This unmistakably violent antifa assault on Quillette commentator Andy Ngo, a conservative who writes about antifa protests, in Portland, Oregon, really signals a bottom dropping out:

First skirmish I’ve seen. Didn’t see how this started, but @MrAndyNgo got roughed up. pic.twitter.com/hDkfQchRhG — Jim Ryan (@Jimryan015) June 29, 2019

Reason magazine has a good, albeit understated, account of the antifa mob violence against the man, perhaps not knowing at the time that the 'milkshake' attack was what police say was probably an assault with a cement-hardening compound which can cause burns and trauma injuries, and the video shows rocks and hard objects being hurled at the head of the already wounded man as he moved away from the thugs. Other details and photos are here. The Oregonian reports that cops say bear and pepper spray was also used by rioters against police.

As for Ngo, Ngo's been taken to the emergency room with head injuries and is in the hospital now. His editor defended him and promoted a GoFundMe page for him.

~@MrAndyNgo is a valued member of the @Quillette team. He is also a gentle soul with a huge heart. We’ve all been shocked to learn that the assault on him was a chemical attack—please donate to help support him. Thanks @Michelle_Mark for initiating https://t.co/9mWZSUqLEf — Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) June 30, 2019 Throwing liquid cement at a person causing caustic burning & traumatic brain injury is the type of assault that could land someone some serious jail time https://t.co/aNWIi4ZFfv — Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) June 30, 2019

What are we looking at here? Does anyone think that the Oregon authorities are even going to bother to prosecute the perpetrators of this violent attack? They've not bothered in the past.

That may be part of the problem, which has enboldened antifa, just as its rabid agenda -- whether in no-borders, no law-enforcement, and the targeting private corporations --is all now being adopted by Democrats as their mainstream platform to voters. We thus far see no condemnations from Democrats of this thuggery. The only Twitter apologies are from those leftists who otherwise are likely to get sued for their cheering and mockery.

It all has the makings for civil war. Antifa is open of course about wanting it, but we see it all over. The Washington Post published an item from a woman who claimed to be in the 'hospitality' industry, yelling about her right to abuse customers such as the very civil Sarah Sanders for having the wrong political views. Meanwhile, the New York Times, not to be outdone, published a far-leftist's prescription for doxxing, reputationally ruining, siccing the UN on, cutting visa travel for, and boycotting, anyone involved in the very legal mission of trying to secure the U.S. border from foreign invaders entering illegally.

There are no limits now. The left wants some kind of all out war. Seb Gorka, last May, wrote about this as the 'normalizing' of violence, citing a huge array of incidents.

The only reason it seems to be recrudescing now is perhaps because they know that their agenda is a loser with voters. And President Trump is on track to cruise to easy victory over the extremists among his Democratic rivals. A weak establishment left that is unable to resist the siren calls from the antifa agenda. Supposedly moderate Joe Biden has actually praised them as 'courageous.' What we are seeing is a Democratic field which is too afraid to talk sense to voters, is obviously a loser on the election front, so why have elections at all? They can't win on the platforms they are promoting -- from all hands up for free health care for illegal aliens, to taking away everyone's health care, to the promoting the wonders of school busing, it's not going to win votes or the presidency.

There's almost a subconscious recognition of this on the left, so now the maniacs are coming out of the woodwork, promoting far more extreme tactics - including rank, raw, violence - to get what they want. If the blue states won't police these people, maybe it's time to start looking into civil rights violations, and hitting these extremists hard for promoting and engaging in violence. It's time to throw the book at these people because right now, they're in a petri dish of assorted factors that ensure their bad deeds will multiply with no brakes from Democrats whatsoever.

Image credit: Twitter / GoFundMe screen shot