Tag: trump

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXXIV – Measuring How Far Toward Autocracy Trump Has Brought America

~ tomdolen

***. “Of all the evils that infest a state, a tyrant is the greatest; his sole will commands laws, and lords it ovr them.”
[ Euripides ]

This post presents excerpts from the New York Times editorial. “Trump’s Stifling Of Dissent Reaches A New Level”. [2/8/26. It is the first update since October, 2025]:

A]. “The crackdown on dissent and speech in Minnesota..follows a pattern that is common in countries that slide from democracy to autocracy..”

B]. “The wide-ranging abuses in Minnesota are the main reason for change….The true goal seems to be instilling fear in people who oppose Mr. Trump’s agenda.”

C]. “The acceleration in the stifling of dissent and speech is broader than what’s happening in Minnesota.”

D] “The clearest sign that a democracy has died is that the leader and his party make it impossible for their opponents to win an electin and hold power. Once that stage is reached, the change is extremely difficult to reverse.” {NOTE: The danger is what the Trump DICTATORSHIP will do to rig the November 3, 2026 and November, 2028 elections.]

Below are the 12 metrics of “The. Autocracy. Index” A 0-10 scale is used.

1]. “Stifling speech and dissent”. “4”. “The repression of speech and dissent is ‘central”. to an authoritarian takeover.”

2] “Persecuting political opponents”. “5”. “Mr. Trump’s Justice Department has become an enforcer of his interests.”

3] “Bypassing the legislature”. “4”. “When a democracy slides toward autocracy, the leader often finds ways to neuter the legislature..” {Trump has violated laws and gutted congressionally authorized agencies.]

***. “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and the. judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” [ James Madison ]

4] “Defying the courts”. “2”. “At times, the Trump administration has openly defied federal judges.”

5] “Declaring false emergencies”. “5”. “Autocrats often curtail democracy by declaring an emergency and arguing the threat requires them to exercise unusual degrees of power.”

6] “Using the military at home”. ‘2’. “Authoritarians frequently and performatively use the military for domestic control.”

***. “It is the old practice of despots to use part of the people to keep the rest in order.” [ Thomas Jefferson ]

7] Vilifying marginalized groups”. “6” “Authoritarians tend to demean minority groups, trying to turn them into perceived threats that provide justification for a leader to amass power.”

8] “Controlling information”. “2”. “Authoritarians seek to depress inconvenient truths.” [NOTE: this site disagrees with this low grade. the Trump DICTATORSHIP has taken numerous steps to control and pervert truth.]

9]. “Trying to take over universities”. “2”. “a signature policy of Mr. Trump’s second term has been his attack on higher education.” [NOTE: this site vigorously disputes this low grade for a “signature policy.”]

*** “Truth is the most precious thing. That’s why we should ration it.” [ V. Lenin ]

10] “Creating a cult of personality”. “6”. “Emperors and kings often glorified themselves by displaying their portraits everywhere.”

11] “Using power for personal profit”. “7” “Mr. Trump glories in his administration’s culture of corruption.”

12] “Manipulating the law to stay in power” “2”. “In Mr. Trump’s second term, he has shown worrisome signs of trying to entrench the power of the Republican party…” [NOTE: this site VIGOROUSLY protests this absurdly low grade – see l/6/21 !!!!!!!!!! See the persecution of ANYBODY trying to hold Trump into account !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ]

*** “The aggressiveness of governments grows in proportion to the increase of their internal despotism.”

[ Leo Tolstoy ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP. – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXXIII – ICE Exists to Enforce One Mans Will”

~ tomdolen

***. “The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others…One does not establish the dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” [ George Orwell: “1984” ]

This post presents excerpts from. “ICE Exists to Enforce One Man’s Will” {Radley Balko; New York Times; 1/25/26]. Read this – and pray. – that YOU. have an American democracy on January 20, 2029.

19]. “We can still stop these abuses of power, but we need to be clear about what we’re facing. This is no longer a conversation about law enforcement or immigration policy. This is about authoritarianism.”

4] “The lies this administration is telling about Ms. good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything. They’re a projection of power.”

10] “…the administration has embraced fear tactics long associated with totalitarian regimes. Until now, law enforcement officers in the United States rarely masked their faces….it’s just been accepted that masked policing isn’t consistent with democratic society.”

