Poor Marco Rubio Can't Convince Other Countries That Antifas In Unicorn Costumes Are Terrorists
Why aren't our allies scared and pissing themselves like MAGA patriots?
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is planning a great big meeting in Washington with senior ministers from a bunch of countries next week so they can all get to work fighting what the Trump administration calls the “resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism.”
The only problem is that terrorism experts and other countries don’t believe there’s any such thing, because it’s not the 1970s anymore, there’s no more Red Brigades or Baader-Meinhof Group, and in both the US and Europe, the majority of lethal political violence comes from far-right extremists. (There’s some lefty violence too, but it tends to be directed at property and infrastructure.)
The rest of the world simply doesn’t share MAGA’s pants-wetting fear of antifa super soldiers, and as the Washington Post reports (gift link), there’s plenty of reason to believe the fear of “far left terrorism” is little more than an excuse to use “powerful counterterrorism tools to crack down on U.S. activists they view as left-wing extremists.” Golly, ya think?
Still, some members of Team Trump, like “counterterrorism czar” Sebastian Gorka, are very gung-ho on linking “antifa” to foreign terrorism, however tenuously, to legally or semi-legally use the power of the state to go after perceived enemies on the Left, like anyone who protests ICE violence or Trump’s dismantling of democracy. One anonymous US official told the Post that connecting domestic opposition to foreign groups “can unlock certain investigative tools,” including surveillance, because who doesn’t love having a Big Brother to watch out for them and keep them safe?
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In a statement positively brimming with the banality of evil, State Department flack Tommy Pigott said next week’s confab is taking place because alleged “far left terrorism” is
“an old threat re-emerging with strong transnational links and new convergences.
“Because this threat has not been adequately addressed in the past, each engagement, designation, or security assistance program creates a compounding effect supporting countermeasures at home and abroad,” Pigott said in a statement.
Translation: We’ve had too much freedom up to now, so it’s time to construct a framework of mutually reinforcing “responses” to the imaginary threat of leftist terrorism, in hopes that suppressing political opposition might hold up in court.
Even Trump’s Chief Goon Stephen Miller is in on the act. At last fall’s “roundtable” of wingnut influencers and conspiracy freaks worried about antifa, Miller told Trump, presumably with big tears in his skullface eye sockets, “It’s true. There are extensive foreign ties. I think that would be a very valid step to take.”
Foreign ties! For instance, there’s no denying that most of the inflatable animal costumes worn by antifa protesters in Portland and elsewhere were manufactured outside America.
Sadly for Rubio and the other dipshits organizing next week’s meetup, virtually nobody outside the MAGA faithful thinks there’s any real threat from antifa’s vast army of zine-makers and ultra-violent truck-kickers. The Post notes that “at meetings of national security officials from various agencies, some intelligence analysts have declined to brief on antifa because they do not regard antifa as a serious counterterrorism threat.”
A number of officials with foreign governments, speaking anonymously to the Post lest Trump set tariffs on their countries’ exports at 1,776 percent, “expressed dismay about the Rubio invitation, citing what they call its vague aims and the short notice.” Several said their nations’ foreign or interior ministers wouldn’t attend because summer is prime international summit season and they have prior commitments, plus they’ll be washing their hair, their jet has a flat tire, and their grandma died.
Here’s a fun little trio of beggings-off:
Some said, too, they were unsure why they had been invited. “We don’t have antifa,” said one European diplomat.
“I don’t think we can find any reason why we would be interested in attending such an event,” said another.
“Our law enforcement authorities have not focused on left-wing terrorism because this is not considered a high priority threat in our country,” said a third.
None of the diplomats outright said Trump was a sundowning weirdo or that Rubio’s obsequiousness made them want to vomit, so that’s some diplomacy for you.
The Post story also reviews the administration’s several sad attempts to get US allies to play along with its delusions, like a meeting the State Department held in The Hague on “antifa and left-wing terrorism.” Law enforcement and counterterrorism officials from several European countries showed up, but the government of the Netherlands actually decided against co-hosting, so the meeting took place at the US Embassy. According to two anonymous insiders, the event was a flop. Many of the officials who did show up politely cleared their throats and said “we don’t see it quite the way you do,” according to one of the insiders.
Then in June the administration tried again to drum up interest in the topic, this time with a get-together at the US Institute of Peace, the formerly independent think tank overrun by DOGE in the early days of Trump’s second term. Once again, the goal was to spread the word that “far-left political terrorists” are a threat to the USA, but the meeting was a “dud,” according to a (paywalled) report at Puck News. An hour into the meeting, Puck reported, organizers were still desperately emailing people to beg them to join online.
Again and again, the State Department has tried to get other countries to help find information on the scary leftwing extremists MAGAland is sure are out there, only to find out nobody agrees they’re much of a threat. In November, State designated four European groups as “foreign terrorist organizations,” but terrorism experts and even European governments say they aren’t a particular threat. But members of the groups have committed vandalism, so you can’t say they’re peaceful, now can you?
But Marco Rubio, warrior of statesmanship, will not give up his fight until the last can of spray paint is seized from the last leftist graffiti terrorists in Berlin or Rome. Rest easy, America!
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OT: it's official - I am a hospital volunteer! I've had orientation, and have gotten my badge and my assignment. I'll a greeter at one of the outpatient locations, besides greeting patients, I will lead them from the waiting room to the room where they will see their doctor, nurse, or therapist. There are probably other things, which I will find out on Wednesday, when I shadow an experienced volunteer.
I am doing it because it's needed, and it's nice to be needed, and it's great to make a positive difference in the world. There is a benefit - when you have a shift, you get a free meal at any of the cafes or cafeterias in the hospital system. I've eaten at one of the ones at the main hospital, and the food is good.
They ask that you work at least 4 hours a week, and for at least 75 weeks, as they put a lot of time and money into bringing volunteers on board. The process is the same as applying for a paid job!
European countries are probably wondering how many asylum claims they'll be processing when pro-democracy activists are forced into exile.