STARS, STRIPES AND BULLSHIT – Reclaiming Our Country’s Venerated Symbols

Fascist governments are about control, often brutal control. But one of their slightly subtler grabs is always that of their country’s venerated symbols. 

The wannabe dictator of the United States of America, Donald Trump, wasted no time in checking this theft off of his to-screw list.

BLEEDING COLORS
Our flag, the good ol’ Stars and Stripes, was already well on its way into the grubby hands of the folks on whose grievances Trump rode to the presidency. Think the Boogaloo Bois, the Christian Nationalist Crusade or just good ol’ Billy Bob freelancin’ in his flag-bedecked, gun-racked pickup. 

IMAGE: Eric Gay / AP

Everyone with a beef—or who feared others might steal their beef—wanted us all to think their hissy-fit “patriotism” was somehow sanctioned by their flag-waving.

Trump, their self-declared gift from God, has done nothing but solidify that hold on the flag. The image of Old Glory waving, alongside the Confederate flag, as a battle standard of the January 6 Insurrection will sicken truly patriotic Americans for generations.

IMAGE: Brent Stirton / Getty Images

        The draft-dodger president thinks he can suddenly grow 
        a pair by slapping his name all over U.S. military assets.

ROAR AND PEACE
Speaking of battle, this draft-dodger president thinks he can suddenly grow a pair by slapping his name all over U.S. military assets, many of them having long evincing our nation’s proud military supremacy.

In one of the most absurd ironies of Trump’s absurd reign, at the same time he’s been obsessed with begging, borrowing or stealing the Nobel Peace Prize, he’s also hijacked the Department of Defense and renamed it his very own “Department of War.” And now he's branded a whole class of U.S. Navy battleships as—you guessed it—the Trump Class.

HOLY CRAP
Then there’s the Bible—a book somewhere between ten and twenty percent of Americans truly abide by—and which holds no special place in our church/state-separated Democracy. Yet most of Trump’s MAGA base claim it as their license to hate. 

Trump has them believing he lives and breathes the Bible, that somewhere in those pages he’s actually discovered a mandate for his egomania, cruelty and rage. This even as he refuses to put his hand on the volume in his last inauguration; even as he hawks his own Trump-branded version of the Good Book at 60 bucks a pop.

PHOTO: Patrick Semansky / AP

             The Oval Office now sports an aesthetic better suited 
             to the tastes of the Real Housewives of Las Vegas.

A ROCOCO HELLSCAPE
Next, it was the White House—the People’s House—which this egomaniac has deemed less than representative of his grandeur. So he’s demolished the venerable East Wing to make room for his ghastly 90,000-square-foot, $400,000,000-plus ballroom, an eyesore that will dwarf what remains of the White House.

PHOTO: POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Trump has turned the Oval Office, long the epitome of elegance, exuding quiet confidence to visiting heads 
of state from every corner of the world, into a space better suited to the tastes of the Real Housewives of Las Vegas. As if afraid of blank wall space—or, God forbid, paintings of America’s true greats—Trump has slapped on gaudy gold flourishes some describe as “polyurethane onlays you could buy online” and a "gilded Rococo hellscape.”

And the Kenne…oops, did I almost mention that loser, John F. Kennedy?…Trump Center for the Performing Arts. He’s installed himself as board chair and foisted 
a multi-million-dollar re-make to his own insipid specs. It’s such a monumental affront to cultured Americans that the only acts likely to stoop that low will be Lee Greenwood and Kid Rock.

       We’re not just fighting against something; we’re fighting 
       for a vision of our country’s Post-Trump Renaissance.

A LUMINOUS VISION
As we witness the Trump shit show unraveling—and there are encouraging signs it’s happening—we must not let up on our defiance of this charlatan and his outlaw regime. Let’s be disciplined. Watch our language. Reject Dear Leader’s desperate distractions from his crimes—especially those whose exposure he fears most. Among them the ones laid bare in the unredacted Epstein files. 

We aim for nothing less than a blue tsunami come the midterm elections in November. 

As we work to turn the tide, we must also keep in mind that we’re not just fighting against something; we’re fighting for a vision of our country’s Post-Trump Renaissance. The return of decency, kindness, intelligence, honor, respect for truth, courageous leadership…and a renewed quest not for fools-gold illusions of greatness, but the true, gold-standard greatness that has defined the United States of America since our singular experiment in Democracy began 250 years ago.  

