Lying, deceit, distraction, testing our limits, and bullying, this is how to describe our government. Distraction, distraction, and more distraction. The magician's trick: watch this hand while I perform my illusion with the other hand. Day after day, one distraction after another, and our media keeps chasing these diversions. Did he have a gun, what kind of gun, and did he have a permit? Meanwhile, Trump is amassing billions, and Congress is too afraid to act as our representatives. Most importantly, Trump is testing the limits of when the Republicans might revolt. He is overpowering the courts and nullifying any attempts to control him. Gradually, he is examining how the legal and judicial systems will respond, and they have not; they remain paralyzed. As a result, he continues to violate our constitutional laws without facing consequences. He and his team of lying, brainless followers are constantly fueling the drumbeat of distraction, ensuring that the news media always have something to fill their 24-hour news cycle.
He and his ICE goons are bullying and scaring American citizens. My daughter is concerned that I use my name on all my writings, and she has scared me enough that I am considering getting a gun for my home. The people of Minneapolis are brave, maybe braver than I am, but I don't have the goons rummaging through my streets, and I am 93 and housebound. Perhaps if I were younger, I would have considered going there to offer support; I like to think I might have.
Where are we, America? What must happen for us to maybe act as a unified resistance to the enemies from within? There are massive demonstrations in support of the people of Minneapolis, but will that even matter to those in power? If Congress does nothing, then what?
I keep on trying to get our governors to act as the only force that can stop the avalanche slide of our country into autocracy. I keep on trying to educate people about soft secession or maybe a complete secession of the states. To reiterate, in a soft succession, the states will collect federal funds for their citizens and review how and when the federal government disburses them. That’s it! Nothing complicated. If things continue, unchecked and uncontrolled, taking people out of our neighborhoods and making them disappear eventually, like my worries, they may decide to personally protect themselves since our local police force is participating in this unlawful nightmare occurring in the streets of one of our cities. Governors must realize that their refusal to take arms against the overpowering federal government may eventually lead to organized resistance by their citizens.
As they say down under, "Good on you" and by that I mean, I applaud your ferocity as well as your down-to-earth and skillful writing. You have me beat by 10 years but I know without hesitation, that you, Rocco, are the prototype of the kind of person I felt my life would be surrounded by. I am not in the best of health, but I am waiting to speak to my 47-year old son to see if he and I would travel to Minneapolis to stand with those brave people.
Given the current degree of fascism under Trump, and coupled with what you, Brock, and many others have pointed out about the lame responses to Trump's declarations of what he's planning in his devious brain, I feel the prognosis for democracy is dire in the U.S. I don't hear many on the news or in periodicals calling out what is clearly apparent as fascism. How many violations of the Constitution? How much oppression of the people? How much corruption and blatant stealing from the people to line his own pockets? And how many wasted billions, if not trillions of dollars related to Trump's sociopathic behavior, will we tolerate before we call it—and call him—what it is?
Powerful framework for understanding what's happening right now. The distiction between resistance grounded in principle versus resistance to a person clarifies why so many movements fail long-term. Saw this play out with Occupy, where the energy got diffused bc there was no clear principle beyond opposing Wall Street greed, and the whole thing just fizzeled out.
Subject: Chaos Planned by POTUS: Subverting Historic Institutional Tenets (SHIT)
BASIS: Nazi Tactic used by Hitler and his murderous thugs.
EVIDENCE:
#1: "Many of the tactics Hitler employed to seize and consolidate power, Mussolini had adopted previously: the reliance on violent gangs, the intimidation of parliament, the strengthening and subsequent abuse of authority, the subjugation of the civil service, the affinity for spectacle, and the insistence that the leader, whether Der Führer or Il Duce, could do no wrong." Albright, Madeleine. Fascism: A Warning (pp. 44-45). Harper Perennial.
#2. His primary rules were never to allow the public to cool off, never to admit a fault or wrong, never to concede that there may be some good in your enemy, never to leave room for alternatives, never to accept blame, to concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough, people will sooner or later believe it.
Langer, Walter. A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend
Citation: Langer, Walter C. (1943–1944). "A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler. His Life and Legend". Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Washington, D.C., p. 219. Archived from the original on 8 October 1999—via Nizkor. With the collaboration of Prof. Henry A. Murr, Harvard Psychological Clinic; Dr. Ernst Kris, New School for Social Research; and Dr. Bertram D. Lawin, New York Psychoanalytic Institute.
Comment: What Americans are seeing, hearing, and reading should come as no surprise. It is time the press, be it reporters, newscasters, or those writing editorials, stopped acting surprised or asking why- it is obvious. What we are seeing is Trump's fascist narrative, be it his own verbiage or actions or those of the feckless executive cabinet and the vast majority of Republicans in Congress.
The chaos without reveals the chaos within the Tyrantosaurus Rex pathologic tissue of Trump. His ego never left fourth grade. He wants it all. He can never get enough. It is pathologic as is alcoholism where the alcoholic addict is defined as "one for whom a drink is too much and a thousand is not enough." No amount of gold will satisfy this bully. He is a parasite of the people of the US and the world.
Think about the trillions spent due to Trump's sick mind. Operations in the Caribbean and Pacific involving an air craft carrier, missiles, gunboats, personnel, etc. The News should report details every day:
Caribbean Operations (Operation Southern Spear)
Daily Cost: Approximately $31 million per day ($28 million budgeted, $3 million unbudgeted).
Total Cost: Estimates range from over $600 million to $1 billion for the deployment of 11-18 warships and related personnel.
Specific Costs: B-1 bombers flying near Venezuela cost $173,000 per flight hour, and carrier operations cost roughly $333,000 per hour.
Pacific Operations
Infrastructure: The Pacific Deterrence Initiative has driven at least $8.9 billion in new construction projects in the Indo-Pacific since FY 2020.
Regional Impact: Military spending in Hawaii alone was over $10 billion in 2023.
ICE Costs:
Number of ICE agents in 2026
As of January 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has expanded its workforce to over 22,000 officers and agents following a major recruitment surge that more than doubled its personnel from 10,000. The FY 2026 budget proposal outlines 21,808 positions and 21,786 full-time equivalents (FTEs).
New ICE Agents
ICE Announces Historic 120% Manpower Increase, Thanks to Recruitment Campaign that Brought in 12,000 Officers and Agents
Release Date: January 3, 2026
WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today announced that its unprecedented nationwide recruitment campaign has shattered expectations, hiring more than 12,000 officers and agents in less than a year.
After receiving more than 220,000 applications to join ICE from patriotic Americans, ICE blew past its original hiring target of 10,000 new officers and agents within a year. In fact, we have more than doubled our officers and agents from 10,000 to 22,000. With these new patriots on the team, we will be able to accomplish what many say was impossible and fulfill President Trump’s promise to make America safe again.
12,000 new ICE agents in the last year; sign-on bonus of up to $50,000. Total = $600 million dollars just for ICE salary.
Do we need 22,000 ICE agents for immigrations and customs enforcement with a 2025 budget of $29 billion dollars, while the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA or OBBA) calls for up to $49 billion dollars.
How much will the FBI raid cost as agents are diverted to analyze voting ballets that are six years old?
Will voter information from those ballots be used by the Trump administration to manipulate the 2026 midterms?
How does Pam Bondi have the balls to ask for voter information in Minneapolis and use it as a quid pro quo to remove ICE agents from that city?
The arrest of Don Lemon is another violation of the Constitution, that is, the right of a free press. This is the hallmark of fascism.
How much money has Trump spent on issues that are not pertinent to the health of this nation? And by that I mean economic health, medical health, overall health in terms of sense of well-being. Do we need a grand ballroom adorned with gold and probably statues of Trump? Do we need a makeover of a 747 gifted by a country that supports Hamas so that Trump can fly in comfort? Do we need our president promoting guitars and medals and who knows what to make more than a billion dollars in the last year? All of this should be shown every day on the major news stations.
Wake up, Americans. You are staring at fascism in real time. It will only get worse. Wake up.
Let us, in the telling of the truth about sovereignty, not be mired in language of “brethren” and “men”, as it is primarily the men who have created this mess.
Language does matter, it always has. Use it with care, or don’t use it at all.
Do not exclude while seeming to include the women. It isn’t a man who can save us, that is oh so true; it is the women who will or will not ultimately change the tide away from corrupt chaos, toward peace and security.
After having spent decades trying to read myself and experiences into words that were never spoken or written to include me and more than half the population, I tune out (most) of those words. Thomas Paine had some relevant observations, but I am not at all interested in basing the present or future on intellectuals who weren’t, and who now aren’t, willing and able to see and acknowledge the full scope of humanity.
In the process of defending agency/sovereignty and fighting Fascism, I much prefer studying and finding stepping stones in Emma Goldman’s and Hannah Arendt’s work.
You are Literally calling for the Woman Washing of History. WTFuck? That’s Worse than White Washing. That’s Burning it All Away. Almost. Never to Be Seen again by the Future At Large. Only the privileged Academic Class of Women had a Voice before the near turn of the 20th century. I proffer that Goldman and Arendt studied The Men before Their Time. Men such as Thomas Paine even, who barely lived into the 19th century. Goldman was Way Off regarding the Virtues of Communism to her Great Chagrin! So? See no Evil. Hear no Evil. Speak no Evil. Brilliant. NOT.
So you Think your “language does matter” since forever was hitherto Unknown to Mike Brock? And you Propose He should forthwith “use it with care” or not at all?
So? Thee Shall Not quote any Past Person of Import directly or True to their Historical Sensibilities? But Rather, in the Voice of some Random or Rabid “feminist” [ Aside: what a godawful and outdated and imprecise Word ] whose Current Sensibilities have Unfortunately boxed her into a World View that’s Best Left Behind. I find you Pitiable.
“Men” is explicitly gender neutral in old English, and there was a different word, “were” as in werewolf that means male. In the time of Paine that Brock references with his writing, these and other old English conventions were still in use for anything intended to sound serious and formal. Of course, the rights of women were absolutely systematically ignored, but while the general actions of the people at the time, such as preventing women from voting prove that, the specific use of the word “men” did not. I agree that it’s no longer appropriate to use the word that way.
ANOTHER DAY, SAME GOVERNMENT
Lying, deceit, distraction, testing our limits, and bullying, this is how to describe our government. Distraction, distraction, and more distraction. The magician's trick: watch this hand while I perform my illusion with the other hand. Day after day, one distraction after another, and our media keeps chasing these diversions. Did he have a gun, what kind of gun, and did he have a permit? Meanwhile, Trump is amassing billions, and Congress is too afraid to act as our representatives. Most importantly, Trump is testing the limits of when the Republicans might revolt. He is overpowering the courts and nullifying any attempts to control him. Gradually, he is examining how the legal and judicial systems will respond, and they have not; they remain paralyzed. As a result, he continues to violate our constitutional laws without facing consequences. He and his team of lying, brainless followers are constantly fueling the drumbeat of distraction, ensuring that the news media always have something to fill their 24-hour news cycle.
He and his ICE goons are bullying and scaring American citizens. My daughter is concerned that I use my name on all my writings, and she has scared me enough that I am considering getting a gun for my home. The people of Minneapolis are brave, maybe braver than I am, but I don't have the goons rummaging through my streets, and I am 93 and housebound. Perhaps if I were younger, I would have considered going there to offer support; I like to think I might have.
Where are we, America? What must happen for us to maybe act as a unified resistance to the enemies from within? There are massive demonstrations in support of the people of Minneapolis, but will that even matter to those in power? If Congress does nothing, then what?
I keep on trying to get our governors to act as the only force that can stop the avalanche slide of our country into autocracy. I keep on trying to educate people about soft secession or maybe a complete secession of the states. To reiterate, in a soft succession, the states will collect federal funds for their citizens and review how and when the federal government disburses them. That’s it! Nothing complicated. If things continue, unchecked and uncontrolled, taking people out of our neighborhoods and making them disappear eventually, like my worries, they may decide to personally protect themselves since our local police force is participating in this unlawful nightmare occurring in the streets of one of our cities. Governors must realize that their refusal to take arms against the overpowering federal government may eventually lead to organized resistance by their citizens.
Someone who SEES😱👍
As they say down under, "Good on you" and by that I mean, I applaud your ferocity as well as your down-to-earth and skillful writing. You have me beat by 10 years but I know without hesitation, that you, Rocco, are the prototype of the kind of person I felt my life would be surrounded by. I am not in the best of health, but I am waiting to speak to my 47-year old son to see if he and I would travel to Minneapolis to stand with those brave people.
As a cancer MD, I often write about societal issues as a metaphor on malignancy. You and others can see what I had written (and published) after 9/11: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7ul39qx61ec5n7qwikkxy/Strum-02-Maniacs-Malignancy-and-Medicine.pdf?rlkey=85tbw6r2ro0hhc87atlc4m0zn&dl=0
Given the current degree of fascism under Trump, and coupled with what you, Brock, and many others have pointed out about the lame responses to Trump's declarations of what he's planning in his devious brain, I feel the prognosis for democracy is dire in the U.S. I don't hear many on the news or in periodicals calling out what is clearly apparent as fascism. How many violations of the Constitution? How much oppression of the people? How much corruption and blatant stealing from the people to line his own pockets? And how many wasted billions, if not trillions of dollars related to Trump's sociopathic behavior, will we tolerate before we call it—and call him—what it is?
FASCISM.
I’d do Better to comment Directly after Reading a piece rather than after I’ve jumped into Replying down another’s Rabbit Hole.
So. Suffice to Say. Reading You is always Humbling. And that Humbling is like Warmth. Or. A Cooling of my Oft Fever.
Here’s To You 🥂 Mike Brock.
"Three weeks ago, Renee Good saw a woman being pepper-sprayed and moved to help."
Wasn't that Pretti? I didn't hear anything about pepper spray being involved in Good's death; she was just trying to drive away.
Good call. That was a bad edit. This went through a lot of rewrites, and I glazed over that. I'm a one-man shop over here!
I highlighted that you made the same error in #9 as well: "Renee Good saw a woman being pepper-sprayed and moved to help. She was shot."
https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-crisis-no-9/comment/207644770
Excellent writing! I find it interesting that you think we have finally hit the ground.
Yes. That Bit that we’re No Longer Falling but have Now Landed and are Naturally Disoriented is Brilliant.
Powerful framework for understanding what's happening right now. The distiction between resistance grounded in principle versus resistance to a person clarifies why so many movements fail long-term. Saw this play out with Occupy, where the energy got diffused bc there was no clear principle beyond opposing Wall Street greed, and the whole thing just fizzeled out.
Subject: Chaos Planned by POTUS: Subverting Historic Institutional Tenets (SHIT)
BASIS: Nazi Tactic used by Hitler and his murderous thugs.
EVIDENCE:
#1: "Many of the tactics Hitler employed to seize and consolidate power, Mussolini had adopted previously: the reliance on violent gangs, the intimidation of parliament, the strengthening and subsequent abuse of authority, the subjugation of the civil service, the affinity for spectacle, and the insistence that the leader, whether Der Führer or Il Duce, could do no wrong." Albright, Madeleine. Fascism: A Warning (pp. 44-45). Harper Perennial.
#2. His primary rules were never to allow the public to cool off, never to admit a fault or wrong, never to concede that there may be some good in your enemy, never to leave room for alternatives, never to accept blame, to concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough, people will sooner or later believe it.
Langer, Walter. A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend
Citation: Langer, Walter C. (1943–1944). "A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler. His Life and Legend". Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Washington, D.C., p. 219. Archived from the original on 8 October 1999—via Nizkor. With the collaboration of Prof. Henry A. Murr, Harvard Psychological Clinic; Dr. Ernst Kris, New School for Social Research; and Dr. Bertram D. Lawin, New York Psychoanalytic Institute.
Comment: What Americans are seeing, hearing, and reading should come as no surprise. It is time the press, be it reporters, newscasters, or those writing editorials, stopped acting surprised or asking why- it is obvious. What we are seeing is Trump's fascist narrative, be it his own verbiage or actions or those of the feckless executive cabinet and the vast majority of Republicans in Congress.
The chaos without reveals the chaos within the Tyrantosaurus Rex pathologic tissue of Trump. His ego never left fourth grade. He wants it all. He can never get enough. It is pathologic as is alcoholism where the alcoholic addict is defined as "one for whom a drink is too much and a thousand is not enough." No amount of gold will satisfy this bully. He is a parasite of the people of the US and the world.
Think about the trillions spent due to Trump's sick mind. Operations in the Caribbean and Pacific involving an air craft carrier, missiles, gunboats, personnel, etc. The News should report details every day:
Caribbean Operations (Operation Southern Spear)
Daily Cost: Approximately $31 million per day ($28 million budgeted, $3 million unbudgeted).
Total Cost: Estimates range from over $600 million to $1 billion for the deployment of 11-18 warships and related personnel.
Specific Costs: B-1 bombers flying near Venezuela cost $173,000 per flight hour, and carrier operations cost roughly $333,000 per hour.
Pacific Operations
Infrastructure: The Pacific Deterrence Initiative has driven at least $8.9 billion in new construction projects in the Indo-Pacific since FY 2020.
Regional Impact: Military spending in Hawaii alone was over $10 billion in 2023.
ICE Costs:
Number of ICE agents in 2026
As of January 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has expanded its workforce to over 22,000 officers and agents following a major recruitment surge that more than doubled its personnel from 10,000. The FY 2026 budget proposal outlines 21,808 positions and 21,786 full-time equivalents (FTEs).
