Wednesday Mind Bender 6 NOV 24 ~
Submitted by QMS on Wed, 11/06/2024 - 5:00am
~
There's got to be a mourning after
~
In this time of instant gratification, many will be disappointed that their choice
will not be publicized (win or lose) for awhile, as electioneers take their time.
11th hour manipulation increases drama. Threats of recounts and lawsuits abound.
It's the 'new' american democracy after all.
~
~
How did your chosen ponies finish?
Does anyone else smell something dead out there?
Opening it up to the disaffected anyhow. Perhaps the hacked
voting machines had a seizure this time around.
Comments
Good morning y'all
.
my favored horsee didn't fare so well.
I was only one of 13 voters for Stein in
our little town. But my choice for our state
rep won! Yay, things are looking up here.
If this election was a referendum on the policies
of the outgoing administration, it reads like:
'kick the bums out'
cheers!
question everything
"We have met the enemy
...and he is us."
This came to mind as a reaction to the failure of the proposed constitutional amendments granting abortion rights and legalization of recreational marijuana. It applies in a larger sense as well. We have crusades in the middle east, christian crusaders telling everyone what they can read and say, rewriting school textbooks, a colonial empire class of politicians, and predatory plutocrat rulers.
The issues haven't changed since I was a child. Their historical roots go back much further. I know this is no big revelation. I still wear my army ballcap everywhere to protect me from the western neo-barbarians. It's my talisman.
語必忠信 行必正直
Organized religion is the killer of human self-empowerment, IMO
The Vatican saw to that. Arguably the wealthiest corporation on the planet.
People's minds are flooded with doubt, hallucinations, and hopeless pleas for divine intervention to save them.
It is thus that an atheist can never be elected to high office. Not in the Western world.
← Click here to return to the Matrix
The ultimate in Karmic Justice
.
Glenn Greenwald ~
precinct results from Dearborn, MI:
Trump - 332
Stein - 293
Harris - 81
(sorry, can't embed X)
question everything
Sam…..
"She’s done speaking."
I woke up in the wee hours and looked at Huffpoo to see the results and told Sam that Trump won.
She also said that maybe if Kamala had listened to those whose families her administration’s bombs were killing maybe she would have done better. Seriously how arrogant of her to say, "I’m speaking" like their concerns didn’t matter.
Here’s another thought:
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Election Results
If you kill my relatives, I'm not voting for you. That's not hard to understand.
In my local politics, the racist County Commissioner got reelected. How do I know he was racist? He was caught on tape calling black people the N word. This wasn't one of those things which happened 30 years, it was within the last year. His opponent was a 19-year-old. Some people said they wouldn't vote for him because he had no "life experience." He would definitely get it being on the Commission. The meetings have been getting quite raucous lately with people being escorted out for having the audacity of challenging them. People are mad and they're starting to stand up. If it's happening here, I'm sure it's happening elsewhere.
I think that everyone I voted for lost.
Haven't yet fathomed the local races
.
.
although I hear the lead councilman entrenched for years
got the boot. Change is good. Like you, most candidates I
choose lose. Feel like I'm from another universe sometimes.
thanks for posting
question everything
Same here.
.
I've always felt like I have one foot in this Universe and the other in a wormhole.
Last night's failure was primarily the fault of
two organizations and one person. The one person is Chuck Schumer (D Wall Street and Tel Aviv), who needs to go. The organizations are the DSCC and DNC. Guess I should add in DCCC also.
Does anyone know if Lauren Boebert won last night? I ask because her opponent was receiving NO support from the DCCC. None, as I understand it.
Consider the list of good, capable people who have been disrespected and disregarded by the national Democratic Party. Donna Edwards. Admiral Sestak. to name two who come immediately to mind. Ms. Edwards should be in Congress right now, working for the good of all of us. Guess she wasn't "sound" on Israel.
What I mostly take away from last night's loss is the public is fed up with the spending of our national wealth on foreign wars. As am I. If you are a member of the Middle European diaspora and you hate Russia, you need to understand that the rest of us Americans don't share your hatred, and we don't think we should be spending money on middle European or MidEast wars.