***. “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?” [ Mahatma Gandhi ]

12] “The administration has resurrected tactics that professional policing groups have deemed dangerous or counterproductive….Federal agents have shot into cars at least 10 times since September. This, too, is prohibited by most big city police agencies, in part because it’s too easy to mistake a driver’s intent.”

17] “In refusing to investigate Ms. good’s death, the Department of Justice is, at a minimum, indicating that it doesn’t believe that preventing similar deaths is important. But the real explanation may be more sinister. Since she was killed, we’ve seen multiple videos in which immigration officers refer to her death to threaten people lawfully observing or recording them. The real motivation appears to be make all the other Renee Goods out there, the liberal so-called wine moms watching over immigration raids, wonder if they might be next.”

***. “The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.” { Edmund Burke }

1] “I have been covering policing for more than 20 years and have read and parsed a lot of these statements. The Department of Homeland Security’s response after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis this month is something else entirely.”

2] “The Trump administration’s response to ms Good’s death made no such concessions….There was little empathy for her family…pronounced the shooting not only justified but an act of heroism..”

3] “It isn’t just the lying; it’s that the lies are wildly exaggerated and easily refutable…..”

5] “…since the protests in Ferguson, Mo., America has engaged in a high-stakes dialogue about police abuse and accountability….What Mr. Trump is doing with federal immigration forces has rendered those debates obsolete.”

6]. “The surge of federal forces into Minneapolis …isn’t about law enforcement at all. It is about an administration declaring. – explicitly, at times. – that the purpose of federal law enforcement isn’t to uphold the rule of law or promote public safety but to enforce the will of a single man.”

***. “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
[ Theodore Roosevelt; Republican; 26th U. S. President ]

7] “Administration officials quickly declared those shootings [Parias & Martinez] justified. – and righteous. – with hyperbolic language similar to that used after ms. good’s killing. Those claims would also later be disproved..”

8] “..nearly all of the administration’s responses to deaths in custody, shootings or other accused abuses have used maximalist language to venerate immigration officers, dehumanize their victims and villainize anyone who doesn’t support the Trump administration.”

9] ‘..after federal agents dragged Aliya Rahman, a U.S. citizen, from her car and arrested her, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson referred to her as an agitator who was obstructing immigration operations. In fact, she was trying to get to a doctor’s appointment at the Traumatic Brain Injury Center…”

11]. “Instilling fear is a drawback only if your goal is public safety. this administration has made it clear that it doesn’t want marginalized communities. – immigrants, Somali U.S.citizens, residents of Latino neighborhoods and so on. – to feel safe.”

13] “Videos from cities where Mr. Trump has sent federal agents have shown agents attempting to stop fast-moving vehicles with techniques that most police departments prohibit or reserve for rare confrontations…”

*** “Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.” [ Edward Abbey ]

14]. “It’s clear that immigration officials are routinely breaking the law.”

15]. “We’ve seen the unlawful arrest and incarceration of Somali refugees who have legal permission to be here, warrantless raids on private homes and reports of detainees be denied access to lawyers.”

16]. ‘..Todd Blanche, said on Fox News that there will be no federal investigation into her killing. The administration has already said the F.B.I. will not share the evidence it collected with the local police so they can conduct their own investigations. This is the very definition of a cover-up. It’s just being done in lain sight.”

18]. “It’s one thing to tank or slow-walk an investigation. It’s quite another to publicly declare that no investigation will happen…and then announce that you’ll be investigating the victim’s partner and supports instead.. Both paths are unethicl and corrupt….The administration’s actions…are a declaration that there will be no accountability and that it would prefer to instill fear rather than trust.”

*** “It is not infrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, – to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are pooer or weaker than themselves.” [ Samuel Adams ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Crazinesss, CXXXXII. – Constitutional Rights Under Assault In Minnesota

~ tomdolen

***. “Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.” [ John Adams; 1776 ]

This post presents excerpts from “Constitutional rights are under assault in Minnesota” [ E. Thomas Sullivan, Richard Painter; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/17/26. Both are law professors. ]

1] “During Operation Metro Surge, the American public was flooded, mostly through right-wing media and social media, with imaginary insurrection scenarios and speculation about the beginning of a civil war in Minnesota. Elon Musk posted explicitly on X…that there is an “insurrection” in Minnesota. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

2] “The claims of looming civil war are just a pretext for President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act….here is no insurrection.”

12] “Democratic accountability of public officials is being impaired. It must be restored. The survival of our republic depends upon it.”

