DEFEAT FASCISM

 There used to be a time when disasters brought Americans together. In my lifetime, some have done so. I remember well the assassination of John Kennedy and how, for a time, we all mourned as a country, not as parties or sects. One of the most enduring memories is not of a talk show host mouthing insults but of young John Jr. saluting his father's coffin.

 Then there was the bombing of the federal building it Oklahoma City. As the dust settled over the carnage, President Bill Clinton offered soothing words that convinced us that we would prevail though the gates of Hell had opened to offer us a peak.

For years, disasters damaged us but created harmony. When one part of the country suffered, we all felt pain.

Then there was 9-11. For days we joined hands and resolved that we were one. Then, as the smoke cleared, someone saw an opportunity for partisanship. It took us to a strange place. It eventually led us to a war that unsettled a large part of the Middle East and we still search for ways to overcome the effects.

The awful experience of the Covid pandemic showed us that the forces of evil will utilize a natural catastrophe to divide good people. Americans died needlessly because of the divisiveness but a political party gained traction which now threatens to destroy the America that once mourned together. It's a damned shame. What would the Galilean say?

DEFEAT FASCISM

When you think about it, the extreme right-wing fundamentalist evangelicals may be headed into a box canyon, a positive sign in the long term. It's like this:

The rise of the MAGA cult has benefited in large part from the support of the fundamentalists. How did this happen?

From the book THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY by Tim Alberta, we learn that they blossomed due to first their religion, then from fear, and finally from hatred. It didn’t arrive through study and introspection. The willing derived it by being spoon-fed rations of fear. Evil influencers preyed on minds troubled by primal fears that their lives were not progressing as they had hoped. Their belief cohort might not sustain hegemony. Dread of becoming a minority gnawed at their equilibrium.   A huge crowd of anxious prospects awaited the new alter call.

Giving them the doubt that many feel moved by their religious fervor, how did they move from the Sermon on the Mount to support the attacking of the most cherished citadel in secular America, the United States Capitol building in Washington D.C? How did they come to support a presidential candidate marked chiefly as being totally devoid of decency or morality?

Seems the next step was fear, fear that some dark force was forcing Christians to abandon their most cherished beliefs. Some were not long held. Abortion, for example, did not become a politically charged issue in the United States until the 1970s and 1980s, primarily due to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Someone saw it as wedge issue to be exploited, despite it's not being mentioned in the New Testament and only by enhancement of vague passages in the old, such as Psalm 139:13-16, which describes God's presence in the womb, suggesting to some the sacredness of life from conception.

From there it became a foundational “fear stone” in the movement of fundamentalism from religion to politics.

Gun control formed another support. Although if allowed, some Americans would vote to rescind the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, there has never been a serious suggestion by any politician or person of power. It has become, nonetheless, an issued laced with almost rabid vitriol.

Then came sexual orientation and those who are not avowed heterosexuals.

Next, the “least of those among us,” demeaned as non-producers.

Then came immigrants forced to leave their homes due to warfare among cartels battling for supremacy in meeting the insatiable demand for drugs by Americans.

Then they moved to honest, decent Americans, not excluding Jimmy Carter, Anthony Fauci, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama and family, not to mention Joe Biden.

Then anyone who spoke on behalf of supporting the planet.

Then all Democrats and anyone labelled a "liberal." They don't ascribe the word to a supporter of policies that are socially progressive and promote social welfare. They refer to those who dare provide love and grace to "the least of those among us."

The fear and hate didn’t arise from a study of scripture, it came from pulpits, first for monetary reward and then for political power, usually for both. Far too many ministers found, that for personal reasons, the rewards of fear and hate far outweighed the rewards of love and grace.

Each year demands a new set of monsters bent—according to right-wing evangelist ministers, Fox News, and political operatives—on taking away evangelicals' freedom to practice their religion. Each step moves the group of monster/victims closer to average Americans. This includes our friends and neighbors, particularly mainline Christians who still spread the love of Jesus and don't mix it with politics. All of us are in danger. After all, the hate mongers must have new fuel with which to replenish their demand for fear.

In short, they will run out of sujets de haine, subjects of hatred.

