SWASTIKA REDUX – Trump and His Fools-Gold Branding

The front-page story in a recent Minnesota Star Tribune about Donald Trump’s attempt to stamp his brand on everything brings to mind something I used to tell my graphic design clients about the value of a good logo. 

The design, I explained, must be thought of as an empty vessel. It should be unique and pleasing to the eye, of course. And the really good ones employ devices to make them especially memorable (like strong, confident forms, a unique color, the illusion of movement or an interplay between positive and negative space).
         

But filling the vessel with meaning, connecting the visual appeal with feelings that build a favorable impression, occurs over time. It comes from repeated association of the symbol with customer experiences. 

It’s the way the receptionist answers the phone, the quality and pricing of the organization’s products or services, the integrity of its personnel.

          He’s pushing a one-dollar coin with his profile 
          (showing his one remaining ear).

OLD (TRUMP) GLORY
It’s quite obvious Trump believes he can slap his brand on all things American. (Just wait, renaming of the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America was just his testing the waters, as it were, for a future Gulf of Trump.) He’s commandeered the Lincoln Center (and then lost it, which makes him want it even more), and a whole class of U.S. Navy ships

He’s taken a literal wrecking ball to venerated public landmarks, from the East Wing of the White House, to the now infamous Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pond to Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.

He’s already okayed the design for his godawful Arch de Trumph, and eagerly awaits the pending circulation a new U.S. one-dollar coin featuring an image of him evidently drawn from his mug shot.

Just like his most-admired despots, he aims to co-opt revered national and religious symbols for political reasons: the flag, the Bible, the bald eagle, historic monuments and national holidays. Not to mention his ambition to monetize them all for personal profit. 

   The design evinces a range of design acumen from A to B.

FOOLS-GOLD FILIGREE
So, back to the empty-vessel aspect of branding. Trump’s idea of his “container’s” appearance is everything but confident. It’s the hallmark of a monumentally, aggressively insecure man, memorable only for its excess. 

Take his horrid redesign of the Oval Office. Its swirly, fancy-pants embellishments reek of real-housewives pretentiousness, evincing a range of design acumen from A to B. 

The monotonous color palette (gold, gold and gold), and awkward discomfort with any empty surface all reek of the man’s—and, by association, our nation’s—deep insecurity. 

              

Somehow, he’s managed to convince his base that the fool’s gold he dangles hypnotically in front of their eyes is real and that it’s theirs. And the poor suckers won’t let themselves believe that they’ve never seen—and never will—a gram of it.

And the “content,” those all-important emotions and behaviors he hopes his brand will stir in his constituents? Fear, anger, greed, intolerance, retribution… It’s a chilling nod to Adolph Hitler’s swastika, a checklist of Pavlovian conditioning for fascism.

PHOTO: Science History Images

                    It will cost American citizens billions 
                    and billions of dollars to repair the damage.

GRAPHICS INFAMY
Somewhere around 200,000,000 Americans dream of the day—and it will come—when this monster overestimates his base’s tolerance for his countless obscenities. When they come to detest both the vessel that is the Trump brand and its putrid contents.

Whatever the reason, his eventual sacking and our country’s transition back to competent, honorable leadership will likely be one of the costliest makeovers in U.S. history. Not least, the expense of removing all that fool’s gold filigree. It will cost American citizens—including the saps who elected him—billions and billions of dollars to repair the damage.   

History will not look kindly on the Trump brand. Alongside the swastika, the U.S. Confederate flag, USSR hammer and sickle, and Ku Klux Clan cross, it will be relegated to the shithole of political, moral...and, yes, graphics infamy

SUICIDE BY BOOMERANG – Trump’s Ultimate Comeuppance

It's Donald Trump’s stock in trade: so thoroughly inundate his perceived enemies with lies, lawlessness and outrageous behavior that it confuses and exhausts us.

It’s the same tactic starlings use to outwit falcons. They form a murmuration, a swirling, undulating mass that confronts the preda-
tor with one huge, impenetrable target instead of individual victims.