One vital aspect of that renewal must be to reclaim our once-revered national symbols from their debasement at the hands of this vulgar reality star. It will take at least a generation and billions of dollars—money that could have been invested in better lives for all Americans, not corporations and the filthy rich—to strip those icons’ of their spray-paint veneers and "Trump" epithets, and restore them to their accustomed roles representing both America’s celebrated history and our glorious, big-hearted, evolving future.

Let us all vow to nurture and to share that luminous vision.

PHOTO: Nigel Francis 

FASCISM PRIMER – A Guerilla-marketing Coup

You've likely seen my posts here and on Facebook about my "guerilla-marketing" campaign to educate folks about fascism and its implications for our beloved country. It's supported by my signs—both a large one to plaster on freeway overpasses and a smaller one for the back window of my car—which read:
"FASCISM – Look It Up!"

Then I've created a nice, compact little folder,—a fascism primer—with the information below. I keep a pocket full of them, and whenever I'm in a public place—the supermarket, Target, an office building, a doctor's waiting room—I stealthily stuff one here and there. Between products, atop piles of magazines, on self-checkout counters or on urinals in men's rooms.

                                                          ~      •      ~      •      ~      

FASCISM: What is it?
You may have heard the term floating around. Before deciding if you’re for or against it, 
at least take a look and see what it is you’re for or against.

FASCIST LEADERS AND THEIR GOVERNMENTS:
- Undermine confidence in democratic institutions: constitutional frameworks, free
   elections, judicial independence, human rights and public trust.

- Demand loyalty of party members, public officials, and eventually of citizens.

- Convince supporters to sacrifice individual freedoms for rulers’ promise of security.

- Incite an “us vs. them” mentality, turning citizens against one another and often
   against a common enemy—like minorities and immigrants.

- Instill fear as a way of silencing dissent.

- Gut higher education & science in favor or self-serving, state-controlled institutions.

- Co-opt unifying symbols like the national flag and religious icons such as the cross
   and Bible - and flaunt them as their own.

- Expand the military to: 1. Impose a “My country first” foreign policy and 2. Suppress 
   domestic dissent.

- Glorify themselves (especially the leader), claiming credit for any good news, naming
   institutions for themselves, promoting their face or “brand.”

- Discredit and suppress legitimate news media, even challenging conventional defini-
   tions of truth itself.

- Normalize vindictiveness, cruelty and violence.

WHO ARE THE WINNERS UNDER A FASCIST GOVERNMENT?
   • Big shots and major donors of the ruling political party
      •  Big business, especially if they align with, or help fund, the ruling party
   • Major land owners
      • The military

WHO ARE THE LOSERS UNDER A FASCIST GOVERNMENT?
   • Workers, labor and small, independent businesses
      • Federal employees, especially those unwilling to declare loyalty oaths
   • Members of racial, religious and ability-defined minority groups
      • Immigrants—and U.S. citizens who may look like immigrants
   • People with higher education—teachers, scientists, artists, social & political activists
      • Anyone who dares criticize the leader or ruling party
   • Average citizens, expected to make sacrifices while authorities enrich themselves
      • International allies and trading partners

PLEASE…DECIDE IF IT’S FASCISM YOU WANT, AND VOTE NOV. 3, 2026.

                                                        ~      •      ~      •      ~ 

Want to add a new gadget to your Resistance toolbox? I'm happy to share the artwork for the Fascism Primer so you can print and deploy your own. And I'll include a few tips on proper "guerilla-marketing" methods. Just email me: jeff@willius.com 

THE AWFUL PRICE OF FREEDOM

We Minneapolitans—and residents of several other American cities Donald Trump has targeted with his vindictiveness—confront a question that just might reflect the challenge of our post-World-War-II lifetimes: What might I do if I find myself face to face with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) goon squad abusing a neighbor or friend?

As a man who came of age at the height of the Vietnam War, I had to face a decision that tested my character: Do I get drafted? Enlist? Resist? Maybe find another way to serve? (I ended up enlisting and serving for six years in the U.S. Army Reserves.) And, informing that decision, another question: How would I act facing the enemy, and, God forbid, asked to make the ultimate sacrifice? 

PHOTO: Saline County Library

Once my years of draft eligibility passed, I never dreamed I’d have to confront those same life-and-death, mettle-testing questions again. But here we are. 