Where can they turn, then, but to themselves? Rember the Nightof the Long Knives?

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Sometimes I catch myself wondering just what America is all about. It changes over the years. It was once a bountiful land for stone-age tribes who sometimes lived in harmony, sometimes fought, sometimes traded but respected the land and left no great scars upon it.

Sometimes it was about a place where one could practice religion without government guidance or interference or the threat of being burned at the stake for one's beliefs.

Sometimes it was place where land was so plentiful that a family could not harvest its share without the help of slave labor.

Sometimes where men who had never owned a slave were willing to die in a war that meant the end of slavery.

Sometimes it was a place where opportunity was unbounded for some, restricted for others, and prohibited for others.

Sometimes it was a place from which brave men would storm beaches in the face of death to defeat fascism.

Sometimes it was a place where good people struggled to make the opportunities of this great place available for all.

For long periods, it was a land of opportunity and progress for many, a light that attracted people from all over the world who sought its promises.

Sometimes it took great steps forward to extend its promises for all.

Every once in a while, it seems to take a step backwards.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 There is a scene in the film version of Red Badge of Courage—the one starring Audie Murphy—in which the actor Andy Devine plays a character called “The Cheery Soldier.” It is an odd scene. During a frantic battle, the protagonist (Murphy) runs away. He joins a sad caravan of defeated and dying men. That night, lost and bewildered, he encounters the Devine character who exudes joy and hope, leading the young man back to his unit. Next day, he performs bravely and becomes a hero.

The allegorical example of heroism born of positivity and duty is so inimical to the standard thirst for revenge and power that it makes one tremble.

This echoes the New Testament account of Paul and Simon “locked in jail” as accounted in Acts 16-25-26:

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”

Perhaps we could all learn from these examples, those of us who believe that the forces of darkness have descended upon America. They have won. There is no doubt. The depravity of their actions has served to prove that there is no limit to what their followers will tolerate. Now they are "rubbing it in." What can we, the losers, do?

Maybe quit trying logic and anger and become the “cheerful losers.” Perhaps a display of what we consider righteousness, displaying how that makes us cheery instead of argumentative might work to make the prison doors fly open.

Who knows? It might, in some redeemable soul, cause a moment of “winner’s remorse.” If we are cheery with loss, might they develop some sense of over-optimism about the value of what they have won?

After all, they are so fond of the scriptures. Isn’t it written “ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

It is indeed, in Mark 8:36

THE CENTER

 Heard a new phrase today that fits me perfectly: "The sensible center." Do you sometimes feel like you are in a crater in the middle of "no man's land" and both sides are firing heavy artillery at one another and it passes over you in a dreadful exchange?

That's me. I don't think there is a place in the center for me. Not to trivialize the poor, but I feel that I, and many of my friends, represent the politically homeless. Life wants one to choose from the extremes these days. I don't feel comfortable with either. Here are some examples, not intended to change your mind but to illustrate how I feel as the bombs pass overhead.

I believe strongly that I have no standing on the abortion issue, and I support the privilege of a woman's deciding, along with her physician, what is best for her body.  On the other hand, the use of abortion to determine the sexual makeup of a family's children bothers me.

I believe that there is a portion of my homo sapiens colleagues, some 0.6 percent of the adult population, born with a condition called gender dysphoria. I believe they deserve acceptance, grace, and treatment. On the other hand, I accept the consensus of scientists who state that there are two sexes, male and female. Telling young children that gender is an arbitrary choice from which they may choose disturbs me.

I believe that capitalism, along with the exercise of life, must be regulated. On the other hand, I think America is often over-regulated. When one's job is to address the problems that confront dense living, one must often use regulations to meet those problems. When one's job is to write regulations, one does so, regardless. Using regulation for aspirational purposes and not for the betterment of society disturbs me.

I believe, as Oliver Wendell Holmes stated, that taxes are the price we pay for civilization. On the other hand, waste and pork-barrel spending suck the lifeblood from America. Rewarding loyalty with government largesse disturbs me.

In short, I think that societal choices are complex and not to be addressed with sound bites or on social media. For example, I think the dropping of nuclear bombs on Japan was a horrific act. But then, I was not a 22-year-old man who had landed on the beaches of Normandy in June of 1944 and had helped defeat the Nazis only to be assigned to a legendary infantry division that would have been in the first boats ashore if the United States military had landed at Kyushu.

Don't get me wrong, my safe place tends toward the left. But I don't choose blind dogma. I think, and therefore I ponder and evaluate. At the end of the day, I love America more than I love a political party.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 On May 26, the president of the United States of America commented on Memorial Day, the day we Americans honor those who died in the service of our country.

It is a day of remembrance. It is a day that we honor "Those few, those happy few, the band of brothers [and sisters]" who gave their lives for our country.

It is a day when we all take a moment to reflect on the blood of faraway places like Normandy and nearby places like Gettysburg. It is day we recall those portions of distant fields that will, in the style of poet Rupert Brooke, forever be America.

It is a day that calls for us to become Americans, not members of a political party or religious sect.

It is one of the most sacred days of the year for American patriots.

It is a day for somber reflection and remembrance.

It is a day that demands our noblest instincts.

Proving once more that there is no bottom to his insidiousness, here is what the president of the United States of America spewed upon us:

MEMORIAL DAY

Watching all the ads for ways to celebrate Memorial Day makes me sad. Some Americans can't seem to take anything at face value anymore. Any day can fall victim to fun and frivolity. 

I'll spend some time Monday in quiet reflection at a spot on our farm where a tree line sits atop a distant rise. I'll think about the man who used to sit there with me. This time of year, the sunlight begins to appear through patches of leaves. We were sitting there once and he said, quite softly, "That always reminds me of seeing those parachutes hanging from trees, sometimes with one of those boys still attached to it."

He is the same man who said of artillery attacks, "You just pray let me live one more second … just one more second."

As I'm writing this, there is distant thunder and I'm reminded of my own experience "in harm's way." I didn't thunder where I was. The rain would just come and stay for days. If you heard rumbling, it was the sound of war, and you could only wonder who was the perpetrator and who was the victim.

On this Memorial Day, let us honor the victims who left home and family to go into situations where they might have to pray, "Just let me live one more second." Many didn't.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 A single mother in my town whose husband left her with two kids and won't pay child support because "Bambi" is high rent pays the same sales tax on a quart of milk as the trust fund baby who became a multi-millionaire when he exited his mother's womb. That's why scholars call it a regressive tax.

At the same time, it has always been one of the easier taxes to impose as its collection is done in small increments and may go relatively unnoticed unlike income tax which is proclaimed clearly and loudly each April.

It's been a popular tax to pass traditionally, the sales tax has. In my state, the highway department has even chosen to fund its work with the sales tax in lieu of charging the folks directly who use the highways. That way, the single mother mentioned above, who walks to her job cleaning houses, pays for the out-of-state truckers to use our roads.

It has always been a more popular tax than one actually based on income, say one with which the trust fund baby mentioned above pays tax on wealth. Incidentally, a powerful cabal that includes a high percentage of those trust fund babies mentioned above has recently ordered national legislators to reduce the income tax on high-wealth individuals and families. They much prefer the sales tax so a billionaire who inherited vast wealth won't have to pay more than you or I for our next Tesla. They enjoy what you and I might call "The Lucky Sperm" privilege that removes the income tax and relies on the sales tax.

Yep, it's been popular.

Until now.

Folks are beginning to notice. On-line retailers are even noting it on their sales. So legislators are squirming and looking for ways to reduce the impact. Our state, our counties, and our cities all depend upon the sales tax revenue for operation. It is now becoming a target.

One wonders which entity is in the most danger.

DEFEAT FASCISM

It's hard not to think that this time is the most troubling our country has, or will, experience. It probably is, since it portends total destruction, but America has had her ups and downs.

There was 1861 when the split could have become permanent. There was 1929 when the economic system could have collapsed indefinitely. There was 1941 when the forces of fascism could have prevailed.

Then there was 1968.

 I've been watching the Netflix series on the Vietnam War in segments. As a friend remarked, it was a long time ago, but it seems like yesterday. I wasn't in America that year. She had sent me somewhere else. Of course, to paraphrase the poet Rupert Brooke, for the soldier (or sailor in my case), there will always be some corner of a foreign field that is forever home. But I wasn't here.