Mary Bennett
Can't see much redemptive value in the DNC
.
.
perhaps this *ss whipping will make a few wake up
just wresting control from a couple branches may be
sobering? Probably not. Shake the tree.
question everything
Yes, the execrable Ms. Boebert won.
With respect to the Presidential race, I am reminded of the following Harry Truman quote, from his May 17, 1952 address to the National Convention Banquet of the Americans for Democratic Action: it definitely applies to this election.
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/129/address-national...
I was apparently one of 834 people in my county that voted for Stein- at the moment, the Green ticket is at 0.42% statewide, or 10,622 votes. That is a bit better than Howie did in 2020 at ~8.1k, but it still isn't much. By comparison, the RFKjr ticket pulled 1.01%, at 25,437. The Libertarian ticket pulled 15,308, or 0.61%. But they are "still counting", of course...
At least it is over. The bad news, as always, is that the 2028 race starts today.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Good Mourning....
I was one of 14 people in our county to vote for Jill (out of about 13,000 votes cast).
How America Became Unburdened By What Has Been
We’ll see many articles on Trump’s clean sweep win in the days to come. Here’s Andrew Korybko’s interpretation of events...
Glenn's statement is worth consideration...
Thanks for the OT! Off to tend to several chores...
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
this is the real lesson of the Sleepy Joe term of office
All our lives we have heard constant yammering about the "awesome power" of the Presidency and the ability of POTUS to blow up the world. I always was skeptical of this commonly repeated notion, which was the basis for the infamous LBJ political ad called "Flowers."
So was my old high school and college debate partner -- who was himself wacky as all get-out. He imagined, as of the Reagan years, a new President who takes the oath of office and then immediately starts asking, "Where is The Button?" Great comedic premise! This possibility makes for a plausible rationale for the Permanent Government to "protect the Republic" from the vagaries of democracy which includes the "threat" of some whack job like The Donald from putting an end to the human experiment.
I can imagine a lifetime spook determining that JFK's refusal to go to war over Cuba was suicidal madness for our society. Two generations later, this ad hoc coup d'etat has become the Status Quo, and Biden has been a figurehead whose senility has no operational effect, because the govenment runs itself.
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
Good mourning, QMS!
Trump has a perfect record when running against a woman.
Biden, if he is cognizant, must be feeling a certain revenge.
Can't wait to hear Clinton's assessment of this outcome.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Yeah, what retribution will the angry old man try?
.
.
Clinton is like a broken record.
She will blame it on the Russians.
Is it too much to expect to keep the
microphones away from those two?
thanks for bopping by!
question everything
Pssst….
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
You know that you are in trouble
when "Moscow" comes up on the Caller ID, amirite?
I personally find the entire concept of Russian operatives calling in bomb threats to some random precinct to be beyond laughable- this truly does not pass the smell test. But the blinkered partisans will lap it up: truly anything will be blamed, other than the utter fecklessness of the dems themselves.
The walking-dead dem party will grasp at any possible straw to temporarily stave off the inevitable drowning. I'm glad that I'm not swimming in the water anywhere near them.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Yep…
It’s a rerun of Hillary’s loss when she blamed it on Russia instead of Obama for being Bush's 3rd term and going back on his hope and change…and bailing out the banks while letting 10 million people lose their homes because of the fraud.
See my comment below…Biden did the same as Obama and shitlibs went to brunch.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
There is a serious amount of truth and some comfort in
Greenwald's assertion that there is an unelected machine that runs the government. OTOH, we have only to review the actions and behavior of the government since the days of WJClinton to find ourselves in disagreement with a lot of that machine's ideology, goals, plans, and actions. I really foresee no likelihood of any real improvement under this latest figurehead.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Yeah, you right
.