This time the threat, the enemy, is not some crazed pack of Viet Cong; it is my own government, whose barbarity defies not just our cherished Constitution, but simple decency. And it’s not happening 8,500 miles away; it’s right here in Minneapolis.

       Just pulling out my iPhone and tapping that red 
       circle could put me in the crosshairs of some dude 
       with the training of a night watchman and an urge 
       to kick some ass.

So, let’s say I’m at work—in an office building where some 80 percent of my fellow tenants are Somali-American. It seems quite possible that some of them, even those with legal status, will be targeted by ICE. If that happens, what will I do to stand up for the rights of my neighbors—most of them my fellow citizens—against some agents’ brutality?

PHOTO: Dave Decker - ZumaPress

The violence of federal agents toward even those simply bearing witness to their lawlessness is chilling. Just pulling out my iPhone and tapping that red circle could put me in the crosshairs of some dude with the training of a night watchman and an urge to kick some ass. I’m afraid, in the heat of the moment, incensed by the stark inhumanity of these bullies, I might do more than pull out my phone. 

Should I stop and weigh my options? Consider the prospect of injury, imprisonment…or worse? Calculate my odds of making the slightest difference? Or should I just go ahead and do what I’d hope someone might do for me if I were under attack by masked thugs? Exactly what Alex Pretti was doing. And died for.

Reasonable questions. Ones we Americans, sadly, must all be asking ourselves during this unprecedented attack on our Democracy. How sad, especially for one who’s been around the block a few times. Instead of growing old in peace in the country where I’ve worked and served for six decades, I must once again, right here in my home town, weigh the awful cost of freedom.

COOL IT WITH I.C.E.

Outrage over the sickening brutality of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and their ham-handed chain of command is certainly warranted. But we Democrats, more than ever, must be more aware, more strategic with our rhetoric. Let’s recall the ruinous effect of the Democrat left wing’s well-intentioned rallying cry after the police murder of George Floyd five years ago.

PHOTO: Chloe Jones | Arizona Mirror

“Defund the police!” was a gift to MAGA, who easily co-opted it and made it their own call to arms. Smoking-gun proof, they crowed, of Democrats’ radical agenda indulging crime. It proved a deciding factor in the electoral-college victory of the most disastrous president in our country’s history.

We must not repeat that blunder with our anti-ICE rhetoric. Specifically, with absolutist terms like “Abolish ICE.”

Remember, what most of us moderates object to is not ICE’s legitimate mission of enforcing U.S. immigration laws. We understand that those laws exist for a reason, and that folks who break those laws should be held accountable. That includes deporting them…some of them. 

PHOTO: Getty Images

If we want to reform that mission, democracies do that by advocating and enacting legislation, not by outright sabotage.

Where the Trump regime has gone off the tracks is in their weaponizing this agency of Homeland Security to exact vengeance just on Trump’s political enemies. Their indiscriminate, Gestapo-like tactics. Their pointed denial of due process—a guarantee clearly mandated in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. 

And the well-documented brutality of some ICE agents who've been attacking not just the targets of their search for illegal aliens, but folks merely witnessing and documenting their abuses.

PHOTO: Jose Luis Magana/AP

So, yes, let’s keep calling out ICE for these illegal, immoral excesses. But drop the strident “Abolish ICE!” demands. What we want is for them to do their jobs, but in a way befitting a civilized, self-assured country, indeed one founded and grown by immigrants. 

This time, let’s be smarter. Show some discipline. Make sure our language suits our complaint. How about “No ICE Gestapo!”, “Unmask ICE!”, or “Stop Weaponizing ICE!”? You get the idea.

This time, make MAGA write their own call to arms. 

ONE SMALL STEP – The Indefensible Murder of Renee Good

One step. 

That’s all it would have taken Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross to spare Renee Good's life last Wednesday, Jan. 7. 

She was a young protester simply following an ICE order to leave the area. As she was doing so, other agents ordered her out of her car. Good likely saw this, as anyone would, as a bunch of armed Gestapo thugs with a reputation for “disappearing” folks set to drag her from her vehicle for no apparent offense. 

Yet she responded with a warm smile and the words, "That's fine, dude, I'm not mad at you," and started to pull away.

        Ross decided the penalty for (disobedience) was death.

In the second or so it took Ross—standing not in front of the SUV as Trump regime officials insist, but near its front left headlight—to draw and point his weapon, he could have simply taken one not-very-big step to his right.