***. “Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins.” [ John Locke ]

3]. “There are..important rights at stake. We begin with the First Amendment: right to freedom of speech and assembly, which includes the right to peacefully protest without harassment, arrest and assault by federal officers.”

4] “Next comes the Second Amendment, violated in the killing of Alex Pretti. Pretti should not have been assaulted, much less executed for having a legally licensed, holstered handgun that was not used to threaten federal officers.”

5]. “The Fourth Amendment requires that a search warrant be authorized by a judge to enter a home or work[place, not just an ICE “administrative warrant.”

*** “We must support our rights or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties.” [ James Madison ]

6] “Fifth Amendment [due process] requires that the government gives a person adequate notice of criminal charges and an opportunity to defend oneself. The decisionmaker must be neutral and unbiased.”

7]. “The Tenth Amendment embodies the federalism doctrine governing the relationship between States’ rights and the power of the federal government. Rights that are not delegated to the federal government nor denied to the states in the Constitution are vested and flow to the states and to the people.”

8] “Furthermore, the 10th Amendment guarantees Minnesota the right to enforce its own laws, unless expressly preempted by federal law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. this includes criminal statutes..”

*** “Where the rights of men are equal, every man must finally see the necessity of protecting the rights of others as the most effectual security fro his own.” [ Thomas Paine; 1795 ]

9] “Under the 14th Amendment, persons born in the U.S. or naturalized, and subject to the jurisdiction, are granted both U.S. citizenship in a state. These important citizenship rights…cannot be taken away by the federal government. ICE cannot rely on immigration laws to arrest natural-born citizens in Minnesota or anywhere else.”

10] “Sadly, much of the blame is with the Supreme Court and its highly controversial 2024 criminal immunity decision in Trump v. the United States. When a president is immune from criminal prosecution, his subordinates…think that immunity also flows through them…inferring that they can commit crimes, even murder, and get away with it.”

11] “As for the Insurrection Act….There is no insurrection.”

*** “In every human breast, God has implanted a principle, which we call love of freedom; it is impatient of oppression and pants for deliverance.” [ Phyllis Wheatley; 1774 ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXXI. – Americans Respond to Trump’s Iranian War

~ tomdolen

***. “Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor – with the cry of grave national emergency.” [ General Douglas MacArthur; 1957 ]

“An unconstitutional, unlawful war” [letters to the editor; Minnesota Star Tribune; 3/4/26} Excerpts:

1] In the United Nations charter, “The U.S. and all signatory nations agreed to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations and agreed to wage war only in self-defense or when authorized by collective action. The charter is a binding treaty obligation of the U.S….and thus one of the laws that President Donald Trump swore to “take care” to faithfully execute… Iran did not attack the United States. There is no evidence that any attack by Iran was imminent….Trump has also acted without any congressional authorization, thereby violating the constitutional order that places the power to declare war in the hands of Congress.” [ T.V. ]

*** “Kill, Destroy, Sack, Tell Lies; How much you want. After victory nobody asks why?” [Adolf Hitler]

2]. “There are no stated objectives, yet Trump tells us the bombing of Iran will continue until they are achieved. He promised voters that he would end wars but over the past year he has ordered military strikes in at least six nations…Trump is a pathological liar…He is responsible for the recent killing of Americans by immigration officers, the arrests of hundreds of innocent people…He does not tolerate political dissent and speaks vilely of people of color….Trump is a major threat to global stability..” [ C. D. ]

*** “When people speak to you about a preventative war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.” [ Dwight D. Eisenhower ]

3]. “After the U.S. attack on Iran, Trump commented on the first few deaths of American service personnel in Kuwait this weekend. He said they were “true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.” But in 2018 at a ceremony in France, he called American service members who died in war “suckers” and “losers.” Well…which is it? Maybe in wars he starts it is different because he is scrambling to justify his attack while deflecting the problems of his domestic agenda…” [ S. O. ]

*** “That wars and rumors of wars are the great threats to political stability and to liberty needs no demonstration. Total war means total subjugation of the individual to the state.” { Justice Robert Jackson ]