.
the puppets come and go
but the hidden string pullers
never leave
question everything
Very true
If you stand back and look at what our government does, it's primarily taxation, commerce, international treatys and agreements and a large military to back it up. Plus a little bit for us little people. Who gets the tax breaks, the gov. contracts, the diplomatic efforts to open markets on their behalf, exclusive agreements all backed up by our weapons and military? All legal because the lawmakers say it's so, and so becomes baked into everything the government does.
It's what they're paid to do.
If anyone of the winning persuasion asks me for whom I voted
I plan to say, Harris, because she seemed like a nice person who I could feel comfy having a cup of tea with. No name-calling, no insults, no backbiting, always something nice to say, a real lady.
Mary Bennett
that is a very civilized approach
.
.
takes only a moment to figure out the stand of
the inquisition. The spouse got physically ill upon
learning about the trumpet. Started ranting, etc.
To me, ahh, whatever it is. Not worth being upset
over.
thanks for adding to the mix!
question everything
I gotta give some
respect to our county Democratic Party chairman. He sent out an email thanking everyone for their hard work, then stressed that the election was fair and square.
No sour grapes Russiagating.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Don't worry,
they'll fire him soon.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Lots of egg on lots of faces this morning.
After one quip when Harris was selected -- she won't win -- I studiously ignored all the election claptrap until a week ago when I could no longer resist looking at the polls and prognostications. (A long-held guilty pleasure of mine which I did successfully resist in 2020.) Top line confirmed my old quip. However, my analyses were weak in many ways.
One observation from the 2016 and 2020 elections that others seemed to miss and I didn't weight heavily enough was a pattern of polling numbers to results in competitive states. HRC and Biden had met or underperformed their polling percentages; whereas, Trump had met or exceeded his. For me that made Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania easy and doubted Harris would carry Nevada. However, with GA and PA in Trump's column, he had the magic 270 EC votes; so, it didn't matter where AZ, MI, NV, and WI ended up. Although fewer wins for Trump does deprive him of less to boast about which imho is a good thing.
The pollsters are alway off.
They keep it as close to 50-50 as possible. Otherwise, few would bother to vote. And then, American's true level of support for their government would be on display for all the world to see.
I wondered why you were so silent.
Not really -
If the question is A or B, generic polling and averaging the numbers among the different pollsters works fine when the margin between two candidates isn't large. The closer it gets to 50/50, the higher the requirement for the refining poll surveys, analyzing the numbers, and adding other assumptions. (Nailing the final results is by chance because none of the pollsters perform that detailed level of polling that would get them very close to the actual.)
How I got the correct winner in PA this time wasn't rocket science. I looked at the polling averages and results in 2016 and 2020. (The candidates haven't changed much over the past eight years.) The actual margins in those two cycles were 1.2% (Trump) and 1.2% (Biden). Trump bettered his last two weeks, pre-election polling averages in 2016; whereas Biden's mostly ranged from 50-52% and his actual number was only 50%.
The 2024 last week RCP average was Trump 48.2% and Harris 47.6%. However, seven out of the last eight polls had Trump leading and three had him at the magic 50%. The polls on the senate race suggested that the incumbent Casey would win but he hadn't closed the deal after spending twice as much as his challenger. With 98% of the vote in it's Trump 50.4 and Harris 48.5% - a 1.9% margin. In the Senate with 97% counted, it's Casey at 48.5% and McCormick at 48.9%. McCormick surged in the last week, but the current results for a reasonably well regarded incumbent are surprising (and I would not have projected this one). While Casey may still win, Trump's PA margin of 1.9% was stronger than in either Michigan and Wisconsin where the open D seat candidate and incumbent Tammy Baldwin were able to eke out a win.
Delivering Penn. was supposed to be Josh Shapiro's job.
Guess he won't be First Zionist President after all.
Mary Bennett
As many have noted,
PA looks like an odd duck. It has stronger and older traditional/cultural roots than most states. Never a vanguard but neither a laggard.
Shapiro's strong gubernatorial win in 2022 suggests that Anti-Semitism is low in the state. However, the genocide in Gaza/Lebanon may have taken a few votes away from Harris. More likely, the bar for a woman is ever so slightly higher in PA than it is in most state. PA has never elected a female Governor or US Senator.