PHOTO: Screen capture from Agent Jonathan Ross's cell phone video

And guess what, that is exactly what he did; he took one not-very-big, not-all-that-desperate step to his right. No ramming, little or no contact, no threat to him or anyone else. In fact, Good was clearly starting to turn to the right, away from Ross.

It appears her only infraction was disobedience. And Ross decided the penalty for that was death. Not a warning shot; not a shot to disable the vehicle or its unarmed driver. Three shots, at point blank range, into Renee Good’s head as she drove past without touching him.

I don’t really care what kind of a day Agent Ross was having. Nor his reported previous experience with a suspect trying to flee. What I and other compassionate human beings care about is that one small step.

Why wasn't that step, one that clearly took him out of harm's way, not enough for him?

TRUTH: NO CONSEQUENCES
This senseless tragedy, this brutal murder, is just the latest in the deluge of lawlessness inflicted on our once-great country by the authoritarian Trump Regime. What's more frightening than these cretins' deadly ineptitude is the near certainty that, with Congress and the Supreme Court all bought and paid for, none of them—especially the Rambo wannabe who blew Renee Good's brains out—will ever face justice.

America, please prove me wrong. 

RISK, SCHMISK! – The Rote Recklessness of Donald Trump

A Jan. 5 page-one article in the Minnesota Star Tribune, “With (his sudden annexation of) Venezuela, Trump is diving into a new era of risk,” begs the question: what is this troubled little man’s grasp of risk?

The whole notion of risk hinges on the possibility that something might go wrong. But Trump, since childhood, has been taught—by his father, by Roy Cohn and other mentors of ruthlessness—that, if you employ certain techniques, mistakes are, if not impossible, never yours. 

    No consequences, no risk. It’s all pure rote.

A BLOODY WAKE
You do whatever you want. If you’re caught breaking the law, you vow it never happened. If that doesn’t work, you blame the thing that never happened on someone else. If they fight back, you double down. If threats fail, you sic your lawyers on them. 

IMAGE: Harvard Gazette

Should your legal thugs lose, you appeal. And you keep appealing until your case ends up before a judge you’ve bought and paid for. If 
it's a political lackey turning on you, you either fire, libel or “primary” them out of a job.

No consequences, no risk. It’s all pure rote. 

The scheme has worked for Trump his whole life. His business misadventures have left a bloody wake of folks holding the legal and financial bag for his mistakes. His personal life—think infidelity, sexual predation, slander, whatever—is also Teflon-coated. (Even his family members have all signed NDAs.)

PHOTO: France 24

A PERILOUS GAMBLE
Not even when he parlays his charade into the presidency of the United States has the man ever had to live with the results of his reckless, ego-driven actions. Why would his playbook for that role be any different from that which has guided his entire life?

One of the most powerful men in the world with no morals, no conscience, no accountability, no soul. Where’s the risk in that? I assure you, it is not on Donald Trump. And if this doesn’t compel you to take constructive political action, it should.

IMAGE: Shutterstock

IGNORANCE, JUDGEMENT AND THE MAGA BASE’S NUCLEAR OPTION

PHOTO: Change.org

Thoughtful Americans have been trying for a decade 
or more to understand the mindset of those of our compatriots responsible for bringing this noble nation—admired by the world for nearly two-and-a-half centuries for its vision, values and leadership—to its knees. 

I’m still baffled at how such betrayal is possible, but I’ve come up with new angle to consider.

VENGEANCE AT ANY PRICE
Oh I know, we’ve heard this song and dance about Donald Trump’s poor base feeling unheard and un-
appreciated by us conceited “liberal elites.” About their fear of immigrants’ and the poor’s snatching what they see as their entitlement to the American Dream. And about how their perceived suffering merits as much credibility as our own aspirations.

PHOTO: Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call

I don’t buy it. It gives way too much credit to people who somehow managed to turn off both 
their brains and hearts and hire the con man of our age to avenge their grievances for them. 
A charlatan who figures they won’t notice that he’s destroying their country in their name—while not just impoverishing them, but enriching himself and his family to the tune of more than $1,000,000,000—and that's in just the past year.* 

GRAPHIC: AmericanProgress.org

For me, a better answer—perhaps the easiest one—would be that these Trump groupies are simply thoughtless, self-obsessed, philistine, chest-beating assholes. Idiots who’ll pay any price to stick it to people not like them. But the more I think about it, the more certain I am that that’s not the whole story either. 