Herring do it too. The best a sailfish or marlin can do is pick off a few outliers around the edges of the shoal.

PHOTO: Nick Dunlop

In Trump’s case, somewhere in the swarm fly his impeachable crimes. And we (the Resistance, the remaining honorable members of Congress, and the still-credible media) are the falcon. 

POLITICAL JUJITSU 
Well, it dawns on me that this can work both ways. What if we were to counter the Crimbecile’s deluge with our own deluge? You know, turn the tables on him. A swarm of falcons to his swarm of lying starlings.

This isn’t something just any Joe Blow from Kokomo can pull off. TinyHands, this monumentally insecure little man, can ignore jabs from people like us with no power or fame, but he’s shown us consistently that he can’t shake off a put-down by someone rich or famous. 

PHOTO: Wall Street Journal

This is how California Governor Gavin Newsom has so clever-
ly gotten under that flabby orange skin. Google’s AI overview says, “Newsom and his office have purposefully adopted Trump's all-caps, aggressive social media style to troll the former president and get his attention. This mimicry is a form 
of political jujitsu that uses Trump's own tactics against him.”

    Not even Faux News will be able 
    to resist these trash-taunts.

TAKING THE BAIT
What if we—I guess it would have to be the Democratic National Committee (DNC)—identify and recruit other notables like Newsom with enough visibility to command Trump’s attention, and have them take up the same tactics? Troll him. Make absurd accusations. Call him names. Question his manhood. Blame him for dirty tricks right before we use them on him. 

And always, always, meet his objections just like he does ours: by doubling down. 

Now if the attacks were to come from just a bunch of everyday liberal elites—you know, teachers, scientists, theologians…decent, thinking, caring Americans, they’d just get tossed into the virtual wastebasket Trumpublican State Media use for stuff they don’t like. But not even Faux News could resist these trash-taunts. 

What a story! Not just iconic newsmakers-turned-raptors biting at Orange Julius Caesar’s lily-white blubber-butt, but the small-cap president totally taking the bait and throwing a series of ever-more-deranged (and entertaining) tantrums. 

PHOTO: Governor Newsom Press Office

PHOTO: Wikipedia

There’s no shortage of candidates to take up the troll—folks who’ve already provoked Trump’s rage. Rosie O’Donnell, Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, Stephen Colbert…oh, and one who, with a little grooming, might undo the Crimbecile like no other: Elon Musk.

Sometimes we have to nearly 
kill the patient to save them.

Will it work? We know this man; he can no more resist well-placed ridicule than he can flattery. It’s a weakness even our country’s worst enemies learned long ago how to exploit.

Trump’s reckless, undisciplined rants are already troubling some of his supporters. He’s starting to pick up some of the signs that he and his improbable power trip have peaked. So this new, right-back-atcha trick is sure to catch fire deep in the void that is his soul. The rage will eventually consume him. 

At long last, this vulgar charlatan, the con man of our age, will fall. Not to rejection by his party, not to impeachment, but to his very own vileness turned against him.

PHOTO: David Becker / Reuters

                      
I know. Intelligent, virtuous people might find this tactic incredibly hard to pull off. It’s anathema to us, something that, for very good reasons, doesn’t come naturally. Well, neither does zapping ourselves with deadly radiation. But hey, when it’s cancer, we’ve learned that sometimes we have to nearly kill the patient to save them.

So… think about it. Who would you include in the dream team to pull off the backatcha maneuver? C’mon, think outside the box. Jimmy Kimmel? Hillary Clinton? Michael Moore? Pope Leo?…ooh, ooh, I know someone who might rattle him more than anyone: a Joe Biden doppelgänger! 

What do you think? Folks in this little slice of the Resistance would love to hear from you!

IT WAS ME – Bystanders To Fascism…Again

On February 27, 1933, Adolph Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Four weeks later the Reichstag Fire destroyed the parliament building in Berlin, and Hitler used the incident to claim a communist plot, prompting an emergency decree suspending civil liberties, freedom of the press and privacy rights. 