The headline says it all
.
https://babylonbee.com/news/we-cant-afford-another-four-years-of-this-sh...
We Can’t Afford Another Four Years Of This!’ Shouts Running Mate Of Candidate Who Has Been Leading Country For Four Years…..
Kam was asked what she would do different than Biden and she said nothing comes to mind, but then she said that she was going to turn the page…. Ehh? Turn the page you’ve been reading off of, but saying that you wouldn’t change anything?
Speaking with a forked tongue.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
This is what dems have done to their base
.
Shitlibs are totally freaking out today because T won and they have believed everything that the Rachel Madcows have told them that he would do if he won again.
Antifa was active in Portland last night and I’m waiting for the pussyhats to make their return. Hey maybe they should have pushed Biden left like they promised to do instead of moving on every time he failed to get his agenda passed?
What did Biden promise?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
If Antifa is active where you live,
you, or someone needs to find out who they are, as in, yes, name some names, and who is their paymaster. Because, someday down the road, one of these "activists", will be all grown up now and running for City Council.
Mary Bennett
guessing the most telling next step
.
in this 'transition' is who the new presnit will surround himself with
the likes of RFK Jr, Gabbard and Musk seems encouraging
but the likes of Pompeo and other slime does not
perhaps it is good trumpet assembled his team before the
sh*t storm, outside the DC bubble? And Vance suggesting
dispersing the fed out into the hinterlands is hopeful.
question everything
Kamala didn’t address the crowd like HerHeinous didn’t
.
Yves:
The Hellabitch is still being a sore loser and blaming her loss on Russia. I wonder who Kamala will blame hers on?
Bets?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Us. n/t
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Well, I have a bad day, everyday.
When will they ever learn
I forced myself to tune into MSNBC a few moments after Trump won PA, therefore the Presidency. Within a couple minutes Rachel was speaking. She was right on message, warning us that someone in Trump’s campaign was nefariously talking to someone in Russia. Serious mournful faces nodding all around.
Anya
Poor you
but thanks for taking one for the team. Rachel…blehh. How much of her realizes that she’s just a propagandist and only spouts whatever she is told to spout? Guess $30 million a year takes care of any pride or whatever word I can’t think of. Dignity? Yeah that’s better.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
She has been since
about a year into her gig and when I could no longer tolerate her.
I think Keith really believes it
Grab a rifle, Keith. Go get em.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Such a sad decline --
but rational/informed discourse doesn't pay.
Apropos Tom Rush, sort of
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Perfect. It gives me the chills.
History rhymes.
I hopy y'all realize that this means that Kamala
will not be able to legalize abortion. OTOH, since this is such a key issue for the Dems, maybe her buddy Joe can do it for her during the remainder of his term.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Didn't the Cristofascist Supreme Court
...make sure that could never happen.
Or is that actually technically possible?
I think you are right
They made abortion rights a states issue and I read that congress cannot touch it now. Too bad shitlibs didn’t hold dems accountable for not passing it in the last 30-50 years.
Obama said it’d be one of the first things he would do, but when he had the chance he said it wasn’t a priority. Then the decision was leaked and dems had both houses and they did nothing.
But sure Kamala said she’d do it…how since congress was split? How do people not see through the nonsense.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I fell for Russian disinformation.
I wrote in Putin's name for president. Dang fooled again. (Harris easily took the state.). Voted against every incumbent or democrat where possible. Except my state rep. who is good on issues. No real measures to vote against.
Did not pay much attention except for watching clips here and there. One Twitter thread got some traction was on the fact that Harris got something like 18-20 million votes less than Biden in 2020. The question is where did this huge block of voters go this time around. Within the thread at least this was taken as proof that Trump was cheated last time.
The Amish come through big time for Trump in PA. They voted for Trump as they felt the state was over regulating their farming practices.
