A Good Faith Appeal and a Grim Response

As I write, there are reports of ICE agents going from house to house in St. Paul, kicking-in the door of at least one home and hauling an individual away. This just days after a Minneapolis resident and mother of three was shot to death in her car by an ICE agent, a horrific event that took place not far from my home. All manner of other outrages – from the violent arrest of citizens to elected officials being denied full access to ICE “detention centers” – are taking place across the Twin Cities.

For many Americans it’s all part of the Trump regime’s ongoing fascist takeover of the country, with a particular vindictiveness being shown to the state of Minnesota at this time.

Shows of resistance across the country, like yesterday’s massive rally in Minneapolis’s Powdwerhorn Park, are heartening. Yet, overall, I’m feeling in this moment both infuriated and dispirited.

I also relate to what a dear friend just texted me about what we’re going through here in the North Star State: “It’s heartbreaking and terrifying.”

Indeed, as someone shared on social media earlier today:

We’re living in the Martin Niemöller poem [“First they came for . . . ”] right now and some of you are still holding out for midterms and gun reform.

I share all of this as a way of introducing two pieces I recently came across online and which I continue to ponder. Quite frankly, I don’t know what to do with the advice, information, and insights they contain. Perhaps some answers will emerge for me in the days to come. For now, I simply share them and welcome any feedback.

First, here is part of what Glen Lancaster recently shared online.

Canadian here looking over the fence.

Watchng the U.S. waiting patiently for midterms while norms are being fed into a wood chipper is not a strategy; it's denial with a calendar.

History is pretty blunt on this point.

Authoritarian regimes do not pause for elections out of courtesy. They entrench, they capture institutions, they rewrite the rules, and then they hold "election" the way casinos offer free drinks.

If Americans still have legal, civic, economic and institutional leverage righ now, then now is when it gets used.

It means mass pressure, coordinated actions, strikes, lawsuits, state resistance, corporate accountability, and relentless visibility.

It means acting like democracy is something you defend in the present tense, not something you RSVP to every four years. . . . The moment is now.

And here’s a response from Steven Fasano:

Your assessment is correct. Unfortunately there is little evidence that any legal recourse remains. The federal legislative and judicial branches are completely compromised and complicit.

Economic measures are hindered by a paycheck-to-paycheck status for a significant portion of the population. Add to this that in the U.S., healthcare insurance is tied to employment and to be terminated for public polical expression, a very real concern, can be catastrophic, particularly with those already dealing with serious medical conditions.

As for civic response, that’s not promising. While some state, or other local law enforcement agencies have offered resistance many more are complicit.

The willingness of the military to comply in Venezuela and the weak or isolated objection to the threats against Greenland and, yes, Canada are indicative of which side the military would support in the unlikely event of a civil uprising. The more likely outcome of such a tactic would be internal conflict among the citizenry rather than focus on federal institutions. The long term plan of the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society and the rest of the cabal to create an irreconcilable division among citizens has been flawlessly implemented.

This is not the haphazard confluence of megelomaniacs that it seems. This takeover has been in development for at least 30 and more probably 50 years.

The audacious publication of Project 2025, available to all online, was the signal that the anti-democratic forces believed they had their agenda locked down. Those that tried to spread the warning were dismissed as alarmists and/or effete, elite “libtards.” Half the country, as a result of three decades of degrading and dismantling public education, are unable to read or comprehend the document.

Okay, so I can’t leave it like this. . . . So here are some wise and hopeful words from a woman for whom I have a lot of respect: Marianne Williamson . . .





Related Off-site Links:
Rep. Ilhan Omar Warns That Trump Aims to Provoke Enough Agitation in Minnesota So He Can Declare “Martial Law” – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, January 11, 2026). The Great Unraveling – Marianne Williamson (Transform, January 8, 2026).
The Pathology of Power: How America Learned to Love State Violence – Tim Hjersted (Films for Action, January 9, 2026).
Can the Left Resist in the Face of Increasing Repression? – Chris Hedges (The Chris Hedges Report, January 8, 2026).
The Playbook of Every Successful Nonviolent Struggle – Jamila Raqib (Waging Nonviolence, November 21, 2025).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• Doing What We Can to Stop Unjust Arrests of Immigrants
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• An Incident That Feels “Ripped from a Dystopian Novel”
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• Karen Salmansohn on the “Duel Citizenship of Being Alive”
• “Most Revolutions Succeed Not Through Violence But Through National Strikes”
• Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire