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"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August 2018)
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"How do you spell ICE in German? GESTAPO." (S. Jonas, July 2025)
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"First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.
"Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
"Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
"Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me." Pastor Martin Niemoller (c. 1946)
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As my regular readers know, I have been dealing with this subject for quite some time, in fact, going back to when I published my first column on Trump-and-Fascism, entitled "Is it Hair Trump or is it Herr Trump?" in late 2015 (republished in 2024, Click Here). As well, I have published a six volume(!) set of my "Trump" columns (2015-2021) in Kindle on Amazon (Click Here).
And here we are again, or rather, with the narrow (click here) re-election of Trump, the threat has returned. And, as is well-known, it has received some lengthy right-wing so-called "intellectual" heft in the 925-page volume called "Project 2025." Indeed, major elements of the P2025 plan --- the first goal of which is to destroy the Separation of Powers, which principle is the bedrock upon which U.S. Constitutional Government was originally established --- have already been implemented, as in, for example, the destruction of the Federal Civil Service, through, without the benefit of legislation, the functional repeal of the original Civil Service Act of 1883[!] as amended, by "Project DOGE" --- without any Congressional action of any kind. The threat to overturn U.S. Constitutional Democracy has of course by made horrifyingly clear on an individual level as well, by the actions of "ICE," including the two murders in cold blood in Minneapolis, MN.
It is ironic that it is in totally freezing Minneapolis and the horrifying events (not just the murders) that ICE, following the direct orders of President Trump (most certainly, it's not Kristi Noem, or Tom Homand, or even Stephen Miller who bears the primary responsibility for the Minneapolis Horror . . . it's TRUMP), has carried out, that have significantly raised the heat, not only on ICE (which just naturally lends itself to phraseology like that), but on the whole Get-rid-of-the-Immigrants Assault. "Minneapolis" has added the thoughts and names of many, many US citizens to the rolls of the Trump-must-go alliance. And the P2025/Heritage Foundation must go with him.
George Conway (who, in 2016 was a leading Trump staffer[!], and now is in a Democratic Primary in New York City for a safe-seat Democratic Congressional nomination) put it briefly and well:
"What's happening in Minnesota right now is not about immigration enforcement. This is a police force sowing discord to intimidate and control the public. This is a murder cover-up ordered by a sociopathic president running a criminal administration. This is a deliberate strategy to destroy the Constitution and end our democracy. This is Fascism, full stop."
That's not me (and other long-time anti-Fascists) saying those words. That's GEORGE CONWAY (full stop). And then there's Bill Kristol, of all people, who back in the 2008 Presidential campaign I called "one of the Far Right's loudest barking dogs," coming out very strongly against Trump.
And indeed, the Congressional Elections are coming up in November. As is well-known, if they are fair, or even fairly fair, the Democrats will get control of the House and maybe even the Senate. And then, as is also well-known, just with the former come the real investigations, with subpoena power, and the possibly if a third impeachment for Trump. (What a record, to go along with his several criminal convictions, and the several more that would have come to fruition had not a lucky-roll-of-a-wheel-for-him given him a "judge" in Florida who was totally at his beck-and-call.) BUT will they be fair? With Trump/P2025/Heritage-Foundation working as hard as they can to make sure that they aren't (like trying to get ahold of personal voter records --- e.g., house-to-house visits, threatening employees, anyone?) that is certainly an open question.
But still further, it is not an original thought to say that the No. 1 goal of the Minneapolis killings is to spread Terror across Minneapolis. No. 2 is using that Terror to eventually end the demonstrations there and also to terrorize any Minneapolis government officials at any level who are working to get ICE out. And then then No. 3 goal is spreading that cumulative terror across the Nation. This is how all previous fascist governments have come to, and stayed in, power, through the use of terror, at both the governmental (e.g., Germany, Italy, and Hungary [1920]) and non-governmental (e.g., Spain, Japan) levels.
Democracies have died/been-taken-over-at-the-governmental-level-by-fascism in a variety of ways, e.g.: by a vote in their Parliament (Germany, it was rigged, but there was a vote); at the end of a civil war (Spain); by the appointment of a dictator by an outgoing monarch (Hungary, 1920); by the appointment of a dictator by a monarch who stayed on through the whole of the fascist period (Italy); by a military coup-d'etat (Japan). Clearly, it could happen here by a rigged vote in a general election. What is going on with the TrumpRepubloFascists is a change in tactics, not long-term strategy (Click Here).
At the cost of the two very tragic deaths in Minneapolis (for which none of the ICE miscreants will ever be brought to account, at least not anytime soon) a national movement is finally beginning to arise to confront TrumpRepubloFascism (click here). But they, the enemy of U.S. Constitutional Democracy, are very well-organized and very well-funded. With their immediate goal being to overturn the legitimate results of the 2026 elections (as currently projected) (P alastreport|AT|gregpalast.com Email address">P alastreport|AT|gregpalast.comEmail address, 1/29/26), the danger of their victory still looms over our nation.
And so, as Winston Churchill said, following the great British World War II victory at El Alamein in North Africa, Nov. 1942, over the Nazi Field Marshall Irwin Rommel, the "Desert Fox:" "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Two final Thoughts
What they don't have (yet, anyway) is an SA, Die Sturmabteilung, the Storm Division, the Brown Shirts, which is an armed force totally outside of any government control, serving purely at the behest of the Fascist Power. And it was the SA that invented the "concentration camps," die Konzentratzion Lager, for the purpose of jamming their (at first) political prisoners into as tight spaces as they could manage. The first one was just outside the city of Munich, in turn just outside of a leafy village called Dachau.
And finally (to finish on an upbeat note) as Yogi Berra, the great New York Yankees (baseball) catcher of the 1950s and 60s, who was also a great wordsmith, famously said: "It's never over 'til it's over." P2025/Heritage-Foundation-TrumpRepubloFascism is hardly over, but two ICE murders in Minneapolis and the enormous response to them, in Minneapolis and around the nation, MAY indicate that we have turned the corner in our battle against it.
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Just as I was about to post this column, I did come across this hopeful analysis from the great Paul Krugman: click here.
(Article changed on Jan 29, 2026 at 8:24 PM EST)
(Article changed on Jan 30, 2026 at 8:25 AM EST)
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