That’s how it started. Soon every aspect of daily life was to come under totalitarian control: mobility, association, information, wor-
ship, expression… 

A scant decade later the Third Reich had gained control of most of Europe and was well into executing the “Final Solution,” first stripping citizenship from millions of Germans it deemed undesirable and then slaughtering them.

One of the most haunting questions in history remains: How could the German public not have noticed what was happening to their country in that decade-long buildup to the Holocaust?

ADOLPH WHO?
The United States of America, long the envy of the world for its democratic principles, now sits in the same place Germany was during that infamous decade. Like those German citizens, Americans now face the same question: How can millions of us staunchly support a man who so clearly espouses the same malevolence, the same fascist principles that drove Hitler?

    How can so many of the rest 
    of us...still be questioning our 
    own instincts?

PHOTO: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

More importantly, how can so many of the rest of us—those of us who may feel uneasy about this tyrant, but aren’t quite sure he’s so bad—still be questioning our own instincts about him and his regime. Perhaps wondering if we shouldn’t be respecting, if not the man, at least the office of the presidency. Still willing to wait and see what happens.

THEY’RE HE-E-RE!
Well, my friends, I hate to burst your little bubble of faith, propriety or whatever you want to call your reluctance. It’s no longer a question of whether the USA might be leaning a bit too far to the right. We’re well past that tipping point where those Germans started wondering about Hitler, but realized it was too late.

Here’s the brutal truth, folks: the United States of America—right now—is no longer the Demo-
cracy with which most of us have been blessed our entire lives. In defense of which so many millions of our ancestors have fought and died. We are—right now—a full-out fascist dictatorship.

How can I say that? Here’s a list of the key historical descriptors of fascism, along with notes on how each applies to the USA—right now:

Fascist leaders and their regimes:

• Undermine confidence in democratic institutions: constitutional frameworks, free elections, judicial independence, human rights and public trust. BEING DONE NOW IN THE USA.
• Demand loyalty, first of party members and public officials, eventually of citizens. BEING DONE NOW IN THE USA.
• Incite an “us vs. them” mentality, turning citizens against one another and stirring anger and fear of a common enemy—minorities and immigrants are common targets. BEING DONE NOW IN THE USA.
• Co-opt unifying symbols like the national flag and religious icons—the cross and Bible for example—and flaunt them as their own. BEING DONE NOW IN THE USA.
  
  

  

  PHOTO: Patrick Semansky / AP

  
  
• Expand the military to: 1. Enforce a “My country first” foreign policy, and 2. Suppress domestic dissent. BEING DONE NOW IN THE USA.
• Coerce supporters to trade individual freedoms for servitude of ruling party’s demands. BEING DONE NOW IN THE USA.

• Glorify themselves (especially the leader): claiming credit for everything good, naming institutions for themselves, promoting their likeness or “brand.”  BEING DONE NOW IN THE USA.
  
  

  

  PHOTO: Washington Post

  
  
• Discredit and suppress legitimate news media and stoke cynicism about conventional definitions of truth itself. BEING DONE NOW IN THE USA.
• Replace higher education and science with self-serving, state-controlled institutions. BEING DONE NOW IN THE USA.
• Normalize vengeance, cruelty and violence. BEING DONE NOW IN THE USA.

WHO WAS IT?
So, if you still have any doubt whatsoever about the intentions of Donald Trump and the traitors who work for and enable him, you’re in infamously good company. 

To your descendants, to your compatriots, to everyone in coming generations who asks, as we have about those Germans in the 1930s, “Who could have been so blind, so callous, so treasonous to allow this to happen?,” here's your only honest reply.

This time, the shameful, inescapable answer will be: It was me. 

PHOTO: iStockPhoto

SHIT IN MY POCKET – Trump's Defilement of My Passport

People’s likenesses are more than keepsakes or identifiers; they're symbols. Seeing them re-
minds us of everything we’ve experienced in those people’s presence. Their kindness, intel-
ligence, spirit… That’s why we frame their faces for our mantles and stuff them in our wallets. 
We do this as an act of love and respect.

This is why I’m appalled at the prospect, reported in yesterday’s Minnesota Star Tribune, of Donald Trump’s “stern visage” being smeared on the next edition of U.S. passports.  

IMAGE: The White House

                It's right out of the playbooks of Mussolini, 
                Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Kim.

The thought of having to carry an image of this monster on my person disgusts me. What it represents is neither love nor respect. It’s not kindness, intelligence or spirit. It’s conceit, purposeful ignorance, vengeance, dishonesty, corruption, ruthlessness, cowardice… and let’s not forget perversion. 

PHOTO: The Wall Street Journal

And I have to tote that in my back pocket as 
I travel? Present his image alongside mine 
to folks in other countries as proof of my citizenship in the country he’s made the laughing stock of the world?

SLEIGHT OF BRAND
The man’s already got his gaudy signature on our currency—so I can remember him when I fork over $80 for a tank of gas or $100 for a bag of groceries. His precious brand already defiles many other proud American institutions: The Kennedy Center, the U.S. Institute of Peace, a class of U.S. Navy battleships, highways and bridges, National Parks passes…

And this is just the beginning, folks. Mark my words. He’s already got his people working on the next step in this classic-fascist self-aggrandizement: ordering his portrait be displayed in every American home. Your home. And to enforce the demand: encouraging your friends and neighbors to inform on you if you dare refuse.

PHOTO: Getty Images

It's right out of the playbooks of Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Kim. 

So what’s one to do? With no chance of acting out my ultimate fantasy— meeting the guy all alone in a dark alley—at least I can stick it to his image. With nothing more than a little piece of that mirror-like foil tape often used in HVAC instead of duct tape. 

That way, when I open that first page of my passport I’ll see a likeness of who should be reflected in the cherished institutions of this great American Democracy: myself.

SHIT THE BED – MAGA’S Mine-Or-No-One’s Meanness

PHOTO: The Needling

It’s no secret the last couple of generations of working-class Americans have felt a growing sense of abandonment, discontent and, many of them, rage. They feel cheated out of what they see as the “American Dream:” that everyone born in this country (and no one else), whatever the choices they’ve made about their work, their education, their aspirations, is somehow entitled to prosperity.
 
Their wrath is so intense, their imagination so limited, that their response has been not to work harder, not to retrain, not to compete or evolve, but, like a spiteful two-year-old, simply to shit their bed.

PHOTO: Zero to Three

They've defiled the very Democracy that championed their parents' and grand-
parents' dreams.

HOARD MENTALITY
The little monsters have soiled the very nest that’s reared and protected them. Defiled the welcoming, opportunity-rich, rights-protecting Democracy that championed their parents’ and grandparents’ dreams and made their lives possible. 

All because of two obsessions. First, with what they've been told are invading hordes of immigrants pouring across our borders, stealing their jobs, sucking up government resources…oh, and they’re rapists. 

(These folks must see their jobs as pretty menial if such worthless losers from other countries can snap them up them so easily. Oh, and those government resources MAGA’s so afraid are being sucked dry by Manuel, Maria and Mohammed? Aren’t those the same services these “anti-government” Billy-Bobs have been insisting for decades they don’t want to pay for? Like education, healthcare, roads, utilities and fire fighting?

And, the greatest irony of all, these NIMBY nitwits don’t see the hypocrisy of bashing immigration when their own parents or grandparents were immigrants.)

         What raises their blood pressure even more is that 
         these fancy-pants do-gooders might look down on them.

SMART, MY ASS!
Besides their xenophobia, these poor victims are also possessed by a deep hatred of what they’ve termed our country’s “liberal elite,” those mostly well-educated, cultured snobs whose permissive, “woke” values they blame for giving away their God-given, America-first entitlements in the first place.

ILLUSTRATION: L.A. Progressive

But what raises their blood pressure even more is their sense that these fancy-pants do-gooders might look down on them. (I’ve postulated HERE that this resentment might actually stem from the MAGA cult’s embarrassment at being forced to confront just how ignorant they really are.)

Very simply, MAGA folks, driven by these peeves, would rather live in a pile of their own excrement than in the Utopia handed to them by generations of their forebears who’ve toiled to build it, and who’ve fought and died defending it. 

PHOTO: Joe Rosenthal

It’s Democracy, the bold experiment of an oppressed colonial people, the most successful system of governance ever devised, the envy of the world for two-and-a-half centuries. Very simply, the Pedophile President and his cult fume that if they can’t get their perceived entitlement to all its blessings, then no one should.  

         The true patriots—will eventually insist the bed be changed.

IMAGE: AdWeek

RESIST…AND HOPE
This is the MAGA movement. This is the Donald Trump debacle, the con man of our age validating and acting out his own and his devotees’ worst instincts: aggressive insecurity, hatred, racism, vengeance. 

This is why I resist…and why I hope. Hope more and more Americans—the true patriots—will eventually insist the bed be changed, washing away forever the filth these temper-tantrum traitors have unloaded in the bed of American decency.

Protest on your lawn, in the streets, on bridges…anywhere. Pressure Congress to grow a pair and rein 
in TinyHands’s fascist agenda. Write opinion pieces 
and social media rants. Encourage fellow resistors. Donate to effective resistance organizations—like the Women's March, Indivisible or the Visibility Brigade.

…and keep the faith!

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.

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. 

Wish My New Meme Would Go Viral

I was inspired by the Pedophile-In-Chief's demolition of the People's House for another of his fools-gold monuments to himself. 

 

CRITICAL SASS – Resistance and the 3.5% Engagement Rule

Here we are at a critical juncture in the history of our Democracy, where the dire threat to our cherished way of life cannot be denied. And we know exactly what and who we’re up against. 

It’s an aggressively insecure, temperament-of-a-two-year-old, wannabe dictator, enabled by an ignorant, vengeful constituency and a cadre of suck-ups in Congress. Together, they’re throwing a tantrum that’s brought our country to its knees. 

ILLUSTRATION: Violet de Torres

How do we stand up to such outrage? Stop this monster from cheating and intimidating his way to total fascist control.

By now we know very well the Crimbecile’s M.O. Among 
his tactics—drilled into him by his ruthless father and other mentors in megalomania—is, whenever challenged, you “double down.” Accuse others of the crime you’re about to commit. Counter criticism with twice the criticism; one lawsuit with two; threats of justice with promises of ruin.

It’s easy and, I guess, entirely human for rational people to 
respond to such aggressiveness defensively. It’s like someone’s broken into our home and is headed for our kids’ bedroom. Not the time for a measured response; not the time for reason. 

So, folks, we take the offensive. Fight fire with fire. And here’s how we do it: we launch our own doubling-down assault. 

        What does “engaging” that many 
        people look like?

THREE-POINT-FIVE TO TURN THE TIDE
For those of us not savvy to the workings of political influence, lacking the resources to purchase the ear of our Congressperson, and not comfortable with door knocking, the best way to go after a tyrant is to simply show up with our voices and placards in a good old-fashioned street protest.

PHOTO: Madison Badger Herald – Lizzy Larson

But protests don’t even start worrying corrupt politicians until they reach a critical mass. And what is that threshold? Research by the Carr Center's Erica Chenoweth posits that “No government can withstand a challenge of 3.5% of its population without either accommodating the movement or (in extreme cases) disintegrating.” *

So…three questions. First: what is 3.5% of the US population? A bit more than 12,000,000 of us.

Second: What does “engaging” that many people look like? I know of no better way than persuading them to take it to the streets.

Third: What will it take to reach that pivotal threshold? Every single one of us bearing witness to what our eyes and ears—and history—warn us is a full-on rush to fascism by the Trump regime. Each and every American who values freedom responding to the alarm. 

The good news is that we’re well on our way! 

  Imagine being part of the absolutely stupefying 
  crowds taking to the streets that day.

WE’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER VOTE
The nationwide No Kings protests on June 14, 2025 saw somewhere between 4,000,000 and 6,000,000 Americans taking to the streets in 2,100 cities and towns coast to coast.

As impressive as it was to be among the multitude of protesters in St. Paul that day, I recall my clear-as-day reaction when I turned around and got my first good look at the size of the crowd: We’re going to have to at least double this…and maybe double it again.

So that’s the vision I’m promoting. At least 8,000,000 Americans showing up Saturday, October 18 to defy the goose-stepping thugs gutting our democratic institutions. A loud, clear, unified rejection of Trump’s reckless push to consolidate power.

What can each of us do to make October 18, 2025 the date history will come to recognize as the turning point in America’s rejection of fascism? First of all, we must simply imagine it, imagine being part of the absolutely stupefying crowds taking to the streets that day.

The we must talk it up, promote it on social media, make signs, include appeals in our email signatures, bring friends and neighbors with us to the event…and anything else we can think of to make our vision real.

For my own part, I take inspiration from the courage of that iconic—yet still-unidentified—Chinese man who stood up to a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989. We can do this!

PHOTO: New York Times

* From a BBC.com article by David Robson – 13 May, 2019

GUNS – IN DEFENSE AGAINST OR OF TYRANNY

The main argument behind some Americans’ militant defense of their right to bear arms is that the Second Amendment of The Constitution guarantees it.

They insist that one intent of that amendment was to enable citizens to protect themselves in the event of a tyrannical government—a debatable interpretation.

At any rate, how ironic that these gun nuts' justification of this country's firearms glut (now easily outnumbering citizens, and including assault-style weapons designed for military use) has taken a U-turn.

The outrageous personal arsenal excused for so long by MAGA extremists and the NRA as a defense against a potential rogue government, has now become a military asset in their defense of a rogue government. 

We tolerate these zealots, this misguided crusade, at our great peril. Since appeals to their reason, emotion and even basic human decency fall on deaf ears, they must be beaten with our protests and at the polls.

Let’s get busy!

BACK TO THE FUTURE – Clear Signs of What's To Come

Can you imagine, given the 20/20 clarity of hindsight, the mindset of the fair-minded, charitable folks who comprised the tepid early opposition during the ascension to power of despots? Think the Soviet Union, Italy or Germany in the early 1920s, Spain in the early 30's, and later Russia, Egypt, Venezuela, Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nigeria...the list goes on. 

PHOTO COMPOSITE: Metro

All these places ended up as electoral autocracies,* brutal dictatorships of which few Americans were even aware.

Do you think those kind people who let such outrages happen were saying, "Hey, we can't let our political differences over Chavez divide us," or "We need to have a civil dialog with those on Abacha's side," or "Everyone's opinion is valid, even that of our Landsleute who support Hitler."

Did those troubled by political winds of change really believe they had to consider—or at least tolerate—their poor, aggrieved compatriots' claims? "He may be obnoxious, but we like his policies," or "This guy's going to rid us of 'vermin'."

And, once it became clear what their compatriots' righteous indignation had wrought, how much worse than simply "obnoxious" things had become, could anyone have admitted just how badly they'd been duped? 

That, folks, is where we are in 2025 in the United States of America. Our country, this exemplar of Democracy, this beacon of hope to the oppressed, has elected as its leader (for the second time) an aggressively insecure con man without a single redeeming quality. A man easily played by the flattery of present day dictators—and of our own country's shrewdest oligarchs—who has promised exactly how he intends to dismantle democratic institutions.

PHOTO: Vanity Fair

       We know this man...and we know history. 

WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE
Since the Trump catastrophe started playing out in his first term I've imagined a tactic which, at least on its surface, seems it should work when trying to communicate with someone who believes such a charlatan deserves a chance. It goes like this: I start by acknowledging the person's beliefs—and if I'm having a good day I might even concede a couple of style points.

But then I ask them exactly what words, deeds and results from the man they support might cause them to start questioning that support. I suspect they might have trouble imagining such developments, but I press. What about if he disparaged veterans? Like shaming US soldiers who "allowed themselves" to be captured as prisoners of war.

What if he declared Jesus Christ a loser for having gotten caught and crucified? What about the Epstein files finally coming to light and showing he was a steady client of Sweet-16-Girls-R-Us? 

What about someone finally defeating the Ft. Knox-like impregnability around his academic transcripts? Or the "bone spurs" diagnosis that helped him dodge military service five times? Or his tax returns? 

Oh, hell, those are all softball questions. How about these: What if sound evidence emerged that Trump is actually working for Vladimir Putin? Or if someone caught him on a hot mic ridiculing folks stupid enough to vote for him?

AFRAID AROUND THE EDGES
Okay, you get where I'm going with this. Not one of these gaffes—screw-ups that would prove career-ending for any American in any profession—seems to matter in the slightest to Donald Trump's hard-core MAGA base. They, with considerable coaching from their esteemed leader, have made themselves immune to any ideas, any facts, any information but that spoon-fed them by Trump and his de facto state media. 

I know, I should know better than to imagine the perfect squelch to make these folks suddenly realize the error of their ways. At least the most ardent of them.

PHOTO: Shutterstock

But how about those few tentative supporters who might be starting to wonder, even just a little, about their Supreme Leader's qualifications and judgement? Is there any chance at all that some of these troubling realities—the kind so skillfully eclipsed by the banner of fear and grievance authoritarians have always raised—might see the light of day?  

The challenges to such doubts grow more formidable every day: the Crimbecile has relentlessly cast doubt on the democratic institutions—including free and fair elections—that have traditionally protected Democracy. He's purged career professionals who choose integrity over blind allegiance. 

He's ensured that any Congressperson who questions him is summarily "primaried" out of the job. He's coerced his base to abandon legitimate news media. He's bought and paid for the Supreme Court...I could go on.

        I must use the modest tools I have 
        to defy this loathsome little man.
 
SHOVEL VERSUS PEN
Alas, if only my right-leaning countrymen and women were not so afraid of history, if they could see the devastation the enabling of despots like theirs has always, always wrought. We cannot let that happen again.  

PHOTO: The White House

So...what to do? Do we, like those magnanimous citizens who accommodated other dictators, wring our liberal-elite hands and keep choosing the high road, while this egomaniacal charlatan's busy dig-
ging a tunnel under us and everything we believe in? Or do we heed the lessons of history, take the gloves off and fight to take away the shovel?

Since he's figured out how to Krazy-Glue that shovel to his tiny hands, maybe I can at least try to block his digging. I know I have only slightly more influence than the average Joe Sixpack Trump's counting on to love his worst failings. But I must use the modest tools I do have to 
defy this loathsome little man.

So I write. I submit opinion pieces to the media. I put defiant posts on Facebook. I talk to friends and family members. I make signs and placards. I stand in public protest with my like-minded compatriots.

I beg you: please don't be patient with the first American dictator. Don't think Let's give him a chance. Don't assume the system will somehow rein him in. We know this man and we know history.

Please don't believe the promises of a pathological liar. Don't hope a man who's selfishness is legendary will somehow have the slightest concern for you. Don't buy the patriot pose from a man who dodged the draft and who's repeatedly disparaged and dishonored our veterans. Don't buy the Bible bit from a deeply immoral convicted felon. Don't expect a shyster who's never once achieved legitimate success to suddenly succeed at leading a nation.

Join me in defying this aggressively insecure little fool. Find a way to speak out, and then do it. And keep doing it! 
And join me as we hit the streets in the next nationwide NoKings! protest on Saturday, October 18.

Roughly 5,000,000 of us showed up back in April. We must aim for nothing less than doubling that turnout! 

* “Popular Dictatorships: Crises, Mass Opinion, and the Rise of Electoral Authoritarianism,” by Aleksandar Matovski – assistant professor in the Naval Post-Graduate School's Department of National Security Affairs