New ICE Agents
ICE Announces Historic 120% Manpower Increase, Thanks to Recruitment Campaign that Brought in 12,000 Officers and Agents
Release Date: January 3, 2026
WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today announced that its unprecedented nationwide recruitment campaign has shattered expectations, hiring more than 12,000 officers and agents in less than a year.
After receiving more than 220,000 applications to join ICE from patriotic Americans, ICE blew past its original hiring target of 10,000 new officers and agents within a year. In fact, we have more than doubled our officers and agents from 10,000 to 22,000. With these new patriots on the team, we will be able to accomplish what many say was impossible and fulfill President Trump’s promise to make America safe again.
12,000 new ICE agents in the last year; sign-on bonus of up to $50,000. Total = $600 million dollars just for ICE salary.
Do we need 22,000 ICE agents for immigrations and customs enforcement with a 2025 budget of $29 billion dollars, while the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA or OBBA) calls for up to $49 billion dollars.
How much will the FBI raid cost as agents are diverted to analyze voting ballets that are six years old?
Will voter information from those ballots be used by the Trump administration to manipulate the 2026 midterms?
How does Pam Bondi have the balls to ask for voter information in Minneapolis and use it as a quid pro quo to remove ICE agents from that city?
The arrest of Don Lemon is another violation of the Constitution, that is, the right of a free press. This is the hallmark of fascism.
How much money has Trump spent on issues that are not pertinent to the health of this nation? And by that I mean economic health, medical health, overall health in terms of sense of well-being. Do we need a grand ballroom adorned with gold and probably statues of Trump? Do we need a makeover of a 747 gifted by a country that supports Hamas so that Trump can fly in comfort? Do we need our president promoting guitars and medals and who knows what to make more than a billion dollars in the last year? All of this should be shown every day on the major news stations.
Wake up, Americans. You are staring at fascism in real time. It will only get worse. Wake up.
Let us, in the telling of the truth about sovereignty, not be mired in language of “brethren” and “men”, as it is primarily the men who have created this mess.
Language does matter, it always has. Use it with care, or don’t use it at all.
Do not exclude while seeming to include the women. It isn’t a man who can save us, that is oh so true; it is the women who will or will not ultimately change the tide away from corrupt chaos, toward peace and security.
Well, I am invoking Paine pretty deliberately. But I mean it in the most gender-neutral of ways, to be clear.
After having spent decades trying to read myself and experiences into words that were never spoken or written to include me and more than half the population, I tune out (most) of those words. Thomas Paine had some relevant observations, but I am not at all interested in basing the present or future on intellectuals who weren’t, and who now aren’t, willing and able to see and acknowledge the full scope of humanity.
In the process of defending agency/sovereignty and fighting Fascism, I much prefer studying and finding stepping stones in Emma Goldman’s and Hannah Arendt’s work.
You are Literally calling for the Woman Washing of History. WTFuck? That’s Worse than White Washing. That’s Burning it All Away. Almost. Never to Be Seen again by the Future At Large. Only the privileged Academic Class of Women had a Voice before the near turn of the 20th century. I proffer that Goldman and Arendt studied The Men before Their Time. Men such as Thomas Paine even, who barely lived into the 19th century. Goldman was Way Off regarding the Virtues of Communism to her Great Chagrin! So? See no Evil. Hear no Evil. Speak no Evil. Brilliant. NOT.
You might also try on Abigail Adams' shoes:
https://billofrightsinstitute.org/activities/remember-the-ladies-abigail-adams-and-respect-handout-a-narrative
Meant in Reply to BAS
So you Think your “language does matter” since forever was hitherto Unknown to Mike Brock? And you Propose He should forthwith “use it with care” or not at all?
So? Thee Shall Not quote any Past Person of Import directly or True to their Historical Sensibilities? But Rather, in the Voice of some Random or Rabid “feminist” [ Aside: what a godawful and outdated and imprecise Word ] whose Current Sensibilities have Unfortunately boxed her into a World View that’s Best Left Behind. I find you Pitiable.
“Men” is explicitly gender neutral in old English, and there was a different word, “were” as in werewolf that means male. In the time of Paine that Brock references with his writing, these and other old English conventions were still in use for anything intended to sound serious and formal. Of course, the rights of women were absolutely systematically ignored, but while the general actions of the people at the time, such as preventing women from voting prove that, the specific use of the word “men” did not. I agree that it’s no longer appropriate to use the word that way.
All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds