system is in dire straights, because the simple act of leaving stands as a damning indictment of the system itself. Leaving the system or peacefully competing with the system is treated as an act of war on the system.

The mode of dictatorship eventually meets with political opposition. People are only tolerant of tyranny for so long, and they will act. But, being generally moral, the average person will first seek out non-violent strategies to counter overt oppression. Again, this is nothing more than a stopgap. Venezuela has followed the same battle plan multiple dictatorships have followed in the past; namely the imprisonment of political opponents and activists.

This is usually a signal that the subject nation is on the verge of full spectrum collapse or civil war. Within months of any political cleansing, most totalitarian governments either start a war with another country to unify the public through fear, or, they destabilize into civil unrest. It is clear that Venezuela is going to fracture completely in the near term.

In previous articles I have warned about this process within Venezuela in terms of the consequences that will erupt throughout South and Central America. With a breakdown in Venezuela, Donald Trump"s border wall will be looking like a rather fantastic idea as millions rush from the ground zero turmoil that will be created when the region melts into factional war and refugees flee.

My first suspicion though is that no such border controls will exist and we will be caught completely unprepared.

My second suspicion is that this turmoil will provide some attractive opportunities to the establishment elites within the U.S. Remember how Europeans were goaded into accepting millions of immigrants from the Middle East in the name of "atoning" for the war crimes of the West? Parts of Europe are now slowly but surely crumbling under the stress of a completely incompatible culture overrunning the existing value structure. Remember how critics of the policy were told that "we created the mess in the Middle East and now had to pay for it?"

Expect the same exact rhetoric if and when the crisis in Venezuela spills over its borders and disrupts the southern hemisphere. American policies such as sanctions will be blamed. Socialists will chide the American public that they should feel guilty and leave the border open as penance for creating the mess in the first place. And, being that there are still no legitimate border controls, many of these refugees will enter the U.S. unimpeded.

At that point, we will perhaps see the next phase of collapse within the American socialist experiment as we are seeing the dismal results of socialist experiments in Europe overwhelmed by too many immigrants with no intention of assimilation. To make a "new world order", as establishment globalists sometimes refer to it, the old world order has to be destroyed. Socialism is in itself a very effective weapon for undermining the coherent structure of nations and cultures, leaving disaster and ashes in its wake.

With the slate wiped clean, as it were, international financiers and other elitists always seem to be in the right place and time to build the next system; a system even more centralized and more oppressive than the one before.

What we see in Venezuela is a potential nexus for greater calamity in the western hemisphere. And, what we also see is a microcosm of the socialist cancer in action. It is not some self-contained rarity, it is the common and predictable outcome of a society based on collectivist servitude and false promises of equality.