4] “What do the Trump administration’s recent actions in Minnesota, Venezuela and Iran have in common? A lot. All are examples of exactly the types of behaviors tat we can expect of an authoritarian leader seeking to consolidate his hold on power. …authoritarian leaders often pursue a dual strategy of oppression at home and military adventurism abroad. The latter is often used to distract from or provide a rationale for the former. The threat of [interference] by Trump and his allies in the coming midterm elections…was elevated even before the recent use of force overseas. Now that threat is greater. The real danger will come from the real or manufactured threat of counterattacks and terrorism stemming from these wars. Given the track record of Trump and his enablers, it doesn’t take much imagination to envision these being used as pretext for the curtailing of civil liberties or the promotion of conspiracies about election integrity, or whatever else Trump and his enablers come up with to ensure the election outcome they want. For dictators, the more wars, the better.” [ T.S. ]

*** “The friends of humanity will depreciate war, wheresoever it may appear; and we have experienced enough of its evil in this country to know it should not be wantonly or unnecessarily entered upon.” [ George Washington ]

5]. From Minnesota Star Tribune 3/5/26. “letters to the editor”:
“Hours before the strikes began, the foreign minister of Oman, who was mediating negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, said “substantial progress” had been made and a deal is “within our reach.” What was Trump’s rush to war? On March 3, in the White House, Trump explained to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, without offering one shred of evidence, that Iran was going to attack first.” he said, “I felt strongly about that.” So there you have it. Trump’s explanation for putting sons and daughters in harm’s way. His explanation for the death and destruction throughout the Middle East. He had a feeling.” [ M.H. ]

***. “{The tyrant] is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.” [ Plato ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXX. – Donald Trump and The Golden Calf!!!

~ tomdolen

***. “The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone; the civilized man, to idols of flesh and blood.”
[ George Bernard Shaw ]

“Trump’s ego fosters a cult of personality” [Peter Baker; New York Times; 2/16/26}. Excerpts:

1] “After a year back in the White House, Trump’s efforts to promote himself as the singularly dominant figure in the world have become so commonplace that they no longer seem surprising. He regularly depicts himself in a heroic, almost godly fashion, as a king, as a Superman, as a Jedi knight, as a military hero, even as a pope in a white cassock.”

2] “..what he is doing in his second term as president comes closer to building a cult of personality the likes of which has never been seen in American history.” No other U.s. presidents “..went as far as Trump has to create a mythologize, superhuman and omnipresent persona leading to idolatry.”

3]. “a group of cryptocurrency investors has shelled out $300,000 to forge a 15-foot tall, gold-covered bronze statue of Trump called “Don Colossus” to be installed at his golf complex in Doral, Fla.”

*** “Their idols are silver and gold, the works of men’s hands. They that make them are like them; so is everyone that trusts them.” [ Psalm 115: 4, 8 ]

4] “Cults of personality are traditionally associated with dictators and demagogues, not democrats. They are figures like Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Benito Mussolini ans…Vladimir Putin..”

5] “Personality-driven politics serve to bind followers of a movement to their leader more than to any particular policy prescription, making his success or failure their own…The leader is presented as infallible, uniquely qualified, even divinely delivered for this moment in history.”

6]. “Trump has played to these themes since taking the national stage. “I alone can fix it,”..”I was saved by God to make America great again”…”

*** “Comrades! The cult of the individual acquired such monstrous size Chiefly because Stalin himself, using all conceivable methods, supported the glorification of his own person.” { Nikita Krushchev; closed session speech of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party; 2/23/1956 ]

7] “The efforts to exalt himself..have accelerated in the past year far beyond his first term and have increasingly come to resemble eccentric regimes in far corners of the world.”

8]. “There is no settled definition of a cult of personality, but for us tis qualifies,” Benjamin E. Goldsmith of the Australian National University and Lars J.K. Moen of the University of Vienna, who have studied Trump’s hold on his supporters, said in a joint email.”

9]. “For us, this is the major threat to U.S. democracy from Trump’s cult-like following,” they wrote. “Congress is transformed into an enabler, even when the executive makes disastrous policies, undermines the rule of law or might attempt to fix elections. The system can transform into an electoral autocracy. Our bet is that we’re already far along that path.”

*** “What makes a cult a cult is not its religion..but the practice of mind-control techniques, usually by a charismatic leader, that robs its members of their “independence of thought.”” [ Frank Rich: “Heaven’s Gate – gate”; New York Times; 4/17/1997 ]

***. “Nothing doth more hurt in a State than that cunning men pass for wise.” [ Francis Bacon ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXVII – “Nicht Schuldug”

~ tomdolen


*** “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!”
[ Isaiah 5: 12-113 ]

In the Nuremberg Trials, 22 top Nazis were on trial for their part in “Crimes against peace, War crimes, Crimes against humanity, committed by the infamous Nazi regime. Many responded “Nicht Schuldig” to accusations of their own guilt.

