The Resistance Is Growing

There are two movies of somewhat recent vintage (2013 and 2015) that stick out in my mind. Both were adapted from books of the same names: The first being The Wolf of Wall Street and the second being The Big Short. Oh, and both are based on real people and events and adapted from best-selling books.

How is it, in both instances the real crooks, the big banks, with their over the top banking fees that hit the poor primarily, are left unscathed by any consequences for their dirty and often “illegal” dealing? Sure, Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street, and his pals get busted  for securities fraud and money laundering, but the major players in Wall Street, who brought us the bursting tech bubble of 2000-2002 and the collapse of the housing market, initiating the big recession of 2007-2009?

Quite the contrary to facing consequences for lying about the value of the housing market the same big banks received a nearly $1 trillion bailout — courtesy of we taxpayers.

That isn’t even the worst part of this … the word “story” makes it feel like a nice book …  the worst part of this never-ending saga of suffering is this: we, the same taxpayers that bailed out Wall Street, have gone along with it, even electing a crook — a known and then convicted crook — president, not once, but twice. A guy who is actively trying to become the world’s newest dictator.

That orange colored convicted felon has turned a government agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement— ICE — into his own personal Gestapo. It’s only been around for about 23 years. In 2003 the former U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service were merged by the Homeland Security Act. Now in 2026, since January 20, 2025 actually, we have a lawless regime that sends its ICE agents into relatively peaceful and safe communities to terrorize, kidnap people and use infants, toddlers and small children as bait to lure parents out into the open to be arrested, without due process or judicial warrants, They are allowed to attack protestors and in a few cases, shoot them to death.

But let’s get back to the horror of we, the American voters, electing to have Big Business and Banking, grind us into modern day peasants …

At the convicted felon’s inauguration just over a year ago, all the big tech bros were seated behind the orange felon, rewards  for having supported him during the campaign. Among those of course was the wealthiest person alive, Elon Musk.

Musk, the conman and racist who used fellow unapproved and illegally employed workers to destroy several — most — government agencies in the following months, calling his illegal agency DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, which turned out to be anything but efficient. They are costing American taxpayers millions after slashing hundreds of thousands of jobs across the federal workforce. For what? To service Big Business and the Big Banks: Tax breaks all around for the top 10%!

Who is paying for it all? The same taxpayers that bailed out the Big Banks in the 2007-08 crash, a majority of which voted for this lawless regime run out of the White House.

The attorney general, the top law enforcer in the country goes to the United States Congress, not with a book filled with information about policies and questions of the day, no, she goes there with a “burn book,” so she could try to smear the Democrats — and a few Republicans — on the committee who asked her questions about the Epstein files.

Questions like why she and her Department of Justice chose to reveal the names and personal information of Epstein survivors, yet redacted the names of alleged Epstein co-conspirators? Bondi went off on a rant about the stock market after Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) asked a question about the Epstein Files …

… something that even the vast majority of MAGA Cult members wanted answers for when they voted for their candidate in 2924 … after he promised he would release all the files and be transparent.

The Trump-Epstein Files, as coined by Representative Eric Swalwell I think … there is still a cover-up of the Trump-Epstein Files. The DoJ, led by Pam Bondi, and the Director of the FBI Kashyap Pramod Patel, have done everything they can to block the exposition of the co-conspirators of the child-abuse and pedophile ring led by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell with a black veil of redacted information that would reveal who was involved in rape and pedophilia.

It is said the convicted felon-in-chief is mentioned in the Trump-Epstein Files over a million times … seriously? Wow. We have seen the photos — un-redacted photos — of the felon with young women and underage girls. Some of them are fakes, but many are not. It’s clear, from the over 3 million pages of the Trump-Epstein Files that were released (over 3 million remain to be released), that the current occupant of the White House, the convicted felon, engaged in abhorrent and illegal behavior with the number one pedophile in American history … and his Attorney General, the ever dutiful sycophant, is covering it all up, including many billionaires who frequented Jeffrey Epstein’s parties. Then there is the father and husband of the year, current Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick who at first lied about going to Epstein’s pedophilia island and then, under oath to the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives, admitted he went to the island — but with his wife and children to have lunch.

This is what “we” voted for in November 2024.

We cannot blame the Republican Party anymore. The proverbial “we” did this to ourselves. After the murders of two people in Minneapolis, MN, polls showed most Americans opposed the convicted felon’s policies when it comes to immigration. Various law enforcement officers have been killing American citizens without cause for decades, but now this one federal law enforcement agency has been given free reign to do what it likes, including committing murder, to terrorize blue cities and states. And they can do so in battle gear with assault weapons and body armor — and masks.

The FBI has been covering for ICE, refusing to give the state of Minnesota’s law enforcement agencies video and other evidence about the shooting deaths (murders) of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. And let’s not forget the numbers of people who have died in ICE custody all over the U.S.

When it comes to politics having “buyers’ remorse” doesn’t wash. There are no “do-overs,” we get what the majority voted for in the Electoral College. This is how the world sees us. This is how we have defined ourselves — we have become a fascist regime sliding into a dictatorship.

Yeah, we’re supposed to turn control of the House of Representatives over to the Democrats in November, if the convicted felon and his allies and enablers don’t rig and steal the election. Should the Democrats win control, will that be enough?

This barely touches the surface. The fascist national secret police, known as ICE, continues to violate our Constitutional rights, the Trump family continues to make billions off the convicted felon’s name and title, and lest we forget, the fascist Department of Justice is still trying to silence the convicted felon’s critics by indicting some of them on baseless charges.

The MAGA/GOP freak out over the Super Bowl halftime show, featuring Puerto Rican Grammy winner Bad Bunny, one of the most popular entertainers on the planet, who sang his music in Spanish … well god forbid, how racist could anyone get? Oh yeah, the convicted felon’s video rant on his (not) Truth Social that depicted the Obama’s as apes.  Jon Stewart had a humorous take on the racist nature of Super Bowl Weekend.

Still, the resistance isn’t discouraged.

There isn’t any pause as we head towards the 2026 mid-term elections. People are in the streets right now, across the nation, protesting ICE and this racist, fascist regime destroying America. Next month we will have the next No Kings Day.

Monday was Presidents Day, when we honor the men who have held the office, although we can pick and choose which ones to honor and which ones to piss on, like the current occupant of the White House.

But, through the work of Brian Tyler Cohen, we were treated to 57 minutes of a great American president, our first Black president and, without debate, my favorite president in my 70 years, Barack Obama. He was president when I first started writing for the Baltimore and Los Angeles Post-Examiner.

Although he wasn’t as progressive as many of us would have liked and had policies I most definitely disagreed with, I never thought I would live long enough to see a Black man or woman elected President of the United States. That, and the many policies we did agree on, plus his and his wife’s dignity, grace and humility in office just made Obama my favorite president.

Will we see another president like Barack Obama? Who knows, but we do know people like California Governor Gavin Newsom and New York Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez are gearing up for 2028. Either one is good in my book.

That’s a long way off, but I plan to stick around for that general election and several more. There is much that needs to be accomplished — and accomplished again, like the judge overturning the felon’s decision to remove the slavery exhibit from the historical Presidents’ House in Philadelphia where our first president, George Washington, kept eight slaves.

Don’t forget, the next No Kings Day is March 28. Click here to look for a demonstration or rally near you. In the words of a great American, Bad Bunny:

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On a sad note: One of America’s great actors, Robert Duvall, passed away Monday at the age of 95. Early this morning (February 17) it was announced by his family the Rev. Jesse Jackson passed on at the age of 84. Both men will be missed.