A Hanging Matter

Very soon.

Trump just issued an executive order calling Antifa a terrorist organization.  

There's just one thing - Antifa is not a terrorist organization.  It's not even an organization.  It is a movement, like the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement, but it's not an organization.  "Antifa" is just shorthand for "anti-fascist," which refers tot someone - anyone, really - who opposes Trump.  

You know how apologists for overrated and overexposed pop divas that go by single names and play up what there is of their sexuality explain that they are feminists in their own way by being themselves and that feminism is anything you want it to be?  The decree Trump signed pretty much defines Antifa as anything he wants it to be.   He defines Antifa as anyone who expresses statements that are, among other things, anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-Christian (Allahu akbar!), anti-family values (will Trump arrest himself?), and, well, anti-Trump.  There's hardly anyone left outside MAGA who would be considered innocent.  Trump is using this extremely broad definition of Antifa terrorism to go after liberal activist groups . . . and James Comey.

The former FBI director was indicted for perjury, even though the circumstances of Comey's comments to a congressional committee that produced the indictment offered no proof or suggestion that he lied.  I could explain the situation, but it would only make my head hurt.  The bottom line is that the only smoke from this situation is not from a fire but from Trump's own bottom, which he blows out on a regular basis.  After the U.S. Attorney with the authority to investigate Comey's congressional testimony - a Trump appointee - told Trump there was no reason to indict Comey, Trump fired him and replaced him with a shyster dame who has never tried a case of any consequence and whose distinction is having been a local beauty queen from Colorado who placed third in the Miss Colorado pageant.    

Whether Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, above, was appointed for her hair, her teeth, her neckline, or her vague resemblance to a lead actress in a late-seventies/early-eighties TV action-drama series (she does seem to come across as a cool, polished variation of Heather Thomas), is secondary to the primary reason Trump appointed her - he needed someone to indict Comey.  He needed someone so willing to do what Trump wanted her to do that if he asked her to walk ten paces toward Constitution Avenue on the South Lawn of the White House, turn to the right, throw a Matchbox car over her shoulder, and squirt whipped cream in a Secret Service agent's face, she'd do it without even thinking of asking why.  Her telegenic appearance, however, is her only asset.

There will be a trial, and Comey will win his case easily.  So will any liberal-activist group Trump goes after, especially the appropriately named People for the American Way.  Individuals not famous enough to be played by Jeff Daniels in a TV movie, however, might not get off so easily.  Trump only needs to brand any man or woman on the street - taking part in a street-corner anti-Trump protest - Antifa, which to many Middle Americans sound vaguely Arabic, like al-Qaeda or Queen Antifah or something like that (I'm surprised Trump doesn't include black female celebrities called "Queen" by their fans as an example of someone who's anti-American, because this is a republic - or because Melania is the queen, he's the king, and don't you ever forget it!).  Once he does that, you're an enemy of the state.  You will be arrested as a terrorist and tried for treason . . . a capital offense.

And don't be surprised if the prosecuting attorney reminds you of Heather Thomas.