At any rate, I remember that my comrades and I had this sinking feeling, on hearing the reports, that our country had gone batshit crazy.

It appeared never more so for me than the night, during a lonely midwatch at a bunker atop a mountain by the South China Sea, when I picked up a day-old copy of Stars and Stripes someone had discarded and learned that that the Paris Peace Talks had ended in failure. The reason? The then president of the then Republic of South Vietnam had withdrawn from the talks.

At the time, I discarded the paper and watched a helicopter spewing rounds at a distant mountain. Every fifth round or so was a tracer, so the effect was as if someone were pouring hot rivets from a bucket in the sky. Who knows the impact of those rounds?

Years later I learned why the talks stalled. Richard Nixon, then a presidential candidate did it. He maintained a secret channel to the South Vietnamese through Anna Chennault, widow of Claire Lee Chennault, leader of the Flying Tigers in China during World War II. Mrs. Chennault had become a prominent Republican fund-raiser and Washington hostess. Through her, he convinced the South Vietnamese ambassador to withdraw from the talks until after the 1968 election for his—Nixon's—advantage.

I think back about the men, from various countries, who died within my sight that night and it becomes clear.

Donald Trump is not the first one. 

DEFEAT FASCISM

 It becomes more apparent each day that traditional political efforts won’t work against the MAGA dictatorship. It owns the congress, the courts, the presidency, and is working on the military and the media. There is no way that those in power will permit another election in a form consistent with Democracy. The January 6 thugs have formed a fledgling “brownshirt squad” and are actively recruiting members.

What is left? Perhaps what Karl von Clausewitz called “friction.” In Clausewitz's "On War", friction is defined as “the obstacles and difficulties that arise in war, making it more complex and challenging than a simple plan on paper. It's the force that makes "the apparently easy so difficult".

In other words, slow them down, make each step more difficult than the last, and wear them out.

How?

Let us put our heads together. What has worked so far? The efforts of brave lawyers for one thing. Even though they face a 6-3 negative majority in SCOTUS in significant cases, the efforts of getting cases there must be taking a toll. Also, there is the possibility that one or more of the MAGA judges will have what I call a “Thomas Beckett Moment” and shift to the side of righteousness. Our contributions will help.

Let us think more on this strategy. Comments?

DEFEAT FASCISM

Sometimes fiction is more realistic than reality. Take the current dictatorship in America. Compare it to a fictional work, the 1971 Woody Allen film Bananas. In this spoof of the Cuban revolution, the rebel leader of the fictional country of San Marcos, Esposito, seems admirable when compared with the dictator Vargas.

Then the rebels win and Exposito becomes the new dictator. In a surprise development, power has driven the leader mad. He announces that he is the ruler of San Marcos, and orders that the country's official language will be Swedish and that citizens must now change their underwear every half hour, wearing it outside their clothing so that it can easily be checked.

This wasn’t foreseen and leads to many plot escapades.

Let’s look now at two actual dictatorships during the last century. They announced their plans early, openly, and proudly, the first in Mein Kampf and the second in Project 2025. Each laid out clear plans for the resulting victory to their adherents.

Whereas the change in the film’s protagonist was a complete surprise. The results of the two real cases simply appeared as fulfillment of plans and prophecy. Their actions surprise no discerning citizen.

Can we note differences? Yes. Even the brilliant imagination of Woody Allen couldn’t have utilized the plot line of America’s dictatorship. The actions of our dictator reside far outside the boundaries of what one would imagine the inhabitants of a modern democracy would accept, even an imaginary one.

In other words, the idiocies currently flowing from our current seat of power defy logic to the point that they wouldn’t lend themselves to believable fiction such as the plot of a Woody Allen film.

Also, they just aren’t very funny. Maybe if the president grew a beard.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 The closest analogy I can think of for America's current predicament is my experience in military survival training. In a training exercise in a California desert, we were starved for four days and then sent to a mock prison camp. Enemy forces had "captured" us and held complete power. They owned the prison, the guards, the weapons, and all communication. What could we do?

"Resist," our trainers had told us. Resist and cause them effort in every movement. Wear them out and wait for any opportunity. Tell them nothing. Offer them nothing. Resist every command. Make nothing easy or simple for them.

My first encounter came when a burly guard approached me as I was standing almost naked by a large pile of tree limbs and brush gathered by former prisoners. He barked. I resisted. He knocked me over into the pile of limbs.

Resistance was a bit harder after that, but I tried.

Let us all try now. They own everything: the presidency, the legislature, and the supreme court. They will soon own the military if unchecked. Times will get harder. Things will get worse. It will not end well unless we check them with scarce resources. It will be difficult. They flaunt their power as if they have won. "Look what we can do," they jeer.

Yes. They own everything.

They think so. But they don't own our souls.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 It dawned on me this morning, the 77,302,580 didn’t make a vote, they took an oath. It wasn’t like the oath I took to protect the United States and its Constitution. It was an oath to follow a single man, Donald J. Trump.

How do votes and oaths differ?

A vote is a formal indication of a choice between two or more candidates or courses of action, expressed typically through a ballot or a show of hands or by voice.

An oath is a public pledge that a person will perform some action or duty, generally with the promise of doing so truthfully. An oath can also be used as a way of promising oneself to support a cause or an entity.

It came to me while walking with my dog this morning. We like to listen to audio books as we walk and this day’s fare was “The Last 100 Days” by John Toland, a detailed recounting of the end of WWII in Europe.

I was struck by the number of high-ranking German officers who would not surrender in the face of overwhelming odds, a surrender that would have save thousands of lives and avoided the destruction of many German cities. As their armies collapsed, generals prolonged the carnage with, “I have taken an oath to the Fuhrer never to surrender.”

I was struck by the fact that, even after Himmler told the concentration camp guards to flee and save themselves, many chose, instead, to march their prisoners until they died of fatigue or starvation.

I was struck by the thousands of suicides by those who couldn’t live in a world without Hitler, and the horrific insanity of Josehp Goebbels and his wife Magda who took their six precious children with them into death by poisoning them.

Then while walking through a quiet city park, a cold thread of abject terror ran down my spine.

This isn’t going to end well.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 While I can't say for sure what caused this insanity in other states, in mine it was the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States of America. Twice. It lulled many of us into the false assumption that America had turned a final corner leading to a righteous state.

It made me remember when I had seen witnessed an African American man allowed to sit in a movie theater in my state, in a spot chose by himself, for the first time in my life.

It made me remember when I had seen an African American family served in a restaurant in my state for the first time in my life.

It made me remember when I had seen an African American sit on a city council in my state for the first time in my life.

Now an African American and his family occupied the White House. I thought we had arrived.

Unfortunately, we hadn't. What happened next was reminiscent of the old science fiction films of the 1950s. You know, the ones in which nuclear testing had awakened some prehistoric monster who emerged full-grown from the bowels of the earth to wreak destruction. Only this time it was the monster of bigotry, prejudice, racism, and xenophobia that slithered out quietly then, emboldened, transmogrified into the monster of all monsters.

Worse still, whereas in the old movies brave people fought and destroyed the monster. (Remember: "It just might work?") This time evil people said, "We can train this monster to do our bidding." It was easy. All it took was a reshowing of "Gone With the Wind" and some jokes about watermelon patches on the White House lawn. Americans do love their myths.

So here we are, ruled by a madman and an army of monsters. Of course not all states have joined the horde.

Just enough. 

DEFEAT FASCISM

 This will not end well. Consider the great fall of fascism in 1945. As the allied armies devasted Germany from the east and the west, Nazi commanders refused to cease fighting, help stop the devastation, and save thousands of German lives because, “I took an oath to The Fuehrer to never surrender.”

Though Himmler himself had ordered some concentration camp guards to flee and save themselves, they instead gathered the remaining prisoners and forced them into death marches.

As resistant collapsed, Army commanders still tried to follow Hitler’s orders to counter-attack with divisions that no longer existed from bases in cities that had been leveled.

As the remnants of the Third Reich huddled in Hitler’s bunder, the Gestapo was still applying the death penalty to Germans caught listening to foreign radio stations.

The fruits of moral collapse became evident as thousands of Germans killed themselves and their families rather than live in a world without Hitler. The Russian Army found the bodies of the six Goebbels children poisoned by their parents prior to their own suicides.

How the power of one man is able to poison the minds of so many may be a question never answered by our books or science, only prevented by “the better angels of our nature.”

DEFEAT FASCISM

 The term “chilling effect” refers to the power of evil to influence its aims indirectly, without the need to expend resources. It is much like a dark cloud settling over America now. Honest, conscientious government workers, military leaders, journalists, and even judges are feeling its weight.

A government worker presenting facts that contradict or suggest analysis of a MAGA edict face the loss of their job and employment future.

A person who has chosen a career serving in America’s armed forces must exhibit allegiance not the oath sworn but to the goals of a fascist regime, many goals of which aim toward personal enrichment and not national security.

A journalist presenting facts contrary to party edicts faces being shut out of access to the workings of our country.

Judges making decisions based on the rule of law are seeing their families threatened with public assault through social media and faux-news services.

The long-term result? Resistance can die from lack of will without the use of much direct force, just a chilling cloud that says, “Do the right thing and you are finished.”

 

DEFEAT FASCISM

 We concern ourselves, perhaps irrationally, with causes and reasons. Given some four billion years in forming a life-force and a few million in forming the branches that led to our current species, there may be causes and reasons we’ll never uncover.

But we try. Let's give it a shot.

The best guide presently to America’s current darkness is the one that overshadowed Germany in the 1930s. So far, analysis indicates a predictable path, with some modern tweaks.

-         Fictionalize the reasons for a defeat in a war. Modern tweak: We won. This press just didn't report it that way.

-          Capitalize on any unfair resolution to a war, including a civil one, and use national catastrophes as a tool for spreading hate. Modern tweak: when there is no catastrophe use the modern advances in thought control, i.e. “social media” to convince the weak-minded that there is one.

-          Publish plans so the public can see progress.

-          Use hate to gain power.

-          Use power to defuse constitutional safeguards. Modern tweak: Infiltrate the apex of constitutional justice.

-          Demonstrate invincibility to reduce resistance.

Let’s stop here for today.

How does the power elite stop and consolidate gains? The Nazis used Kristallnacht. That’s when: “Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes.” (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

The current regime used what would have normally been an unimaginable attack on the most prestigious and sacred seat of American government, the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The message gained further power when the perpetrators were pardoned for any demonstrated participation and may now even serve in the American version of the SS.

Why is this step important?

Simple. It delivers the message that “We are in power now. We can do anything we wish. You are powerless to resist us.”

That message sinks and rots the very roots of the tree of justice upon which America depends.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 As if a dark sci-fi film is playing, America has left its home, passed through a portal, and entered a dark world. As hard as one might try, no happy journey’s end appears, at least not for the immediate future. The leaders of this tragic journey now own the three legs of our governmental stool and a majority of its wealth. The press, that much ballyhooed "Fourth Dimension" loses more prestige each day while chasing distractions.  Little friction remains to hinder the achievement of the evildoers' goals.

This does not bode well for those who will spend their productive years under the dark regime.

A large cohort will not live to pay the ultimate price. Some, having served their country and taken an oath to continue, will resist with the powers they have remaining. Some wiggle like maggots in a pile of ignorance. Some have served the agents of hate and now wait for their reward.

Will it come?

It is hard to say.

But in searching for that answer, one might assess the benefit to the agents of evil that would accrue to them should they halt in their march for domination and expend resources on rewarding the misguided.

Our most recent historical guide, the Germany of the 1940s doesn’t support the assumption.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Thoughts on tipping points. As it stands now, the orders to hate center on a relatively small cadre of usual suspects: the different, the disabled, people of color, librarians, and teachers. At some point, the hate-field will grow, and continue to grow. The movement will reach a tipping point.

When the tipping point is reached, the impacts of fascism will spread to the hitherto unmolested. Those who voted to install the fascism will begin to feel its wrath. The surprise on a supporter’s face will resemble that of a famous painting.

Will this create resistance? Perhaps.

Will this resistance overcome the worst impulses of those in power?

Not if the experience of Germany in the late 1930s is any guide, and history is sometimes our most reliable guide.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Ever wonder what has happened to America? Let’s look at some famous observers.

“In laws one should make a careful distinction between the aims sought and the way in which they progress toward that aim and between their absolute and their relative excellence.”  - Alexis de Tocqueville

“The manager who comes up with the right solution to the wrong problem is more dangerous than the manager who comes up with the wrong solution to the right problem.” – Peter Drucker

A fanciful example is that of the bull forced into an arena filled with thousands of drunken, jeering, morons there to witness the bull’s savage and tortured death. The bull goes into decision-mode and decides that his immediate danger is the red cape waving in front of him, not the little murderer behind it. He attacks the cape, the right decision based on his analysis and goal to protect himself, but fatal in the end.

A more realistic example lies in the decision that the purpose of government is to preserve the wealth of the few, the rich. Then of course the right decision, though a tragic one, is to make sure that none of the riches of the few are allocated to the safety and welfare of the many.

In an aristocracy where the purpose of government is to enrich the few, laws are simple and effective.

In a democracy where the purpose of government is to make society prosper, laws are complicated and often flawed. The ill-intended can, and do, become masters at blaming complications and flaws on a carefully selected enemy.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Today the news reports that President Two-Doll Donnie plans to announce while on his trip to Saudi Arabia next week that the United States will now refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia, according to two U.S. officials.

Public administration at the national level has degenerated to the point where, each day, the elected president of the United States of America says something monumentally stupid. The press runs to his side to report it.

Then the worst happens.

The hardcore cult enthusiasts run around saying "Nah, nah, nah, nah nah. We can do anything we want to and you can't do a goddamned thing about it.

It might be funny on a reality TV show. I don't know. It just doesn't seem, to me at least, to fit the country whose men stormed the beaches at Normandy to rid the world of a previous fascist regime.

DEFEAT FASCISM

 Each day a meme appears on social media implying that what the MAGAs are doing is okay because Bill Clinton did something similar. The memes don't bother to say whether it is true, whether Clinton "did" it, or whether Congress "enacted" it.

At any rate, this doesn't pass my Sainted Mother's "jump off a cliff" rule. Yes, "if all your little buddies were going to …." That's the one.

Oh, and by the way, am I the only one in the country that doesn't always believe in coincidences?

DEFEAT FASCISM

 So far, the MAGA cult has followed the path of the most destructive fascist government of the last 100 years. It has demonized opposing political parties, spread fear and hatred of selected racial groups, suspended the rule of law, and effectively disabled congress, putting the future of America into the hands of one figure. Whether that figure is a sole leader or charismatic figurehead controlled by selected oligarchs is open for discussion, but it really doesn't matter. What matters is what is happening and what will happen.

If the model is followed, we should be on the alert for a couple of moves.

First, there a manufactured emergency will occur in resemblance to the Reichstag fire of February 27, 1933. The cult will use this as justification for martial law.

Next, the cult will cleanse itself of dangerous internal segments that would create friction to slow the progress toward final goals. Read about the June 30, 1934 "Night of the Long Knives" here. Purity is important to fascism and any friction must cease. A group that views its own goals as more important than cult objectives is expendable. It should surprise no one if this happens to be the religious fanatically followers largely responsible for the current darkness in our country. Having served their purpose, their power is no longer essential.

In the meantime, notice how mainstream media outlets are beginning to drift more in line with party dogma in order to preserve their existence. Or, notice how major institutions of higher learning are succumbing to the demands of the book burners.

Let us just hope that when it all ends, we will not be in the line of those forced to walk by and view the corpses and carnage march.

DEFEAT FASCISM

Adolph Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Although his Nazi party was now in charge, he lacked dictatorial power. But next month a fire erupted in the Reichstag. Hitler blamed the Communists although many now believe the Nazis themselves did the deed. At any rate, the event resulted in Hitler achieving absolute power over German rule, including effectively abolishing congress.

If a modern cult wanted to use Hitler's playbook, it would certainly wish, as final step to power, the elimination of congressional power. Could it be done? Today, my state would guarantee six votes to allow the fatal act. All they would need would be a catalyst. Scary thought?

Yes, very scary. So here is my new motto for our country. Roughly? So long, it's been good to know you.