I stand with you, Kmele! Listen— I’m from Pensacola, home of the Blue Angels. My dad was a pilot in the Marine Corps. I live in the Bay Area. My wife has never seen an air show. This year, I rented an Airbnb in Russian Hill—with a rooftop deck—so we could watch from a great vantage point. Never dawned on me that partisan shenanigans in DC could ruin this plan. Just another reason we need to found These Two Suck™ and inject some nonpartisan extremism into the system, Matt!
Moynihan is mistaken. David Lee Roth would be on the wing of one of those jets in a cowboy hat and sparkly tights, with a katana, doing spinning high kicks.
There's an Arrested Development reference to be made here, but I won't make it, because if you know, you know, and if you don't then there's nothing I can do for you.
Antifa should be taken just as seriously as mumia abu jamal, shakur and baader meinhof. They are dangerous people who cause death and destruction and, as you've stated before, these find their way into academia and mislead generations. If we are to take three hours on Jan 6 2021 seriously then we must take these people seriously.
Honest question -- Is this sentiment not about five years out of date? It just seems to me that the violence and destruction that people associate with Antifa is a recollection of the riots of summer of 2020. I don't see anything happening like that today. The closest is the riots in LA earlier this year, which 1) didn't seem as destructive as what was happening in 2020 and 2) seem to have petered out fairly quickly.
But maybe I'm poorly informed?
Or maybe you're associating Antifa with things like the Kirk assassination and the attack the ICE facility in Dallas? I have hard time making that connection though, again, perhaps I'm poorly informed.
Hi Ryan. Personally I dont feel that five years is a long time ago and the movement of antifa, which (despite what some are fond of saying) is not "just an idea" any more than communism, fascism or conservatism are just ideas, morphs into whatever the cause of the moment is, whether it's george floyd ,anti-semitism, anti-ICE, or trans ideology. Their object is to destroy so whichever opportunity is presented and the most disturbing part is that this destruction, whether it's a health insurance CEO, the targeting of a supreme court judge or teslas and tesla dealerships, is either tacitly tolerated by media and politicians or even encouraged by various mayors, jasmine crockett, maxine waters etc. Sorry to use the cliche of the frog boiling in water but we are in a bad way if we accept this violence and just say well it's less than before; "fiery but mostly peaceful"? Like gangs this needs to be ended in order for decent people to go about their lives in peace.
I'm honestly a little surprised you drew parallels with communism, fascism, and conservatism. I think those *are* just ideas, or to be more specific, political and social philosophies. Of course, those ideas have been operationalized for more than a century by various groups -- some highly organized, some less so; some violent, some genocidal, and some that were peaceful.
Antifa actually seems more specific to me. As I understand it, Antifa refers to people who adhere to a far-left revolutionary ideology (at least ,they want to think of it as revolutionary) and who operationalize that ideology in a recognizable way -- dressing in all black and masks, disruptive protests, street battles, and riots, to name the most common identifiers.
Your comparison with gangs is interesting. Gangs have leadership and a hierarchy, at least a local level, and sometimes at a national or international level. As far as I'm aware Antifa doesn't have that level of organization. But I also don't think it's all a bunch of like-minded people that just happen to spontaneously get together. People are clearly communicating online and being influenced by what others are doing. It's a coherent thing, but I still think it's fairly decentralized.
Having said all that, I don't want to give the impression that I am sympathetic to Antifa *at all*. I'm a small-l classical liberal, not a revolutionary leftist. I'm all for peaceful protests, but I don't want street battles and riots and violence in America. And I'm continuously frustrated by the double standard that's applied by left-leaning media and politicians when comparing Antifa to analogous groups on the right (just as I'm frustrated by the double standard applied by right-leaning media and politicians to those right-wing groups).
Where I think we disagree is that I think Antifa reached its apex in 2020. That's not to say that Trump 2.0 hasn't reinvigorated things, but it's nothing like 2020. I think Antifa was more than happy to fight members of the Proud Boys, but less so armed federal agents.