     Trump literally tells them what they know and don’t know.

COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE
What makes more sense is that these Trump groupies are just so ashamed of their own ignorance that they're in denial, demonizing anyone honest enough to hold their noses to it. How dare you judge, they feel. Judge not just us, but anything at all! Beauty, kindness, sophistication, style, merit. It's all "woke," not because those attributes are invalid, but because they provide a reflection of their own soullessness. 

Judgment—the process of weighing and comparing the truth of stuff—lies at the very heart of intelligence. Along with curiosity and creativity, critical judgment is a key component of acquiring and applying knowledge. And that, to folks with little education and short attention spans, poses a huge threat, because all it does is remind them just how stupid they really are.

This is why their Dear Leader’s tack has been to systematically discredit judgement—and along with it truth. Because he knows his MAGAts not only can’t judge what’s true or not, but wouldn’t buy the truth anyway if it challenged their simplistic, fear- and anger-stoked beliefs.

Playing on those beliefs, their anger, their fears—and their latent shame in their ignorance—Trump literally tells them what they know and don’t know. (Listen for those slick little inter-
jections in his unhinged ravings: “Everyone’s saying…,” “Everybody agrees…,” “People know…” and “You know that, right?” )

ALTERNATE TRUTH
The response Trump has incited in his MAGA cult is the cultural equivalent of the nuclear option: I don’t get it…so I’ll be damned if anyone’s going to get it. Instead of elevating our own aspirations, we'll drag down yours. So, yes, let’s yank the U.S. government’s investment from any program, any institution, that stands, even remotely, for intelligence, refinement…or even basic human kindness. 

PHOTO: Dave Killen/the Oregonian

Add to the bogeymen hit list anyone purporting to honor the truth. Hey, after being forced to stomach these pompous educators,' researchers,’ scientists,’ doctors’ and journalists’ fancy-pants proclamations all these years, Dear Leader has finally given me permission to claim my own, “alternative” truth…about everything.

The blindness to reality is so complete that these suckers can look right at this master manipu-
lator, this draft-dodging sexual predator who espouses not one of Jesus Christ’s teachings, and believe he’s their model of patriotism, their personal gift from God. 

    A charismatic leader steps up and shows Americans…that 
    there’s a better, healthier vision for our country than Trump’s 
    deeply negative one.

A HEALTHIER VISION
So, that’s my half-assed theory. What of it? What’s to be done? Is there hope for our faltering “shining city upon a hill” Democracy?

I still believe a spark of love and kindness glows at the core of every human being. Like so many of our best qualities, though, it’s gotten buried under layer after layer of concerns and emotions that are very good at pretending to be important. Like fear, anger, conceit…and, yes, shame.

One answer might be for an extraordinarily charismatic leader to step up and show Americans—even those of us who’ve been exploited by Trump—that there’s a better, healthier vision for our country than his deeply negative one. (I think most folks yearn deeply to reclaim hope and joy from the hate fest Tiny Hands has promoted.)

And this figurehead must do more than out-Trump Trump with charisma; she/he must, with guidance from the Democratic National Committee, craft a message that’s more appealing to folks than the simple, disciplined—and highly effective—one of grievance and vengeance that’s driven the MAGA movement. 

SNEEZIN’ ON THE HOUSE OF CARDS
Another possibility is that Trump eventually miscalculates himself right off the precipice. Takes just one too many liberties with his power. Makes one too many assumptions about his supporters’ depravity. 

We’ve already seen a few Congressional Republicans dare risk their careers for integrity. With cause, more might join. Some editorial boards in the mainstream media will draw the line. The trickle builds to a tide, and then to a tsunami of love, generosity and hope that inundates even the most willful ignorance.

And Donald Trump's fools-gold empire, wobbling on its foundation of hubris, collapses, swept away by a smarter, nobler, more joyous vision.

IMAGE: Adobe Stock

But none of this will happen without ever-more-massive public displays of defiance. We must continue to assert our hopes, raise our voices and apply our talents to The Resistance. 

We must continue to live our truth, honor our values. Call and write our representatives in Congress. Write opinion pieces. Support thoughtful, principled candidates. Stick our necks out on social media. And, finally, we must display our sheer numbers, joining with other true patriots to take our resolve to the streets.

Don’t lose sight of the vision of a kinder, gentler, renewed America. Do not lose hope.

* Trumps Take-Counter, AmericanProgress.org