What can happen if lower case R resistance becomes upper case R Resistance? ICE agents may have turned tail and run in Rochester, but this is a dangerous precedent.

 

Excerpt from 'Gestapo!' Immigration agents swarmed and tires slashed in explosive standoff:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who moved to make an arrest in an upscale neighborhood of Rochester, New York, were blindsided as a crowd of angry protesters descended on them and vandalized their vehicles, according to WXXI.

"The group shouted 'shame' and 'Gestapo,' and applauded as agents in the ICE-led action drove a Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been slashed," said the report. "One of the roofers was taken into custody, but agents left others apparently unchecked on the rooftop of the Westminster Road rental house."

The crowd in Park Avenue accosting ICE and CBP agents was said to be around 200 people.

Here’s another article:

This article has videos:

This is the first incident where citizens behaved something like the Resistance did during World War II. During the war the actions of the Resistance were planned and this was spontaneous. Resistance cells were small groups of men and women who conducted guerrilla warfare and published underground newspapers. 

The Resistance also spied on the Nazi and conveyed vital information to the Allies. 

Consider this from the DDay Center article: The Role of the French Resistance in Intelligence for the Allies: Strategies, Impact, and Legacy

The intelligence work of the French Resistance gave Allied forces critical details about German defenses, troop movements, and military plans. These men and women risked everything, collecting info on German positions along the Atlantic Wall, Wehrmacht deployments, and communication networks.

Their efforts helped Allied commanders make smarter decisions, saving lives and, honestly, probably shortening the war.

The story of French Resistance intelligence is full of ordinary people who became extraordinary spies when things got dangerous. University professors published underground newspapers, and farmers reported German troop movements.

These resistance fighters built networks that stretched all over occupied France. They worked with British and American intelligence, creating a tangled web of information sharing that played a crucial role in Allied victory.

Resistance spying was depcited in the Pulitizer Prize winning novel and NetFlix miniseries “All the Light We Cannot See” (reference). In the dramatic story a blind girl radioed coded messages about the Nazis to the Allies.

In real life well known entertainer, jazz singer Josephine Baker who was known as “The real Goddess,” became a spy for the French Resistance. Baker used her celebrity to gain access to high-ranking Axis officials. (Reference)

Lepa Svetozara Radić was a 17 year old Serbian Resistance fighter executed by the Nazis for shooting at German troops. This is from Wikipedia: 

“As her captors tied the noose around her neck, they offered her a reprieve from the gallows if she would reveal her comrades' and leaders' identities. She responded that she was not a traitor and that her comrades would reveal themselves when they avenged her death.”

The Nazis made villagers pay with their lives when the Resistance had successes against them. Residents would be rounded up and be shot or hung in the town square. If one Nazi was killed by the Resistance, many more would be murdered in retribution. Bodies would sometimes be hung on utility poles and noone was allowed to cut them down.

This was all done to send a message to others who dared go against them, whether through sabotage or actual violence. 

For example: “When the Nazis Massacred Greek Civilians to Send a Warning to Those Who Resisted. German soldiers killed an estimated 500 Cretans in Viannos and Ierapetra in retaliation for an attack by local partisans.” (Read article)

In the photo above I was struck by how “The Butcher of Crete” bears more than a passing resemblance to Tom Homan.

How soon will it be before a non-bloody version of retribution for resistance to immigration actions happens here?

While there is a visceral satistfaction to be had in the story about what the residents in Rochester did, such actions are unwise. If people are to use the World War II Resistance as a model, it is best to limit themselves to what the spies did and not do anything that will give an excuse for Trump to escalate towards either something that might as well be martial law whether of not he actually declares it. 

The non-violent, though illegal, sharing of information that may help people avoid imminent ICE raids would be similar to what Resistance and other allied spies (like Churchill’s three female spies) did. 

Check back later… it’s 5:00 AM here and I haven’t even read the news…..

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Is Trump's agenda really stumbling? By Hal M. Brown

 I had no idea what to write about this morning until I saw the chyron on MSNBC’s “The Weekend” when the panel was gleefully talking about various setbacks which Trump was having in implementing his agenda.

The word that jumped out was “struggling.” The agenda may be “struggling” in the sense that it hasn’t been implemented in its entirety the way Hitler took over all of Europe is a 54 day blitzkrieg. Trump’s army doesn’t have tanks, aircraft, artillery, and millions of armed troops (ICE is a pipsqueak force in comparison). Still, considering what Trump’s army accomplished in just over 100 days, he has done a damn good job with the resources he had. Even Hitler would probably admire him.

Sure, there have been some bumps in the road. In his arroagance, some of these may have taken him by surprise. Certainly, a number pissed him off while others he shrugged off. From lawsuits to Springsteen to stock prices to poll numbers to DOGE not delivering as promised, they all add up to a few flys at a picnic which you hoped to be absolutely perfect. 

Trump has henchmen with fly zappers to deal with these pesky annoyances. I had a chance to use the zapper I bought a few weeks ago and it worked, although the odor of a fast-fried fly was noxious. The smell disappated in a couple of minutes and was replaced by the savory aroma of chicken being cooked. So it has been with Trump moving past the blowback from his setbacks. He moves on to the sweet smell of success.

Moving along in their discussion about politics, the MSNBC panel added James Carvelle and they were all smiles when they talked about Democratic hopes for 2026.

Their optimism springs eternal. For example, how they celebrate the struggles the Trump adminstation is experiencing, they can’t admit that the country is well and truly fucked. They are assuming that even Democratics winning both houses of Congress in the midterms will make a difference. By then there’s a good chance Trump will be ignoring Congress altogther. 

The same goes for court rulings which go against him.

Back to the Nazi 54 day blitzkreig, if Trump is ever able to use our military to take over the country we are well and truly fucked.

On another but related subject, I occasionally read The Contrarian, a Substack I had such high hopes for I paid $500 to be a Founding Member of when Jennifer Rubin and Norm Eisen started it.

Now they are so awash in what I see as false optimism and their celebrating their victories in court that I hardly ever read it. I can’t figure out what they fancy themselves to be what with their Pet of the Week and their weekly recipes.

I did check out “How YOU Helped Knock Musk Out of DC–& of Politics” by Norm Eisen. Eisen often is on MSNBC talking about cases against the Trump initiatives which he and his associates won in court. Jennifer Rubin is also a frequent MSNBC guest.

That Substack begins:

The end of this week brought two of the most dramatic scenes yet in the decline and fall of Elon Musk—and of his and Donald Trump's failed DOGE effort to remake government. Despite all the damage that they have done (and that Trump will continue to do) we should take a beat to appreciate the milestone. It speaks to the power of the patriotic opposition—and of the role you’ve played, dear Contrarians.

The first of those two dramatic scenes came on Thursday in a New York courtroom, where a Perry Mason moment took down DOGE. My colleagues and I had sued over DOGE agents running rampant through sensitive government data at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), illegally accessing data about tens of millions of current and former federal employees, contractors, and job applicants. We made that case on Thursday in what the press accurately called a “mini-trial” of DOGE. The highlight was our almost 3-hour cross-examination of the administration's main witness (grilled by my colleague, Andrew Warren). We elicited several concessions: the witness all but admitted OPM was not following the law in granting access to DOGE!

Below are the comments I added:

Is your arm hurting from trying to pat yourself on the back? Nobody filing lawsuits helped knock Musk out of DC. If anybody did this it was those who boycotted Tesla and those who unloaded their Tesla stock. Basically, though, Musk knocked himself out of DC by failing to fulfill his promise of ginormous savings DOGE would bring in.

…and…

In the first two paragraphs Eisen compares a court victory to a Perry Mason moment... cringe... and then there's more self-congratulation. The YOU of the title is how being a Contrarian YOU helped in ways that aren't clear except through your contributions. By the way, the reason you can read this is that I am one of them and thus can comment, and I am one who paid to be a founding Contrairian at that.

I don't totally dismiss his lawsuits and those from others, but I see them more as slowing down the Trump blitzkrieg. Trump still hasn't decided to declare himself a total monarch who can ignore court rulings which go against him with impunity.

I have critiqued this Substack's contributors before for being purveyors of optimism unlike those savvy truth tellers like Timothy Snyder, Thom Hartmann , Sabrina Haake

The Haake Take

Exercising the First Amendment while we still have it.

By Sabrina Haake

Steve Schmidt,

The Warning with Steve Schmidt

Explains what is happening, and why in our turbulent era. Speaks truth to power. 1 written & 1 broadcast commentary/day 6x/week.

myself, 

Hal Brown's Substack

I'm a retired psychotherapist who writes about politics.

and others who are trying to sound the alarm that we are as far down the road to dictatorship as the Nazis were when they invaded Poland and were poised to take over Europe which they did in 54 days.

It took four years until the Allies were strong enough to mount D-Day. As for the Perry Mason comparison, fans know that in the TV series he only lost three cases. His clients are always innocent and when he gets them off they go free. When Norm Eisen and others go after Trump, who is always guilty, and they are victorious he never goes free. His illegal and/or unconstitutional actions may be stalled by the side of the road but he has his own personal auto club in the waiting whether a higher court or the Supreme Court who will eventually give him a jump start and he'll be embarked on his juggernaut to destroy democracy again. He'll keep doing this until he's strong enough to ignore courts altogther. See: Law and Justice in the Third Reich - 

That’s it for my dark view today. Happy Sunday…

Update":

By Robert Reich from RawStory - Tide turns on Trump: Musk out, tariffs crushed, ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ crumbles. My comment: with photo is below.

Oh yeah, tide turns, so many optimists, so few realists. It hurts to face the fact that no tide has turned. This is just a series of setbacks like a flat tire on a few Stryker 8-wheel military vehicles in Trump's blitzkrieg to impose his dictatorship.

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Who are those masked men? They certainly aren't Lone Rangers. By Hal M. Brown

 This is the first episode of the Lone Ranger TV show where the question “who was that masked man” was asked and then, by themselves in front of the sheriff’s office, Tonto asked the Lone Ranger if he’d ever take off the mask when they were fighting the bad guys and he explained why he wouldn’t. Watch the video here. In the early radio shows, the TV show, or movies, in closing scene just before the “hi-yo Silver away” someone always asked something along the lines of “who was that masked man?’

Follows is the creed of the Lone Ranger. It was written by the creator of the Lone Ranger Francis Striker. He also created the Green Hornet and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon:

I believe that to have a friend,

a man must be one.

That all men are created equal

and that everyone has within himself

the power to make this a better world.

That God put the firewood there but that every man must gather and light it himself.

In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.

That a man should make the most of what equipment he has.

That 'This government, of the people, by the people and for the people'shall live always.

That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.

That sooner or later... somewhere...somehow... we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.

That all things change but truth, and that truth alone, lives on forever.

In my Creator, my country, my fellow man.

Now we have a cadre of masked men and women who aren’t fighting for law and order. There’s no way they follow the Lone Ranger Creed, let along the U.S. Constitution. If they we wouldn’t see them trampling on the cherished rights of people accountable to nobody. They are behaving like the villains the Lone Ranger and Tonto (someone Trump and his anti woke minions would consider a DEI hire) brought to justice.

No doubt you’ve followed the story about the mayor of Newark and the members of Congress who tried to get into the New Jersey detention center and were arrested.

What made me sick inside and sick for my country was watching all the federal agents. 

Some had uniforms, some bullet proof vests with ammunition and others wore light jackets with names of various Trump SS-like agencies on the back, others just seemed to be in regular clothes. I wasn't able to count how many, but there seemed to be at least 20. They look like they might be preparing to raid a drug cartel hideout.

You can see them in action in the video on the left below.

A few of the agents had their faces exposed but most of them were masked. The simple explanation as to why these agents decide to be masked is that they want to hide their identities. I think there are other reasons. One is that this enables them to feel empowered to be more violent than they’d be if their face was exposed. The other is that it is more intimidating to be confronted by someone in a mask wearing dark sunglassed. When interacting with someone who has this kind of power you want to look them in the eyes, you want to see their face.

It was, to put it mildly, a chaotic scene:

.

Why doesn't the fashion conscious Trump and his psychopathic and sadistic Himmler, Tom Homan, get them all to wear the same uniform instead of a hodgepodge of outfits? After all the country is fast becoming Nazified. If they want their own SS or Gestapo they might as well all wear the same uniform. Camo fabric might be the most intimidating, but whatever they wear red arm bands with T on them would be appropriate.

Update from BlueSky:

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