The shitlibs are turning against their own Identity Politics to throw minority men under the bus.
Lol….
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Proof that those in the DC and Hollywood bubble don't
understand the mindset of a large portion of the american public.
The following video is only for illustrative purposes showing how out of touch the Harris campaign was in reading the issues of the electorate.
Smokey's gone
Ms So says my grief will be worse, because Smokey was my geum tak-ji, sticks like glue. When I returned to the apartment after some stupid errand I went on to keep from breaking down, it struck me hard, when he wasn't at the door waiting for me. Ms. So prepared a wonderful lunch of spicy ramen, kim beop, and kimchi to distract us from the loss. She has it worse than I, in the last two months she lost her cousin who was like a younger sister to her, she lost her home a second time, and today smokey. We are overwhelmed. I have so much to do but can't even move.
I will always remember how he sought my rig out when Ms. So brought him into the truck stop parking lot, to bring me home, almost ten years ago now. No matter how far from home after weeks on the road, he'd bark and cry out when he found the right truck and saw me. Rest in peace, Smokey. Anyang geum tak-ji! Bogo shipeo. Miss you.
After this happened I expected Trump to win the presidency and didn't give it much thought since, except insofar as it would affect relations in far east. I've know the Iwo Jima act. I heard some pundit say yesterday that Trump was getting support from American Asians as well as Hispanics, the former surprised me. Did anyone do more to spread anti Asian hate?
A wounded Donald Trump and protecting Secret Service officers caught by photographers in an "Iwo Jima" like posture with the American flag.
語必忠信 行必正直
I feel the pain of your loss.
Those who have lost a beloved pet can identify with your sorrow.
Thanks Humphrey, QMS
Yes, he'd had enough. I think he had a good life. We spoiled him alot. He died peacefully, no more suffering. Thanks in advance to all C99ers. Appreciate your support. Just had to get this off my chest.
語必忠信 行必正直
Oh man, that really hurts
.
.
these are trying times
another burden is not what you need
sounds like he had enough
try to think of smokey in a better place
regards,
Q
question everything
I’m so sorry, Soryang
What a beautiful dawg. Great story on how he welcomed you home.
I wish I had the words to make you feel better.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Thanks so much Snoopy
I'm at a loss for words, how often does that happen?
語必忠信 行必正直
Doubt I'll ever believe that
a bullet barely grazed Trump's ear.
I'm with you Marie1
I don't believe in coincidences that are on all fours literally, with scenes I've seen before. The probably is so low that this was just happenstance in a unstaged event. The scene recreated is a known psychological manipulation technique. That's why the photo of the recreated Iwo Jima flag raising from WWII is so famous.
語必忠信 行必正直
To be clear, and while I could be wrong,
nothing about that appeared to be staged. My only suspicion is about a bullet grazing Trump's right ear. As he quickly crouched down, he was surrounded by many potential objects that could easily have left a small gash in his ear. That little trickle of blood for a man that's likely on some form of blood thinning meds was nothing.
While Trump likes to play the tough guy, he's really not. Thus, had he really been grazed by a bullet, he would have continued bellowing about ever since. He hasn't.
Understand Marie1
I'll let everyone presume I'm a crazy conspiracy theorist on this. It's best that way.
語必忠信 行必正直
Oh, man!
RIP, Smokey.
It will take some time, soryang, to accept the loss.
Smokey will never suffer in any way again.
He was a beautiful dog, inside and out.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Soryang, I am so sorry to hear about Smokey
My deepest sympathy to you and your wife.
That really hurts.
Thanks OTC
I sincerely appreciate the support. On edit, Thanks Plutos Republic, too. This is a great community, I was afraid to drive after this I was so shaken.
語必忠信 行必正直
I'm so sorry...