In more recent times, many top executives of the tobacco industry, when asked about harmful effects of tobacco – essentially replied “Nicht Schuldig.”

Currently, trials are beginning for the social media industry. In the past, top executives have responded, essentially, “Nicht Schuldig”. to accusations their products might be harming people, especially young people.

This post concerns the effort by top officials of the Trump DICTATORSHIP to declare. “Nicht Schuldig” when questioned about the conduct of ICE thugs on American streets. Please consider excerpts below”

A]. “Not giving an inch. Even as an American is killed.” [Ramesh Ponnuru: Washington Post Weekly; 2/1/26]

7] “…putting the administration’s enemies in their place is what the surge of immigration enforcement in Minnesota was always about.”

1] Normally, a government would express condolences to the family, promise the public a full investigation. “But the Trump administration views such niceties as weakness. Looking weak, giving an inch to the critics, must be avoided at all costs.”

6] “.. the statements are also signs of moral rot and civic irresponsibility.”

*** “If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.” [ Samuel Johnson ]

2] “so Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem…described the victim, Alex Pretti, as someone who “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” He had, she said, been “brandishing” a gun.”

3] “All available videos suggest otherwise. Noem was either lying or speaking with an indifference to truth that is morally indistinguishable from lying..”

4]. “In November, a federal judge concluded that Bovino had “lied multiple times”…”

5] “FBI Director Kash Patel contributed false statements about the law..”

8]. “On the day of this latest shooting, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent Walz a letter listing the administration’s demands..”

9] “If the administration were consciously pursuing a strategy optimized for producing confrontation rather than for bringing down the number of illegal immigrants, it would be proceeding just as it has been.”

*** “The soul and spirit that animates and keeps up society is mutual trust.” [ Robert South ]

B} “ICE chief: No apologies for deaths”. [Madeleine Ngo, Michael Gold; New York Times; 2/11/26]

1] “Top immigration officials defended the administration’s mass deportation campaign during a congressional hearing Tuesday and repeatedly declined to answer questions about the fatal shootings of two U.s. citizens in Minneapolis.”

2] “Despite bipartisan outrage last month after federal agents killed Alex Pretti, House Republicans have largely returned to a staunch defense of federal immigration enforcement.”

3] “Pressed by Democrats to apologize to the families of two people killed in Minneapolis – Pretti and Renee Good – Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said he welcomed the opportunity to speak with their families in private. But he said he would not apologize or comment on the shootings.”

4] “Asked whether he thought Pretti deserved to die, Rodney S. Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, also said he would not comment on open investigations.”

5] “During the hearing, Lyons declined to say how many ICE agents had been fired or dismissed for misconduct on the job.”

6] “Scott also declined to tell lawmakers how many agents had been disciplined for misconduct in recent immigration crackdowns.”

*** “Free governments have committed more flagrant acts of tyranny than the most perfectly despotic governments we have ever known.” [ Edmund Burke ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXVI – “When ICE comes for our kids’ caregivers, no one is safe”, XVIII

~ tomdolen


***. “Human dignity, economic freedom, individual responsibility. These are the characteristics that distinguish democracy from all other forms devised by man.” [ Dwight D. Eisenhower; Republican; 34th U.S. President ]

“How ICE has upended life in Minnesota” [Following are excerpts from an address given by Edina Mayor James b. Hovland. at the U.S. conference of Mayors; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/6/26 ]

10] “If enforcement continues as it has, we will not be debating immigration alone. We will be confronting the long-term damage done to the relationship between government and the governed. And that is a reckoning no republic should take lightly.. [ “…the relationship between government and the governed.” ]

6]. “In just a few short weeks, this is what we have learned: No city can thrive without the rule of law and no nation can govern without borders; but enforcement, as currently practiced, is not merely removing individuals, it is hollowing out civic life, undermining public safety and leaving local leaders to pick up the pieces.. A democracy cannot prosper when enforcement is divorced from proportionality, clarity and humanity.. The strength of our country has never rested solely in the rigor of its laws; but in the confidence of its people that those laws are carried out with fairness and wisdom.”

2] “We have observed, first, a deep chill of uncertainty settle over many lawful, hardworking residents – citizens and noncitizens alike, and we have seen enforcement as visible, sudden and physical; it does not stop neatly at the door of those it seeks. It spreads outward…”

9]. “So this, then, is the message from Minnesota: Immigration enforcement, when conducted without close coordination with local realities and respect, does not merely remove individuals – it reshapes communities. It alters behavior, weakens trust, and imposes costs that towns and cities will carry long after the headlines fade.”

*** “This is what I call the American idea, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. – a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God.” [ Theodore parker ]

1]. “We are told the actions are precise. – they are not. We are told their effects are contained. they are not. Fear has not confined itself to a single household or status. Citizens withdraw alongside noncitizens. Law-abiding residents learn that invisibility feels safer than participation.”

3] “Second, there is an economic reckoning. In Minnesota, our restaurants, food-processing plants, construction sites, elder-care facilities and hospitals rely on immigrant labor. When enforcement actions are abrupt, entire workforces can vanish overnight. – not only undocumented workers, but legal employees who choose silence or absence over risk.”

4] “Third, we face the paradox of public safety. Local law enforcement, sworn to protect all residents, finds its work harder when communities fear that any interaction may carry federal consequence.”

5]. “Finally, there s the burden placed on local government. Mayors and city council members are left to explain federal actions we do not control, to calm fears we did not create, and to mend relationships strained by forces beyond our municipal boundaries.”

***. “No government is respectable which is not just. Without unspotted purity of public faith, without sacred public principle, fidelity, and honor, no mere forms of government, no machinery of laws, can give dignity to political society.” [ Daniel Webster ]

7] “In these trouble-filled days, the nation should know that Minnesota has no resisted legal immigration enforcement; it has resisted excess. it does not reject law; it rejects lawlessness clothed in authority. It does not deny the nation’s right to govern its borders; but it insists that such governance be worthy of and deferential to a free people.”

8]. “The future of immigration policy in America will not be shaped by those who merely cheer or condemn; but by those who demonstrate. – through practice and wisdom. – that security and humanity can coexist; that enforcement can be both firm and lawful; and, that the dignity of persons need not be a casualty in the implementation of policy.”

11] “In time, when this chapter in Minnesota history is read, not in the headlines, but in history, I hope it may be said that when the nation faltered between fear and fairness regarding who deserves to live in our country, that Minnesota chose the harder path; not merely to oppose what was wrong but to help build what is right.”

***. “This will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” [ Elmer Davis ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXIII. – “When ICE comes for our kids’ caregivers, no one is safe”

~ tomdolen


***. “Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any departure from it, under any circumstance, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.” [ Edmund Burke ]

This post is the 16th in a series of stories about the impact of the Trump DICTATORSHIP’s ICE thugs on the lives of ordinary people – like YOU. The trauma inflicted on people, neighborhoods, communities, cities throughout Minnesota will. NOT. end when the ICE thugs and Trump DICTATORSHIP end their cruelties.

This post presents comments by ordinary Minnesotans: “We need recourse to this lawlessness” [letters to the editor’. Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/7/26]. Excerpts follow:
1] “If you want to do something about lawless immigration enforcement…Call your congressional representatives and tell them to support the Bivens Act and the ICE and CB Constitutional Accountability Act. The Bivens Act would allow citizens to recover damages for constitutional violations by federal officials. The Constitutional Accountability Act would recognize that federal, state and local law enforcement agencies should have the same civil liability for officer misconduct that private employers have for their employees under the legal doctrine “respondeat superior.” [H.R.]

2] “In the rush to destroy the personal lives of individuals it seems the bosses at the Department of Justice are destroying due process and the rule of law….This collateral damage threatens everyone, regardless of political affiliation.” [ G.H. ]

3] “The problem is that federal immigration agents continually break the laws they are supposed to uphold, defying the Constitution and courts that protect us all. When Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border Control agents assault, arrest or deport U.S. citizens, they break the law….ICE even breaks the law and its own policies when undocumented immigrants it detains are denied access to attorneys or due process.” [ R.C. ]

4] “Minnesotans won’t forgive that easily”…….”Maybe Homan’s expectation is that Minnesotans will forgive that one of his own shot a nonimmigrant citizen who was pulling away when he stepped in front of her vehicle. Shot in the head. According to our highest officials, her killer is “immune” from prosecution. We won’t forget that or the videoed killing of a disarmed protestor lying facedown on the ground, by a cohort of Border Patrol agents. Ten shots in his back. We won’t forget the brutal weeks of masked gunmen roaming throughout our state…. Frozen in our memories are the taunts, the shoving, the teargassing of nonviolent protestors and constitutional observers by these thugs, the many cruel acts of lawless vengeance on the people of our state.” [ S.U. ]

