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!

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!

SUICIDE BY BOOMERANG – Trump’s Ultimate Comeuppance

Donald Trump’s stock in trade is to so thoroughly inundate his perceived enemies with outrageousness that it confuses and exhausts us.

It reminds me of a tactic starlings use. To outwit hawks and falcons they form a murmuration, a swirling, undulating mass that confronts the predator not with individual victims, but with one huge, seemingly impenetrable target.

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, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of wrongdoing.

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

                  We know this man; he can no more resist 
                  well-placed ridicule than he can flattery.

Now this isn’t something just any Joe Blow from Kokomo can pull off. TinyHands, a monumentally insecure little man, can ignore jabs from people with no power or renown, but he simply can’t shake off a put-down by someone rich or famous. 

PHOTO: CBS News

This is how California Governor Gavin Newsom has so cleverly gotten under the guy’s 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.”

What if we—I guess it would have to be the Democratic National Committee (DNC)—identify and recruit other lead-
ers 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 lay it on so thick that, despite his all-hours rants on X, despite his phalanx of lawyers, there’s no one person to target; all he sees is a murmuration of ridicule.
 

ILLUSTRATION: MSN

PHOTO: Walter Isaacson

There’s no shortage of candidates to take up the troll—folks who’ve already provoked Trump’s rage. Rosie O’Donnell, Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Robert De Niro, Jimmy Kimmel…oh, and one who, with a little grooming, could really undo the Crimbecile: Elon Musk.

Will it work? We know this man; he can no more resist well-placed taunting than he can flattery—even, by the way, from our country’s worst enemies, using him to help ply their own evils.

Trump’s reckless, undisciplined rants are already starting to trouble some of his supporters. He’s picking up some of the signs that he and his improbable power trip have peaked. Oh...and then there are the Epstein files.

PHOTO: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images

He’s become so desperate to conceal them that he’ll do anything to distract us. Order U.S. citizens abused and killed in the streets for simply witnessing his brutal immigration crackdown. Defy Congress to start multiple wars around the world. Float the prospect of making himself President For Life.

All to distract us from the lethal—to him—trove of evidence showing he’s raped young girls.

That fact has left him as vulnerable as he’s ever been in his hyper-privileged little life. Along with the E. files, this new, right-back-atcha trick is going to do to him what he’s done to all those young women. I dream of it all catching fire deep in the void where most folks have a soul. He'll implode.

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.

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 

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

THE TRUMP CARD – How Smart Tyrants Play Wannabes

Donald Trump was raised and schooled to be a manipulator. His father, his mentor Ray Cohn and any number of vile men he’s tried to emulate drilled the lessons into him: Do whatever you want. Ignore the wishes of others. Flout the law. 

Prior to committing a despicable act, accuse your intended victim of committing the same act. If anyone objects, double down. If they persist, destroy them—if slander fails, sue them out of the water. If that fails, keep appealing till you end up before a judge whom you’ve bought and paid for.  

Never, ever admit defeat.

This is how Donald Trump lives his life. One might say it’s genius. It is not. There’s not one shred of intellect, no reason here; it’s pure rote. The way any predator acts.

PHOTO: AnimalsTime.com

NUTTY PUTTY 
And the ultimate payoff for a man leading such a life? In Trump’s case, it’s as shallow and transparent as every other aspect of his raison d'être. He’s merely an emotional adolescent desperate to feed his insatiable lust for attention.

We know Donald Trump. He’s made quite sure we do. But the scarier thing is, so do men like Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu. Say what you might about such tyrants, but both these men have shown themselves to possess some emotional and intellectual depth. Both are capable of insight, nuance, managing complexity and strategic thinking. 

Trump has none of these capacities, and these clever despots know it. In fact, they know Trump better than he knows himself. They know how wretchedly insecure he is, how gaudy and artificial the ruse of his power. And how easy it is to manipulate him.

  If your schmear hits eight figures—I appoint you to my cabinet. 

DOUBLE-DEALER
There are two kinds of “deals” Trump makes. First is what I’d call the kiss-my-ass deal. This is the kind he makes with the little people in his world, the Rudy Giulianis, the Mike Lindells. Oh, and also with his gutless Trumpublican lackeys in Congress: You brown-nose me and I hold off on “primarying” you or shitting all over you in the media. You’re soiled in my feces, but I let you survive.

Even if you’re a nobody like those MAGA goons he incited to desecrate the Capitol on January 6, as long as you commit your crimes in my name, you’re off the hook.

The second kind of Trump deal is the “business” deal. You give me something I desperately want—praise, campaign funding, my name on a new building, women…and, oh, I don’t know…the Nobel Prize—and I let you stand near me at the inauguration, share state secrets with you, maybe even—if your schmear hits eight figures—appoint you to my cabinet. 

PHOTO: Bloomberg

      This ninny presents no less a threat to our national security 
      than 19 radical Muslim terrorists at the controls of four 
      commercial airliners.

SACRED BUST
Donald Trump has put the sacred trust with which this country has endowed 45 presidents up for sale to the highest bidder. He’s not just hawking influence, not just feeding his ego, but monetizing national-treasures. Everything’s up for grabs: endangered wildlife and habitat, the National Parks, even the White House itself, branded with his gaudy, fools-gold veneer.

Most often, the deceit enriches him and his little tyrants-in-training, Don Junior, Eric and Ivanka. But blood bonds aren’t necessary to claim a slice of the pie; million-dollar bribes-cum-campaign donations will do just fine.

AI IMAGE: Western Standard

The evidence of Trump’s corruptibility just keeps mounting: 
  • his push to reward Putin for his aggression against Ukraine 
  • his “deal” to honor Netanyahu’s Gaza genocide in exchange for Trump’s “ownership” and commercial development of Gaza
  • his pardoning of Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman’s gruesome murder of an American journalist to keep the wheels greased for the $50 million in business deals struck by the Trump family cartel
  • his acceptance of a $400 million-dollar bribe—a Boeing 747, no less—from shrewd Qatari leader Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. 

Meanwhile, as Despot Light counts his coins and compliments, the real heavyweights laugh it up over the easiest exploitation they’ve ever wrangled. It’s like some young hotshot chess cheat taking on Garry Kasparov; they’re wiping the floor with him.

OUTRAGE TO ACTION
This ninny and his warped transactional MO presents no less a threat to our national security than 19 radical Muslim terrorists at the controls of four commercial airliners. Thoughtful Americans must unify, as we did after 9/11 and other national tragedies, in confronting the threat. He must be stopped.

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

OUCH! – Reaching Folks On the Fence About ConDon

On Memorial Day morning I joined a small—maybe 120 people—“NoKings” protest along the Ford Bridge here in Minneapolis/St. Paul. 

It felt good to be among like-hearted folks, and I was taken by the range of regime-change themes expressed on their mostly-hand-made signs: education, immigration, labor, Nature, veterans…

Most interesting, though, was the response of those driving by our little gathering. I’d say about 70 percent either honked their horns, gave thumbs up or at least waved cheerfully. Fewer than ten percent gave thumbs down or middle fingers up.

As encouraging as those numbers were, it’s the remaining 20 percent or so that really got me thinking. Those, I realized in a bolt of clarity, are the reason we’re out here. 

     The chances of them falling on our side of the knife 
     are looking better. We must make sure it's a soft landing.

IMAGE: FreePik

THE KNIFE’S EDGE
All those hand gestures, whether pro or con, were by 
people who already know where they stand. The crystal 
clarity of the Crimbecile’s depravity is a knife’s edge; 
you’re either on the side of competence and decency or 
you’re not. None these expressive types is going to 
change their mind.

Those passersby who remained mute, well, we don’t know what they were thinking. Some, I’d like to think, are kind, generous, patriotic Democrats; others, kind, generous, patriotic Republicans. Either way, perhaps they’re just shy. 

Maybe, just maybe, a few of them are right on that knife’s edge. And I daresay, given ConDon’s increasingly unhinged behavior, the indisputable failure of his wild stabs at economic reform, and his slipping poll numbers, the chances of them falling on our side of the knife are looking better and better. We must make sure it's a soft landing.

That’s why we must keep showing our colors, speaking truth. 

      

YEARNING FOR RELIEF
Let’s understand: Feeling aggrieved, blaming the bleeding-heart liberals, hating and fearing what they’re being told they should hate and fear, realizing they’ve bet on a pitiful little con man as their champion…it’s all exhausting. I believe that these folks—the ones on the edge—are hurting and actually yearn for relief from having to be against everything. They’d prefer, once again, to be for something.

Our challenge is to craft the message, paint the image, of what that relief looks and feels like. 

Contact your elected representatives; write an opinion piece for your newspaper; share your views on social media. And, please, show up for one of the nationwide No Kings* protests near you—coming up on Saturday, June 14. See you there!

* For more information about the No Kings marches and main sponsor Indivisible, visit: INDIVISIBLE.ORG