Rest well, Smokey. Your story about how he came to you was wonderful. I can't say much more, because I'm weeping in sympathy. Losing beloved dogs is so damned hard. Many hugs.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Thanks Sima
Sorry I didn't see you comment earlier. Not having him around any more makes going through these disasters harder, he was a constant in our lives and we really miss him during these trying times. I feel badly that his last few weeks with us were so tumultuous. I hope he rests in peace. I still feel his presence and think I'm going crazy. Ms. So has similar thoughts I know. My neighbor cried when I met her during another emergency at the house today, when I told her Smokey had died.
Appreciate your understanding and supportive comments.
語必忠信 行必正直
Only a few more months of this…
Instead of 4 years! Be happy for the small things.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Hey, Snoopydawg-
Thanks for the checklist; I was peripherally aware of all the promises not kept, but having first become aware of Joe Biden and his BS in the eighth grade, I didn't expect much out of him. After reading various economists predicting that we had a hard crash coming after the pandemic, and seeing that he turned that into a fairly soft landing, I was even willing to give the old lying sack of shit some slack. I actually voted for him in 2020, grinding my teeth the whole time, because he didn't throw an entire pandemic preparedness plan into the trash, just to be a dick to Obama. -And I don't need lying sack of shit Rachel Maddow to tell me to detest the orange lying sack of shit. The way I read the blurb from the freaked-out person, is that it reads like somebody that was an immigrant, probably naturalized, married, who worked here long enough to get Social Security. And THEY don't need to listen to Rachel Maddow or the "Shitlibs"; they could just listen to what Trump actually SAYS, and get at least that panicked. -And that's even without looking at the "2025 Plan". I wish I had many people's sunny optimism that T-vers.2 won't be any worse, but he's already fired most of the available grownups, and he's lazy as fuck, and the Heritage Foundation has several thousand "vetted", ideologically-correct, possibly completely unskilled fanatics waiting in the wings. Maybe I'll get over it, or just have a heart attack instead, but right now, my rational paranoia is whispering that the land of my birth is fucking DOOMED; and all that without even checking in with the DNC. Kristo-Afghanistan, coming right up...
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
just listened to a 30 minute violently tearful rant
by the co-inhibitor of this house
ouch
wanting to interject somewhere along the diatribe
but know enough by historical behavior patterns
it was not wise to speak
so, aside from becoming angry, what can you do about it?
for me, this site is a pressure release mechanism
over time, it tends to equalize the madness which we
deal with, not just during elections, but in general
need to take an aspirin to ease the pressure in the brain
thanks to all of you for your assistance in these matters
Q
question everything
Hello, Nastarana.
Just thought I should explain to you; Antifa just means "anti-fascist". There is no group or organization. There is no "paymaster". No secret entities control them. They are individual citizens with a shared purpose - anti-fascism. Their weapons are their own. They acquire their own hand-to-hand skills. On rare occasions, they work together, when they all show up somewhere to oppose fascism. Trump wants to label them a terrorist organization, even though there isn't an organization. After 25 years or so in this country, not one murder has been credited to Antifa, whereas RW militias have been bumping off 10-100 people every year for the last 30 or so. Antifa violence has usually proved to be cops or RW thugs, trying to hide under the name of Antifa, to discredit them. I suspect Trump wants to get rid of them, so there's nobody to oppose his precious RW bullies.
Dr. Cornell West, who was running for Prez as an independent, went down to Charlottesville, a few years back, and he and his party were surrounded by a white gang that threatened to kill him. Fortunately, a group of Antifa showed up, and drove the threatening group off with billyclubs. Dr. West has said that he has no doubt that if it had not been for Antifa, that he would be dead already.
So basically, it's people that are against fascism. On the gentler end of it, I think Woody Guthrie would qualify, with his guitar that had printed on the face: "This machine kills fascists". -Oh, and Antifa folks usually hide their identity, because there are just too many ways to wreck someone's life once you know their name. Even if I knew anybody that self-identified as Antifa, I wouldn't share names or other data, just so as not to expose their families or homes to fascist terrorism and/or violence. Hope this helps. Media coverage so often lapses into hysteria and fear-mongering. I think of those folks as being in the old American tradition, of being willing to step between the bully and the frail kid; too rare in this day and age...
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt