ICE's masks won't protect them forever.
They will never outlive the shame of their actions
TAT readers,
To many, the current situation with our fascist Republican Party and their dear leader, seems hopeless but take heart, it is not. Every single day, honest Americans who believe in our constitution, true American values and “love thy neighbor,” grow stronger. Our numbers are growing and fast. Our activism is growing apace with our numbers. We are not winning… yet, but we are progressing and in the end, victory will be ours. Any reading of US history will validate this. The reason that I raise this point is that one of the most egregious issues now before us, is the physical, legal and unconstitutional assaults by masked ICE agents and those in associated executive branch law enforcement. I have come to call these thugs, LENO or… Law Enforcement in Name Only. Today I want to talk to you briefly about the LENO crowd.
Today’s essay is something that popped into my head, as we watch courageous patriots dressed in inflatable cartoon costumes and naked bike riders in Portland, along with the brave Chicagoans filling the streets along with 50,000 marathoners, do the most patriotic thing there is, defending our freedom. They are not the first as we recall from Los Angeles, DC and other cities around the nation. At every turn, the administration and the entire Republican Party are being righteously opposed, in regard to the fascism of the administration and the spinelessness of Republican elected officials and their voters.
The point of today’s message is that we must make these masked hoodlums understand that this doesn’t end well for them and their families. Growing up in small towns and the rural Midwest, I know well just how devastating it can be for a person or, them and their families to experience community shame. My friends raised in big cities with close-knit neighborhoods, know the same. Professionally, there is often no recovery from the shame of breaking the law, acting unconstitutionally or behaving in a cruel manner towards co-workers and clients. Simply put, there will be no safe haven for those behind the masks when this painful and unnecessary era of American history, is over.
Now, let’s move on from the masked hoodlums and talk a bit about the silent Republican voters who imposed a fascist regime onto the American people. There are several categories of those who voted for Republicans in 2024. There are those so brainwashed by a combination of oligarch enabled (US and others like Russian) influence operations, amplified by Republicans, their media teams and the countless MAGA Republican “influencers.” Combined with mainstream media cowardice, they have nearly dismantled our constitution and imposed all manner of immoral and unconstitutional aggression against all of us. These people will, based on countless peer-reviewed studies, not recover from their brainwashing. It’s just how the radicalization process works. Yes, this is precisely in my professional wheelhouse to understand.
Then there are those who voted Republican, just because they could make more money. These are the selfish, anti-patriots who only care for themselves. There are also those who are not fully radicalized that fell for the Republicans false narratives during the election season, about inflation and immigration. Finally, there are those who are so susceptible to peer pressure that they cowardly went along with the Republicans because they were afraid that their family or neighbors would find out that they did not. There are a couple of other more minor categories, but with a full one-third of Americans willing to impose fascism on all of us and to watch silently when today’s Republicans began dismantling our republic, these categories matter less.
Speaking directly to the cowardice of Republican voters who now are watching the deserved outrage and hate against the administration, the party and voters, they have slunk back under a dark, dank rock to hide from the repercussions of that hate. Now to be clear, I traditionally don’t associate with the word “hate.” It’s a human condition that severely limits understanding, compassion and the free exchange of ideas. Still, hate is the proper word for what is building all across America against the administration, billionaires supporting Republicans, the entire elected Republican party and most tragically, their voters.
That hate no matter how deserved, is what this administration has imposed onto all of us, by virtue of dismantling the constitution, deploying thugs into the street to attack and unlawfully arrest and detain human beings without due process and by stripping the rights of non-white, female and truly patriotic Americans. Today’s GOP is the antithesis of patriotic. Republicans have been conditioned to hate anyone disagreeing with their aberrant views on religion and patriotism. For a decade, the opposition has tried every tactic possible to talk with, listen to and work with these MAGA GOP zombies, but to no avail.
As a nation, this is an excellent parallel experience leading up to and throughout the Civil War, 1861-1865, that cost our nation over 600,000 dead and countless others wounded. It devasted farms, cities, manufacturing and everything else of value in our nation. Today’s Republicans are little different than those with Confederacy allegiance in the civil war era. That era lasted and still exists to this day. It has the same ideology of what I term in the modern era as, The four horsemen of the MAGA Apocalypse: Autocracy, Oligarchy, Christian Nationalism and Political Violence.
In the 1860s, the oligarchs of the South were plantation owners, shipowners of the slave trade and those who imported and exported the products of slave labor and the exploitation of poor whites, often called the pejorative, “crackers” who were treated little better than slaves. These facts speak to the White Christian Nationalism and oligarchy of the old south. The war represents the political violence and autocracy, under the tutelage and political leadership of folks like Jefferson Davis and his ilk, while that the plantation owners and shippers in the slave trade and import/ export business, were the oligarchs. As the old saying goes, “everything old is new again.
That ideology would live until today in the Republican Party, like the Southern Democrats then. Congress was a hotbed of violence leading up to the civil war, with over 70 recorded fights and brawls on the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate. A South Carolina congressman named Brooks, nearly beat Senator Sumner of Massachusetts to death with a cane, while unconscious and bleeding on the senate floor. There was 30 person brawl on the floor of the House of Representatives over the issue of slavery. Pistols were drawn occasionally and there were challenges to a duel as well.
The press in a hurry to profit from the sensationalist reporting, made matters worse by inciting more hatred between slave and abolitionist opponents. In my opinion and based on my reading of history, I fear for another era of such violence, not only in congress, but on our streets, towns and cities. While some left media is guilty now too, it is the FOX News, Newsmax and OAN types that are guilty today of inciting hatred that begats violence. This would not be the first time in American history that mainstream media incited a war. During the Yellow Journalism era, William Randolph Hearst’s media war with Joseph Pulitzer, shoved America into the Spanish American War.
"America has been down the road of “fake news” before. It was called the Yellow Journalism era. It led to a global war with Spain, all based on sensationalist and dishonest reporting, from the newspapers of the era’s media oligarchs, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. It also is assessed to have hastened the anarchist assassination of President McKinley." - Newsrooms, sugar-coating today’s GOP, supports their ongoing coup - Truth about Threats - Cobaugh - September 6th, 2025
"What began in ink was spiraling into lead and steel. It took 16 years to develop from the introduction of the telegraph to the Civil War. Undoubtedly, the fight over slavery caused that conflict, but the newspapers fed it, amplified it, exaggerated it." - How a newspaper revolution sparked protesters and influencers, disinformation and the Civil War - The Smithsonian - By Jon Grinspan, Political History Curator, Smithsonian Institution - October 7th, 2024
I discussed the issue of a US civil war with a dear old friend often, before he passed away at the beginning of the year. He had worked in US national security for roughly 70 years and in all manner of positions from the entry level in his teens, all the way up through the most elite levels. His experiences included many of our most well-known historical personalities, including presidents. We both knew our history and watched all going on in the world and at home, through the honest lens of well-written history and our personal experiences. Even he, firmly believed before he passed away, that a US civil war on some level had better odds of breaking out than not. I begrudgingly in later conversations, had to finally admit that we were in agreement.
That’s what hatred brings to the table and so I do my best to avoid the word, and watch out for those who wear hatred as a sign of their political views. This is the MAGA GOP with their incessant and hateful culture wars. Yes, there is a very real hate building in the opposition as well, and this is what frightens me. This ends poorly for all of us if we don’t work together to stop the hate mongers from continuing to spew their lies and conspiracy theories, that without restraints, will indeed drive us to conflict. That means that those silent and ashamed GOP voters need to be honest with themselves and admit that they were wrong… dead wrong. Then, to avoid the predictable shame that they will incur once the nation is free from the fascists, they must pitch in and help restore our true values. Those values are not Democratic Party values, but American constitutional values.
To shift back to the masked Federal aggressors staining our streets with blood, damage and violence, let’s recall that their names and faces will be known and I predict in the not too distant future. Within any government, there are patriots fed up with the lies, corruption and violence. They may be the ones to share lists of names and faces. There are other whistle blowers, hackers and nation-state cyber operations that can and will access those lists, which are in several databases all around the national security community. Most governments are as leaky as sieves when it comes to data.
These masked thugs, with tacit approval to be very aggressive, will eventually find their way to federal prisons, state prisons, county and city jails, etc. A judge has already placed a restraining order on them, although like most such orders, they are mostly ignored. Those who don’t, will see their professional careers wither on the vine, even if they do manage to keep their jobs. Just like RICO investigations, they will start by asking the least guilty to roll on those above them, and those who proactively wielded violence and hate, without warrants, badges or ID.
There will be no dark, dank rock for these thugs to crawl back under. Their families, will tragically be negatively impacted as well, and in many cases shunned, fairly or not. Like the post-Civil War, retribution is often on the minds of the victors, although this is a failed approach that impedes the progress of restoring a unified nation. Had President Lincoln survived, his post-war, Ten Percent Plan would have included a great deal more humanity.
I will end this essay, by saying that honest Americans are furious with the GOP’s hate campaigns, and those responsible are now beginning to realize, that left, right or otherwise, they are vainly attempting to paddle their canoes of hate and greed, against the currents of moral men and women. Those Trump and Republican voters, now also have a decision to make, to either be shamefully on the wrong side of history, or to seek forgiveness via their actions to help restore the extraordinary values of the world’s longest successful republic.
Remember that humans are all too often, frail emotionally and anger is sadly at the moment, the primary emotion. We all must be the “adults in the room” as we move forward in tearing down this fascist administration and party, but must also remember that today’s opposition is also the family and neighbors we have long known and often loved. Mostly, when the gravity of the future of these masked aggressors is written, we also and most importantly recall… that seeking justice is not synonymous with retribution. American patriots must always seek justice and deny retribution any free space in our heads and hearts.
My very best to all involved in restoring our nation to its true values.
Paul
Publius Redux