5] “The political theater is the goal itself”…..”The policies that are tearing our state apart were cooked up by an aging narcissist who brags about his wildly inconsistent dictates [President Donald Trump]; lying and immoral opportunists who embrace cruelty [Vice President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem]; and a trio of jingoist sadists who proudly trumpet their hatred of nonwhite immigrants [White House advisor Steven Miller, Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino]. Oh, and then there are the “influencers” who alter video and post laughable lies [whistles are dangerous weapon, etc.]….The “policy” is to grow their power by whipping up a MAGA base with fear and hatred of immigrants….The surge’s only purpose is performance cruelty.” [P.D. ]

6] “My grandma would be swearing, too” …”The occupants of ..]the Whipple Building].. need to understand that we are not going anywhere, and we will protest them to our last breath. These jackbooted thugs have brought it on themselves. I’m sorry if this writer’s delicate sensibilities were offended, but he should realize that if ICE agents had showed up at his polite, uplifting protest, the crowd would have turned on them with the same language as they were using at the Whipple Building.” [ P.S. ]

*** “Here in America we are descended in blood and spirit from revolutionaries and rebels – men and women who dared to dissent from accepted doctrines. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.” [ Dwight D. Eisenhower; WW II General; Republican 34th U.S. President ]

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXXII. – ‘PRESIDENT. FOR. LIFE..

~ tomdolen

*** “For one person alone to have the Government of a people in his hands, would be too great a Temptation. It tends to excite and draw forth the Pride of man, to make him unsufferably haughty; it gives him too much liberty to exert his corruption and it encourages him to become a Tyrant and an oppressor, to dispense with Laws and break the most solemn oaths.” [ John Barnard ]

This post presents excerpts from. “PRESIDENT FOR LIFE….Donald Trump is trying to amass the powers of a king.” [ J. Michael Luttig; The Atlantic; December, 2025]. Mr. Luttig is a former federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth District. He was appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991.

4] “..Trump is different from all prior presidents in his utter contempt for the Constitution and America’s
democracy.” [Read this again – think what this says]

3] “Trump proved in 2021 that he would do anything to remain in the White House.”

11]. “Trump has turned the federal government against the American people.”
[*** This is written BEFORE the ICE terrorism unleashed against Minnesota***]

8] “For anyone who doubts that Trump is contemplating a monarchical reign, consider how very far down that road he already is. Since returning to office, he has sought absolute power, unchecked by other branches of government, the 50 states, or the free press. On the first day..he launched a direct attack on the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment……. He has arrogated to himself Congress’ power to levy tariffs…….. He has usurped Congress’ spending and appropriation powers……. He has likewise usurped Congress’ power to establish executive-branch departments and agencies….unilaterally overhauling the U.S. government.”

***. “Uncontrolled power, in the hands of an incensed, imperious and rapacious conquerer, is an engine of dreadful execution; and woe be to that country over which it can be exercised.” [ Thomas Paine ]

1] “The 47th president prefers to stir feelings of fear, vulnerability, hopelessness, and political inevitability – the sense that he, and only he, can rescue the nation from looming peril.”

2] “The Founders of our nation foresaw a figure like Trump, a demagogue who would ascend to the presidency and refuse to relinquish power to a successor chosen by the American people in a free and fair election.”

5] “Witnesses before the January 6 committee testified that Trump expressed support for hanging Pence while the attack was under way.”

6] “among his first acts after being sworn in again was pardoning or commuting the sentences of every person convicted in connection with January 6. He then set about exacting revenge on the American justice system.”

***. “Every tyrant who has ever lived has believed in freedom – for himself.” [ Elbert Hubbard ]

7]. “Today, Trump has vastly greater powers than he did in 2020…a willing vice president….Trump’s party controls both houses of Congress…The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has paved the way for a third Trump term, by essentially granting him absolute immunity..”

9] “The Supreme court..has largely given the president its imprimatur to continue his power grab. It has either effectively reversed lower-court rulings against the president using the so-called shadow docket, or allowed the administration to proceed until the Court determines the constitutionality of various actions, by which time the damage to the Constitution, the U.S. government, and American society will have been done, as the justices well know.”

10] “The Founders built layers of safeguards into the American system of government to constrain a president…But Trump has run roughshod over these fail-safes too.”

***. “The technique of acquiring dictatorship over what has been a democracy…always involves the same mixture of bribery, propaganda and violence.” [ Bertrand Russell ]

12] “Trump has always told us exactly who he is. We have just not wanted to believe him. But we must believe him now..
– “This is the man who said in January 2016, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot sonebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters..”
– “The man who proposed in 2022 that the “Massive Fraud” he alleged in the 2020 election “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” and who proclaimed, soon after reassuming office, “He who saves his Country does not violate any law.”
– “The man who, when asked the question “Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution as president?,” answered, “I don’t know.”
– “The man who said in August that he can “do anything I want to do,” because he’s president.”
– “The man who has demanded that his attorney general and Department of Justice immediately prosecute his enemies..”
– “and the man who summoned American military generals from around the world to Quantico, Virginia, to tell them that “America is under invasion from within.” repeatedly describing the enemy invasion as being by the “radical left,” a term he now seemingly uses to characterize all of his political opponents.”

13] “We have been given the high charge of our forebears to “keep” the republic they founded a quarter of a millennium ago. If we do not keep it now, we will surely lose it.”

***. “The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain neutrality in times of moral crisis.”
[ Dante Alighieri ]

So – what are YOU going to do???????? YOU may have one last chance to end the Trump DICTATORSHIP – on November 3, 2026. – vote out. EVERY REPUBLICAN. WHY?? Because they have NOT honored their oath to defend the Constitution. they’ve been to busy defending Donald Trump – and they’ll do it more.

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, CXXX – Time for Tom Homan to. PUT. UP. OR. SHUT. UP!!!!

~ tomdolen


*** “One lie engenders another – Once committed, the liar has to go on in his course of lying; it is the penalty of his transgressions.” [ Francis Jacox ]

On Thursday, February 12, 2026. – Trump “border Czar” Tom Homan said Operation Metro Surge had yielded “successful results” in the Twin Cities, including the arrests of 4,000 people. [“an end in sight”; Sarah nelson; Minnesota Star Tribune; 2/13/26]

PROVE IT!!!! PUBLICLY release the mug shots, the names, the addresses, the criminal records of the 4,000 “worst of the worst.” Every police department n America would have specific details.

Homan claimed “..we’re leaving Minnesota safer.” PROVE. IT!!!!! Show us who the 4,000 “worst of the worst” are the Trump DICTATORSHIP claims to have taken off Minnesota streets.

If Homan refuses to give the American public the. PROOF. of taking 4,000. “worst of the worst” off American streets. – then this question arises: Do “we” have a democracy, where government is accountable to its citizens or not????? If government, ANY government, claims to have done something like arrest 4,000 people – back it up with PROOF – the REAL mug shots, names, etc.

Ronald Reagan used to say – “Trust, but verify.” The Trump DICTATORSHIP wants Americans to believe them. – give us REASONS TO BELIEVE: produce the proof ‘our” government really did arrest 4,000 “worst of the worst” in Minnesota. – show America the 4,000 mug shots, real names, etc.

Tom Homan. – PROVE IT. Prove you are not a liar. – give America the identification of the 4,000. “worst of the worst”. you claim to have taken off Minnesota streets in “Operation Metro Surge.”

Consider this “letter to the editor: “When truth becomes optional, a nation loses its shared foundation. Democracies don’t collapse overnight. They fade when leaders decide accuracy doesn’t matter and citizens are told to ignore what they know to be real.”

“If we can’t trust our government to speak truthfully and act transparently, America as we know it cannot endure. The only safeguard left is a public that insists facts matter, even when they’re uncomfortable. Because once the lie becomes the point, democracy has already begun to slip away.” [ P.N.: “Hold fast to the truth”; Minnesota Star Tribune; 1/29/26]


*** “There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily.” [ George Washington: 7/31/1795 ]



What are YOU going to do????? Will YOU make YOUR voice heard – DEMAND ICE release the names of the 4,000 “worst of the worst” it. CLAIMS. to have arrested off Minnesota streets in “Operation Metro Surge”. Otherwise, WHY can YOU trust the Trump DICTATORSHIP to EVER tell YOU the TRUTH on ANYTHING??????
this should be easy – they claim to have arrested 4,000 “criminals”. – PROVE. IT. !!!!!!!!!!!!