 So on Monday, Attorney General William Barr made the absolutely bizarre decision to designate cities such as New York City, Seattle and Portland as anarchist jurisdictions. Now what this is, is a cynical and nefarious plot to further criminalize these protests and penalize cities where these protests continue to take place. But on top of that, if you think about this, if Joe Biden and the Democrats play their cards right, they could frame this as a self-own. Because Donald Trump, his own Attorney General, is saying, under our watch, certain cities have devolved into chaos to the extent that we are willing to designate them as anarchist jurisdictions. Doesn't that show that you're pretty feckless as a leader? Now I don't even know if that strategy is worthwhile since nobody's really gonna believe that these cities are run by anarchists, but regardless they're going through with this and Natasha Leonard of the Intercept kind of explains what's at stake here and what could happen with this new designation in an article for the Intercept titled, Welcome to the Anarchist Jurisdiction of New York, where cops crush every tiny protest. Bill Barr's designation of Seattle, Portland and New York is a cynical Trump re-election ploy with potentially dangerous consequences. And in this piece she explains, on Saturday night, the New York Police Department arrested nearly a third of a 300-person protest. Officers had gathered in Times Square to call for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE. The protesters did no more than march and chant. They stayed on the sidewalk. Police outnumbered them three to one. One demonstrator told CNN that officers descended from all sides and started ripping people off of the sidewalk. There were 86 arrests. In the preceding days, small protests after small protests in New York had been crushed by overwhelming police force and aggressive arrests. Alongside Seattle and Portland, New York City earned the official Anarchist Jurisdiction label from Attorney General Bill Barr on Monday. Other cities under Democratic leadership are likely to be added to this farce of a naughty list, targeting areas where potent anti-racist, anti-fascist protests have erupted this summer. The designations are the latest act in President Donald Trump's theater of the absurd. Because of the designation, the localities now stand to lose significant federal funding. There is no subtlety in Trump's cynical base pandering, aided once again by Barr's Justice Department in service as the president's private law firm. Residents of New York, Seattle, and Portland responded with bemusement on social media when they learned that their cities heavily policed, viciously unequal, racially segregated terminals and repositories of capital are, in fact, Anarchist Jurisdictions. New York City hasn't been an Anarchist Jurisdiction since CBGB closed man, quipped comedian and writer Josh Gondelman on Twitter. Reminder, in this Anarchist Jurisdiction, alternate side parking rules are in effect, tweeted MSNBC's David Guira. There was some heady riffing on whether the horizontalist, anti-hierarchical nature of Anarchist Organizing makes Anarchist Jurisdiction an oxymoron. The city is ours Anarchist Jurisdiction, Brooklyn-based Anarchist Community Center, the base mockingly tweeted. Yet the material consequences for residents in the designated cities could be all too real. White House Budget Director Russ Vaude is set to issue guidance to federal agencies on withdrawing funds from the cities in less than two weeks. In no uncertain terms, Trump is punishing cities that have again and again shown themselves to be hubs of anti-racist, anti-fascist resistance. The Justice Department may well have to defend this jaundiced, cynical move in court, but the work it's meant to do has been done. The fortification of escalating efforts to repress dissent, building on Trump and his Justice Department's ongoing campaign strategy of groundlessly demonizing Antifa while decimating Black Lives. Yeah, so I mean, in essence, people are making fun of this because it's not happening. I don't know anyone who actually believes that these cities are run by anarchists or that there's just sheer chaos and anarchy in these cities because there's protests. If there's protests, that's a sign that democracy is still in effect. It's a good thing, right? It's kind of like the saying that, you know, if you're feeling pain, that means you're still alive. So that's a good thing. Well, the fact that we see protests, people taking to the streets for Black Lives matter, that's a good thing. It shows that democracy is working if people can redress their grievances. But it's a way for Donald Trump and his cronies to demonize protesters and criminalize protesters with extra penalties by punishing states and localities that allow for it. Now, I think that Pramila Jayapal had a really good response to this. She says, this is not just unlawful, but it's also a prime example of this president's failed leadership and desperation. Amidst COVID-19's devastation, people need more relief, not less. Yet, Trump would prefer to turn your attention away from real crises by fear-mongering and fanning racism. And she's exactly right. Like, this is nothing more than Donald Trump beating his chest, you know, attempting to appear tough so he can scream law and order. It's an attempt to pander to his base. But it does have really devastating consequences. It is brazenly unconstitutional for one. Because basically, they're trying to disincentivize protests by punishing these cities, sending a message to these cities like Seattle and Portland that, hey, if you don't get these protests under control, we're going to designate them as anarchist jurisdictions and you're going to lose funding. It doesn't matter that you need more funding than ever to deal with a global pandemic, but we're going to penalize you. So get them under control. Now, it's unconstitutional because you can't take funding away from cities if their residents choose to express their First Amendment rights and protest. I don't care what your bullshit reasoning is, there's no such thing as anarchist jurisdictions in the United States of America. So for you to say, if this takes place, you lose funding, you're literally just penalizing cities where protests happen. It's an attempt to criminalize democracy and protesting. And it's disgusting. Now, if you don't live in one of these anarchist jurisdictions as I do, well, you too could see more attempts by Republicans to criminalize protests because Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tweeted this out. Today, I announced bold legislation that creates new criminal offenses and increases penalties for those who target law enforcement and participate in violent or disorderly assemblies. We will always stand with our men and women in uniform who keep our communities safe. Now, these harsher penalties, I mean, we know what this is about. This is meant to deter people from protesting, even if they're specifically referring to riots here and property damage. We already know this will be subject to abuse as curfew laws are. But this is what should concern you the most. There's a couple of provisions here that they want to get through that are just downright insane. So you could lose your entire livelihood if, quote, convicted of participating in a violent or disorderly assembly. And what's deemed violent or disorderly is entirely up to the discretion of police officers who are definitely unbiased. And if you're convicted, you could lose your unemployment benefits, your food stamps, so understand what they're trying to do. They're trying to dissuade people from protesting if they're poor. Because if you end up showing up to one of these protests, you could lose everything if they say your protests is too disorderly. Now, oftentimes these protests are perfectly peaceful, but it's the police who disrupt. They throw a tear gas canister into a crowd to disrupt the crowd. And then since people are panicking, all help breaks loose. They then say that's a disorderly crowd. People get arrested. And what are you doing? You're effectively criminalizing protests. So even if you're a peaceful protest, like nobody thinks that this isn't going to be open up to abuse. Like even if you are peaceful and you don't plan on rioting or looting or doing anything negative that they're fairmongering about, you can still be penalized because, I mean, is it really that out of the question to assume that cops may lie about what you're doing? We saw people snatching peaceful protesters off of the streets in Portland, Trump's thugs, throwing them in vans, kidnapping people. So, I mean, if you are skeptical about how this is going to be used and it's not just going to be applied to people who are protesting violently, I think you're a reasonable person. Now, the worst clause here in this, it should shock everyone. So if you block a road, that is now a third degree felony, but what is being proposed will literally promote vigilante acts of terrorism because if a crowd of people are blocking traffic and the driver wants to plow through said crowd of people, well, quote, the driver is not liable for injury or death caused if fleeing for safety from a mob. So in other words, if some far-right chud doesn't like the Black Lives Matter protests and he decides to just drive his car straight into these protesters, which the right has celebrated before with compilation videos, where they play it with music, remixes of Ludacris's move. They're safe, they just have to say, look, I saw this mob and I was fleeing, so I had to get away, I had no choice, but to plow into them. This is literally a law that is incentivizing terrorist attacks. So after Charlottesville, the right-wing terrorist who drove his car into a crowd of people and ended up killing Heather Hire, under this law, he could potentially be exempt as long as he uses the defense, look, I saw mob, I had to flee, I felt intimidated. This law allows that person to commit that terror attack legally. The Republican Party, they're not just doing things now openly that are profoundly undemocratic, they're openly authoritarian, openly authoritarian at all levels. At the national level, we see what Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr are doing. Bill Barr literally instructed police in D.C. to gas peaceful protesters so Trump could take a photo op. We see now states run by right-wing goons saying, look, we're gonna do more tough on crime laws and also we're gonna disincentivize certain types of protests by saying that if you're hit by a car, like if you're targeted by a far-right thug, they're not gonna be liable for your death or injury. The Republican Party, you know, if we don't call them fascists, anyone who's afraid to use the F-word, they're doing a disservice to America because this is fascism. This is fascism. The Republican Party is very openly embracing authoritarianism, attempting to penalize peaceful protests across the country and we're just sitting back and letting this happen. It's really, it's scary because this is a democracy. We should be allowed to protest. But if you protest too long in certain states, Trump's administration will declare your city an anarchist jurisdiction and if you block a street, if you protest in the street, well, they say in Florida, if this law passes, if you obstruct traffic, the driver's not liable. If he chooses to drive through you and kill you. This is insane. I don't know how else to describe it and it's a new low even for the Republican Party. They're no longer just proto-fascists. They now are openly embracing violence. Just the other day at a campaign rally, Donald Trump said it was a beautiful sight when a journalist, Ali Velshi of MSNBC, was shot by police with a tear gas canister and the crowd cheered, they loved it. They are openly embracing violence and authoritarianism. If you're not worried about what's to come if they keep on this path and don't change this trajectory soon, then I don't know what to say. You're just not paying attention. This should shake everyone to their cores. Mike is a total loser. So don't hit the subscribe button, okay? And whatever you do, folks, do not hit the notification bell either. Mike treats me so unfairly.