And I think that the response to political violence of all kinds should be mindful of this, and not make the problem out to be worse than it is. That's the sentiment I detected in your original post and that I was responding to. We have a law enforcement and justice system that is capable of investigating, charging, and prosecuting people who break the law. I don't think we need to take extraordinary measures, which is what I thought you were getting at.
As always, if you think I'm misinformed or if I misunderstood you, please let me know.
Thank you for your thoughtful response Ryan. I think its a case of distinction without a difference I really appreciate it. For those who are making negative "contributions" here who would rather stick their heads in the sand and keep telling themselves that (because they can't name it's leaders) it is somehow not a danger, would they maybe care to list the leadership of the Khmer Rouge beyond Pol Pot or the various leaders of neighborhood gangs as if neither of these entities are or were dangerous. The fact that the IRA had no uniform didn't prevent them being murderous thugs who made life in Northern Ireland miserable for almost 40 years of "troubles".
I don't think it's a distinction without a difference. Just because I can't name the leadership of the Khmer Rouge or the IRA doesn't mean they didn't exist. The Khmer Rouge was organized enough to take over an entire country and kill millions. The IRA was organized enough to kill over 1500 people and were funding themselves through criminal activity and state sponsorship. The Mafia and the drug cartels are basically international criminal corporations that in some cases have their own private armies. Antifa doesn't just differ from these things in degree -- Antifa is a fundamentally different thing. You're on somewhat firmer ground comparing Antifa to smaller, petty criminal street gangs, but I think even they engage in a level of organized criminality that Antifa does not, and at any rate, we deal with those through normal policing.
These distinctions matter because they dictate the appropriate response. If Antifa really was comparable to the Khmer Rouge or the IRA then a military response would be justified. If they really were comparable to organized crime like the Mafia or the cartels then federal law enforcement would be justified in working to dismantle those organizations. In reality, the proper response is to use existing local and state law enforcement when protests cross the line into disruptions of the peace and riots, or God forbid if someone commits assault or murder, and to call in the FBI when needed. Governors can deploy the NG if things truly get out of hand again.
There's a parallel here with the War on Terror -- *not* because Antifa is similar to Al Queda or other Islamic terrorist groups, but because there are dangers to overreacting. After 9/11 people were (understandably) scared (one might even say terrorized), and of course there *was* a real threat there. But people in government used that fear to enact a lot of bad policies -- costly security theater, invasions of privacy, domestic surveillance, open ended wars, and an AUMF that is *still* with us today. We continue to live with the consequences of many of those bad policies and will do so for many more years.
The Trump administration is doing something similar now, using fear of Antifa as their foil. I think the motivation differs from person to person -- some are earnest but wrong, others are cynically using this for political gain, and I think some are nefariously trying to gain and consolidate power.
I don't want to look back in 5 or 10 or 20 years on a world where free speech is compromised, dissent is criminalized, checks and balances have been swept away, federalism is even less meaningful than it is now, and the use of the military on American streets has been normalized, all because people overreacted to a problem that is well within our ability to deal with through civil discourse, private social pressure, and prudent use of our normal criminal justice system.
Thank you again Ryan, I was not having a jab at you regarding naming the Khmer leadership but at those who are using that ability as an assessment of threat-level seriousness. My use of them was for that one remark not to compare the killing fields of Cambodia to Tesla dealerships. My concern once again is that we are accepting violence, destruction and murder none of which are speech. Currently I am not convinced that the criminal justice system takes the protection of citizens seriously any longer and the authorities in various cities are not interested in crime prevention and judges are not interested in punishment. Civilization should reject the threat from these people that they stand ready to destroy and tantrum over anything they disagree with, unless the rest of us who wish to live in peace are to spend our lives walking on eggshells lest the border, heterosexuality, marriage, Israel etc be claimed as "fascist" so they can be anti that.
If I was trying to gaslight you I wouldn't be admitting that I could be poorly informed. I meant for that to be an open invitation to counter my argument.
I was, in fact, trying to have a civil discourse. If you'd like to have one, too, I'm to happy engage. But only if you're going to respond to what I write and not what you imagine I believe. If you have questions for me, just ask!
Reducing a mob storming the capitol and having to evacuate our leaders to “three hours” is a bit much. It’s possible to be concerned about domestic terrorism AND not minimize Jan 6.
Thanks Molly, It was not my intention to minimize it (I take it seriously too) but simply to recognize the difference between months on end of murder, rape assault and destruction which we are threatened could return so easily (if we upset the children by enforcing the nation's borders for example) versus a number of hours on one particular day. Certainly I'd also like a full investigation into Jan 6 in order to find out exactly the degree to which Christopher Wray's FBI was involved with instigation, he was very reluctant to speak of it. No less an even worse day for Capitol Police was April 2 2021 just three months later when a nation of islam member crashed his car into two officers, killing one. Unfortunately that day, his life are universally ignored
No less and even worse day April 2nd? You're serious here? A mob of thousands attacked the capital while our leaders were attempting to finalize the transfer of power to a new president? Never in our 250 year history has that occurred. Sorry, but this is a categorical difference. Not even in the same solar system.
Yes it is unfortunate that the Mayor of DC and Nancy Pelosi refused Trump's suggestion of the national guard deployment and unfortunate that Christopher Wray* has refused so far to give details regarding the FBI instigation and entrapment. But in one case a police officer was murdered and another is severely injured while in the other case a vacuum cleaner might come in handy. Joking aside I do take January 6 seriously, it was disgraceful, I would welcome a THOROUGH enquiry to find out exactly who attacked the Capitol police as Wray's lack of candor has left open questions as to whether those throwing punches were on the government's payroll. The answer might be no but we are entitled to know just as when it turned out that was it 13 of the 14 plotters to kidnap Whitmer were FBI assets (unless this was debunked which is entirely possible) Either way we do deserve the truth. The reason the subject arose was in comparison to months of destruction, murder and assault in cities across the country which groups such as antifa are capable of just as we are currently seeing at ICE facilities and operations; speech is fine, violence is something else. * Wray literally refused at a public hearing to state whether FBI were there, if the answer had been "none" he would have said so.
Kmele going through with his disappointment about no blue angels flying because of the shutdown while the two antagonize him about being excited about Fleet week was the best.
That was a really great one, guys. The Megyn Kelly was, too. I think video has reinvigorated things a bit…. and please keep dropping in those clips! The Van Hagar airplane interlude was awesome.
I wish all the best for Bari. My only exposure to her is the Honestly podcast, which I found to be one of those over-produced, full of teasers, previews, and recaps, sound beds, music cues, scripted narration NPR-slop that seems to be super popular. So I'm sure she will do great.
"I never get no respect. Not even from my friends. I opened the internet the other day, I wanted to talk to my friends, so I wrote 8 messages on Blue Sky. 8 messages! I was trying to fit in.
My friends laughed at me. They laughed! They said:
Aw skeet, skeet, skeet, skeet, skeet, skeet. Aw skeet, skeet god damn!
The Blue Angel's interlude is *chefs kiss*
I stand with you, Kmele! Listen— I’m from Pensacola, home of the Blue Angels. My dad was a pilot in the Marine Corps. I live in the Bay Area. My wife has never seen an air show. This year, I rented an Airbnb in Russian Hill—with a rooftop deck—so we could watch from a great vantage point. Never dawned on me that partisan shenanigans in DC could ruin this plan. Just another reason we need to found These Two Suck™ and inject some nonpartisan extremism into the system, Matt!
Moynihan is mistaken. David Lee Roth would be on the wing of one of those jets in a cowboy hat and sparkly tights, with a katana, doing spinning high kicks.
Huh? Kmele blew the Angels in San Francisco?
#StrangeNewRespect?
There's an Arrested Development reference to be made here, but I won't make it, because if you know, you know, and if you don't then there's nothing I can do for you.
Kmele blue himself so he wouldn’t be black.
Andrew Dice Clay: "He needed the money, oww!"
Deep cut!
Antifa should be taken just as seriously as mumia abu jamal, shakur and baader meinhof. They are dangerous people who cause death and destruction and, as you've stated before, these find their way into academia and mislead generations. If we are to take three hours on Jan 6 2021 seriously then we must take these people seriously.
Honest question -- Is this sentiment not about five years out of date? It just seems to me that the violence and destruction that people associate with Antifa is a recollection of the riots of summer of 2020. I don't see anything happening like that today. The closest is the riots in LA earlier this year, which 1) didn't seem as destructive as what was happening in 2020 and 2) seem to have petered out fairly quickly.
But maybe I'm poorly informed?
Or maybe you're associating Antifa with things like the Kirk assassination and the attack the ICE facility in Dallas? I have hard time making that connection though, again, perhaps I'm poorly informed.
Hi Ryan. Personally I dont feel that five years is a long time ago and the movement of antifa, which (despite what some are fond of saying) is not "just an idea" any more than communism, fascism or conservatism are just ideas, morphs into whatever the cause of the moment is, whether it's george floyd ,anti-semitism, anti-ICE, or trans ideology. Their object is to destroy so whichever opportunity is presented and the most disturbing part is that this destruction, whether it's a health insurance CEO, the targeting of a supreme court judge or teslas and tesla dealerships, is either tacitly tolerated by media and politicians or even encouraged by various mayors, jasmine crockett, maxine waters etc. Sorry to use the cliche of the frog boiling in water but we are in a bad way if we accept this violence and just say well it's less than before; "fiery but mostly peaceful"? Like gangs this needs to be ended in order for decent people to go about their lives in peace.
Hi James :-)
I'm honestly a little surprised you drew parallels with communism, fascism, and conservatism. I think those *are* just ideas, or to be more specific, political and social philosophies. Of course, those ideas have been operationalized for more than a century by various groups -- some highly organized, some less so; some violent, some genocidal, and some that were peaceful.
Antifa actually seems more specific to me. As I understand it, Antifa refers to people who adhere to a far-left revolutionary ideology (at least ,they want to think of it as revolutionary) and who operationalize that ideology in a recognizable way -- dressing in all black and masks, disruptive protests, street battles, and riots, to name the most common identifiers.
Your comparison with gangs is interesting. Gangs have leadership and a hierarchy, at least a local level, and sometimes at a national or international level. As far as I'm aware Antifa doesn't have that level of organization. But I also don't think it's all a bunch of like-minded people that just happen to spontaneously get together. People are clearly communicating online and being influenced by what others are doing. It's a coherent thing, but I still think it's fairly decentralized.
Having said all that, I don't want to give the impression that I am sympathetic to Antifa *at all*. I'm a small-l classical liberal, not a revolutionary leftist. I'm all for peaceful protests, but I don't want street battles and riots and violence in America. And I'm continuously frustrated by the double standard that's applied by left-leaning media and politicians when comparing Antifa to analogous groups on the right (just as I'm frustrated by the double standard applied by right-leaning media and politicians to those right-wing groups).
Where I think we disagree is that I think Antifa reached its apex in 2020. That's not to say that Trump 2.0 hasn't reinvigorated things, but it's nothing like 2020. I think Antifa was more than happy to fight members of the Proud Boys, but less so armed federal agents.
And I think that the response to political violence of all kinds should be mindful of this, and not make the problem out to be worse than it is. That's the sentiment I detected in your original post and that I was responding to. We have a law enforcement and justice system that is capable of investigating, charging, and prosecuting people who break the law. I don't think we need to take extraordinary measures, which is what I thought you were getting at.
As always, if you think I'm misinformed or if I misunderstood you, please let me know.
Thank you for your thoughtful response Ryan. I think its a case of distinction without a difference I really appreciate it. For those who are making negative "contributions" here who would rather stick their heads in the sand and keep telling themselves that (because they can't name it's leaders) it is somehow not a danger, would they maybe care to list the leadership of the Khmer Rouge beyond Pol Pot or the various leaders of neighborhood gangs as if neither of these entities are or were dangerous. The fact that the IRA had no uniform didn't prevent them being murderous thugs who made life in Northern Ireland miserable for almost 40 years of "troubles".
I don't think it's a distinction without a difference. Just because I can't name the leadership of the Khmer Rouge or the IRA doesn't mean they didn't exist. The Khmer Rouge was organized enough to take over an entire country and kill millions. The IRA was organized enough to kill over 1500 people and were funding themselves through criminal activity and state sponsorship. The Mafia and the drug cartels are basically international criminal corporations that in some cases have their own private armies. Antifa doesn't just differ from these things in degree -- Antifa is a fundamentally different thing. You're on somewhat firmer ground comparing Antifa to smaller, petty criminal street gangs, but I think even they engage in a level of organized criminality that Antifa does not, and at any rate, we deal with those through normal policing.
These distinctions matter because they dictate the appropriate response. If Antifa really was comparable to the Khmer Rouge or the IRA then a military response would be justified. If they really were comparable to organized crime like the Mafia or the cartels then federal law enforcement would be justified in working to dismantle those organizations. In reality, the proper response is to use existing local and state law enforcement when protests cross the line into disruptions of the peace and riots, or God forbid if someone commits assault or murder, and to call in the FBI when needed. Governors can deploy the NG if things truly get out of hand again.
There's a parallel here with the War on Terror -- *not* because Antifa is similar to Al Queda or other Islamic terrorist groups, but because there are dangers to overreacting. After 9/11 people were (understandably) scared (one might even say terrorized), and of course there *was* a real threat there. But people in government used that fear to enact a lot of bad policies -- costly security theater, invasions of privacy, domestic surveillance, open ended wars, and an AUMF that is *still* with us today. We continue to live with the consequences of many of those bad policies and will do so for many more years.
The Trump administration is doing something similar now, using fear of Antifa as their foil. I think the motivation differs from person to person -- some are earnest but wrong, others are cynically using this for political gain, and I think some are nefariously trying to gain and consolidate power.
I don't want to look back in 5 or 10 or 20 years on a world where free speech is compromised, dissent is criminalized, checks and balances have been swept away, federalism is even less meaningful than it is now, and the use of the military on American streets has been normalized, all because people overreacted to a problem that is well within our ability to deal with through civil discourse, private social pressure, and prudent use of our normal criminal justice system.
Thank you again Ryan, I was not having a jab at you regarding naming the Khmer leadership but at those who are using that ability as an assessment of threat-level seriousness. My use of them was for that one remark not to compare the killing fields of Cambodia to Tesla dealerships. My concern once again is that we are accepting violence, destruction and murder none of which are speech. Currently I am not convinced that the criminal justice system takes the protection of citizens seriously any longer and the authorities in various cities are not interested in crime prevention and judges are not interested in punishment. Civilization should reject the threat from these people that they stand ready to destroy and tantrum over anything they disagree with, unless the rest of us who wish to live in peace are to spend our lives walking on eggshells lest the border, heterosexuality, marriage, Israel etc be claimed as "fascist" so they can be anti that.
This is gaslighting nonsense. Hurr durr antifa doesn't exist, it's just an idea, they have no leader nothing to see here blah blah blah
If I was trying to gaslight you I wouldn't be admitting that I could be poorly informed. I meant for that to be an open invitation to counter my argument.
I was, in fact, trying to have a civil discourse. If you'd like to have one, too, I'm to happy engage. But only if you're going to respond to what I write and not what you imagine I believe. If you have questions for me, just ask!
Antifa does not have a leader. Nor does it have a headquarters. Not trying to defend antifa or God forbid *gaslight* - just literally stating facts.
You are a midwit.
"There's no such thing as the mafia" --Tony Soprano, also J. Edgar Hoover
Reducing a mob storming the capitol and having to evacuate our leaders to “three hours” is a bit much. It’s possible to be concerned about domestic terrorism AND not minimize Jan 6.
Thanks Molly, It was not my intention to minimize it (I take it seriously too) but simply to recognize the difference between months on end of murder, rape assault and destruction which we are threatened could return so easily (if we upset the children by enforcing the nation's borders for example) versus a number of hours on one particular day. Certainly I'd also like a full investigation into Jan 6 in order to find out exactly the degree to which Christopher Wray's FBI was involved with instigation, he was very reluctant to speak of it. No less an even worse day for Capitol Police was April 2 2021 just three months later when a nation of islam member crashed his car into two officers, killing one. Unfortunately that day, his life are universally ignored
No less and even worse day April 2nd? You're serious here? A mob of thousands attacked the capital while our leaders were attempting to finalize the transfer of power to a new president? Never in our 250 year history has that occurred. Sorry, but this is a categorical difference. Not even in the same solar system.
Yes it is unfortunate that the Mayor of DC and Nancy Pelosi refused Trump's suggestion of the national guard deployment and unfortunate that Christopher Wray* has refused so far to give details regarding the FBI instigation and entrapment. But in one case a police officer was murdered and another is severely injured while in the other case a vacuum cleaner might come in handy. Joking aside I do take January 6 seriously, it was disgraceful, I would welcome a THOROUGH enquiry to find out exactly who attacked the Capitol police as Wray's lack of candor has left open questions as to whether those throwing punches were on the government's payroll. The answer might be no but we are entitled to know just as when it turned out that was it 13 of the 14 plotters to kidnap Whitmer were FBI assets (unless this was debunked which is entirely possible) Either way we do deserve the truth. The reason the subject arose was in comparison to months of destruction, murder and assault in cities across the country which groups such as antifa are capable of just as we are currently seeing at ICE facilities and operations; speech is fine, violence is something else. * Wray literally refused at a public hearing to state whether FBI were there, if the answer had been "none" he would have said so.
Kmele going through with his disappointment about no blue angels flying because of the shutdown while the two antagonize him about being excited about Fleet week was the best.
You’re going to have to be way more specific re: obnoxious Duke basketball players.
Did they... did they think this was a Member's Only?
I’d just like to express a little appreciation to Matt for going a step above in the fashion department with that tie.
That was a really great one, guys. The Megyn Kelly was, too. I think video has reinvigorated things a bit…. and please keep dropping in those clips! The Van Hagar airplane interlude was awesome.
The Clare booth Luce fellowship for engineering paid for my wedding
“All of a sudden Kmele’s black again.”
One of the best dunks of 2025.
I wish all the best for Bari. My only exposure to her is the Honestly podcast, which I found to be one of those over-produced, full of teasers, previews, and recaps, sound beds, music cues, scripted narration NPR-slop that seems to be super popular. So I'm sure she will do great.
all the AC songs just made me think of the Dead Milkmen classic Taking Retards To The Zoo
Fun fact: Bluesky posts are sometimes called "skeets" (as a portmanteau of 'sky' and 'tweets') despite the...other association with the term skeet.
Oh dear.
"I never get no respect. Not even from my friends. I opened the internet the other day, I wanted to talk to my friends, so I wrote 8 messages on Blue Sky. 8 messages! I was trying to fit in.
My friends laughed at me. They laughed! They said:
Aw skeet, skeet, skeet, skeet, skeet, skeet. Aw skeet, skeet god damn!
I'll tell ya....no respect!"
YouTube links to the Megyn episode FYI maybe because this episode isn't up on YT just yet
YouTube goes up at 10 AM ET, I think.