Despite court losses, public antipathy, ridicule, a shutdown they ignore, the nascent police state lurches on with its daft apocalyptic narrative of an America in flames. Their victims include brown parents torn from kids, a minister shot, an 87-year-old veteran tackled, a beloved Black school official. Each time, their allies plead for "radical empathy." Each time, ICE declines, stonily citing "public safety." Joseph Goebbels: "It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition (that) a square is in fact a circle."

In another up-is-down, whitewashing moment, on Monday the regime marked "Columbus Day," thus reclaiming from "the ashes of left wing arsonists" the explorer's noble, white Christian nationalist legacy of "faith, courage, perseverance and virtue" - not Indigenous Peoples Day's theft, exploitation and genocide of almost 100 million Native people - to celebrate "the triumph of Western civilization, such as it is. In its name, Trump continues waging his war on free speech, political opposition, constitutionally protected rights, brown people and anyone who disagrees with him in ongoing efforts to become the man-child king of an authoritarian hell-hole most Americans don't want.

While Trump has declared eight national emergencies to justify his draconian powers, courts are largely holding the line, or at least a standoff, against the insanity. In Oregon, a three-judge panel ruled 200 National Guard troops called up can remain federalized but can't yet be deployed in Portland. In Chicago, a judge temporarily blocked deployment of 500 National Guard from Texas already in nearby Elwood; a judge also banned ICE agents from using "riot control weapons" against protesters there. On Tuesday, a Rhode Island judge slammed the government for defying an order banning them from withholding FEMA funds from states that won't cooperate with ICE crackdowns, calling them out for "a ham-handed attempt to bully."

How far the regime will go to defy court orders may depend on vengeful Nazi mastermind Goebbels/Miller, who calls every court decision they lose "legal insurrection"; his heartbroken relatives, in turn, call him "the face of evil." The ever-seething Miller describes protests as "domestic terrorist sedition" and the use of troops against them as "an absolute necessity to defend (our) government, public order and the Republic itself." Last week, saying the quiet part out loud, Miller lied the president has "plenary” or absolute power under Title 10 of the US Code; then he blinked and glitched out, reflecting what experts call "cognitive overload" in the "reptilian" brain, often when mistakenly saying something damning.

When not freezing, he furiously sputters out attacks on a "campaign of terrorism (that) will be brought down" by his righteous mission "to dismantle terrorism and terror networks." At Charlie Kirk's memorial/rally, Miller thundered, "We are the storm" in a demonic, Nazi-esque speech that posited "them" - "You are nothing. You have nothing. You are wickedness, you are jealousy, you are envy, you are hatred...Our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve'" - against "us": "Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Philadelphia...Our ancestors built the cities...built the industry. We stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble.”

Last week, trying to maintain momentum in the face of enduring resistance, Trump called an "Antifa Roundtable" - in fact a rectangle - to follow his declaration of Antifa as a "domestic terrorist organization" 'cause he still doesn't get it's neither terrorist nor an organization, but simply anyone anti-fascist. Gathering flunkies and far-right influencers to help, per one headline, "Protect Americans From Dancing Unicorns," they repeated like an incantation the notion of "terrorism" and "insurrection" to make it so. In rhetoric echoing Press Barbie's vow Trump will "end the Radical Left’s reign of terror in Portland once and for all," a press release referenced an imaginary "Antifa-led hellfire" and "a wasteland of firebombs, beatings, and brazen attacks."

Trump opened the meeting declaring, "The epidemic of Antifa-inspired terror has been escalating for nearly a decade." He claimed “paid anarchists” want to "destroy our country," and "many people" have died in leftist violence; the correct number is one, in 2020, followed by three deaths on the left. He raved about "flag-burning mobs," "degenerates" and, without irony, "people that want to overthrow government" before occasionally nodding off, Everyone agreed with him about everything. "This is not activism, it's anarchy," intoned Pam Bondi before vowing to take "the same approach" to Antifa as to drug cartels: "We're going to take them apart," and then presumably, summarily kill them from above?

A suitably icy ICE Barbie vowed to "eliminate Antifa from existence." "They are just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA (Tren de Aragua]), as Isis, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, all of them," she said. They are just as dangerous. They have an agenda to destroy us." Despite that peril, she later bravely ventured to war-torn Portland, where protests cover about a block of its 135 square miles. There, MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson gushed, she survived mean signs - "Molotovs Melt Ice" - and, from a rooftop, "stared down an Antifa army," aka a few protesters/enemy combatants and a guy in a chicken costume. Also in her entourage was a (pardoned) Jan. 6 rioter who'd just texted a friend, “We need a war, bro."

At a Cabinet meeting later that week, Noem claimed city, state and police officials - "all lying, disingenuous, dishonest people!" - were "absolutely covering up the terrorism hitting their streets" because otherwise why was the city so quiet? Sen Ron Wyden: "Thoughts and prayers to Cosplay Cop Kristi who had to endure the dogs, farmers' markets, capybaras (at Debbie Dolittle's Petting Zoo") and marathon runners of Portland." Wrote Portland City Council member Angelita Morillo: "I never thought renowned puppy-killer Kristi Noem would be so afraid of protesters wearing frog costumes, but here we are...There is no terrorism happening here. I think that they are just a very scared people."

To the press later, Trump praised Noem and promised to punish people who create mean signs. In one hilarious, terrifying moment, he was asked if, given all the terrorism, he'd given more thought to suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional protection from unlawful detention. "Uh, suspending who?" he asked. "Habeas corpus." "I dunno," he said. "I’d rather leave that to Kristi - what do you think?” Kristi: "Umm..." George Conway: "President Non Compos Mentis has no idea what the writ of habeas corpus is.” Still, Trump yammered, Portland is "a burning hellhole...You don’t even have stores anymore. They don’t put glass up. They put plywood. Every time I look at that place it’s burning down. There are fires all over the place.”

Federal agents face off against an inflatable frog in Portland.Photo by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/AFP via Getty Images

Somehow, despite their noise and power, Americans still aren't buying it. Last week, the White House bragged a video of Noem blaming the shutdown on Dems was “currently playing at every public airport in America." Not: Multiple airports are refusing to play it, citing the Hatch Act and opposing "using public assets for political propaganda. Immigration lawyer Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: "Can you think of a single movie in which there's a government video denouncing its political opponents playing on a loop in public spaces (and) that government was the good guy?” In Chicago store fronts have started displaying signs that read, "ICE do not have consent to enter this business unless they have a valid judicial warrant."

And mockery rejecting the right's ludicrous narrative is rife. "This is JB Pritzker reporting from war-torn Chicago," began one video from the governor. "It’s quite disturbing. The Milwaukee Brewers have come in to attack our Chicago Cubs. I've seen people being forced to eat hot dogs with ketchup. Our deep dish pizza has gone shallow....It’s a challenge to survive here, but there’s no hellscape I’d rather be in." Late-night's Jimmy Kimmel, citing "demonstrators in animal costumes dancing to Farruko’s Pepas," asked viewers in Chicago, Portland, Memphis etc to prove how crimey their cities are by sending in videos:of their own war-ravaged communities under the hashtag #ShowMeYourHellhole.

Memes abound, especially in Portland, where proudly weird residents have embraced the goofy. "Breaking: Antifa founders identified!" (Churchill and FDR). "Boomerfita from the war zone" (boomers/his Land Is Your Land). "The Battle of Voo Doo donuts rages on!" (ICE/donuts). Deadly dance parties (large blow-up animals). Gavin........

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