What Would Nellis Say?

 

There's nothing patriotic about fascism

By Rick Stiller​​​​​​​

 

These essays have become a persistent recitation of what it really means to be an American patriot and how the bigots who scream the loudest about defending their rights and privileges have become the enemy within. The rich and powerful are erasing everything that once bound us together as a just, innovative, and welcoming nation, while demolishing the structures that allow our system to function for all of us.

 

That transition from progress and inclusion to a sheer mockery has been nurtured through mass dissemination of blatantly false misinformation and ridiculous conspiracy theories by political talk show hosts parroting Republican/MAGA puffery for decades, while masquerading under a phony declaration of legitimacy as “news” organizations. 

 

Propaganda grows and spreads through the age-old process of convincing an audience to believe a small, inconsequential lie, then another, and another, until they are willing to accept utter nonsense as fact and truth. That progression requires constant expansion and reinforcement of preposterous and outrageous lies to keep the cult coming back for more.

 

When the Fox network announced that Trump had lost Arizona in the 2020 election, their MAGA audience fled to more radical networks, and Fox profits suddenly vanished. In a desperate campaign to reclaim that audience and their revenues, they made a corporate decision to support Trump’s big lie with a constant barrage of fake stories and unsubstantiated claims for more than a year. 

 

Dominion Voting Systems accepted a settlement of $787 million from Fox for false accusations of fraud and vote tampering that the network made against the company. Fox continues to fill every hour of every day with lies and baseless accusations to satisfy an insatiable audience that has been groomed to deny truth and accept unsubstantiated nonsense in its place.

 

Conservative doctrine is cloaked in white-supremacy, bigotry, and hate to appease their morally bankrupt fake “Christian” voting base by granting permission to hate and providing a gigantic and convenient group of “Others” as a target.

 

Congress just voted to fund the American Gestapo (ICE) with a $30 billion grant to hire 10,000 more goons, and $45 billion to build enormous barbaric concentration camps to torture and dehumanize their captives before shipping them off to prisons in third-world countries without any hope of justice or repatriation.

 

Trump’s surrogates claim to be capturing invading murderers and rapists, but, under little Steven Miller’s directive, ICE is tasked with nabbing three thousand “undocumented immigrants” every day. Rather than following any legal precedents, issuing warrants, or following judges’ orders, masked thugs in unmarked cars are grabbing anyone, including American citizens, with brown skin off the streets, out of public parks, school parking lots, farmers’ fields, and construction sites.

 

Immigrants seeking residency and citizenship are showing up for required appearances in court only to be assaulted and kidnapped by masked ICE agents as they exit the courtroom, denied lawyers or due process, and shipped to prisons in distant states to await deportation. Cruelty is the point.

 

Under cover of the war on immigrants as a distraction, the Heritage Foundation appointees in the current administration are pulling the levers of power behind the scenes to dismantle and “privatize” the government structure to deny services to the American people while they line their own pockets in the process. 

 

Does anyone really believe that the DOGE kids were really after “waste, fraud, and abuse” when they hijacked the computer systems in every federal agency? Of course not. They were collecting data and information on every citizen, company, and organization in the country for sale, profit, or political exploitation by the tech oligarchs behind this attack on our personal security.

 

Trump’s fake “Christian” base (there is nothing “Christian” about institutionalized bigotry and hate) lives by a creed of me, mine, and ours, that ignores our communal responsibility to each other and the rest of society.

 

One has to wonder whether those enthusiastic voters will approve of having their local rural hospitals closed, or rural broadcasts on NPR & PBS that are their only source for local news and weather being shuttered, or foreign sales of their primary crops being curtailed by Trump’s tariff wars to fund gigantic tax breaks for the richest of the rich?

 

Nationwide, our roads and bridges are in desperate need of repair, our educational system is being defunded and dismantled, and our national health system is being run by administrators who do not believe in science. Our weather satellites are being decommissioned, and meteorologists dismissed, just as summer storms are ravaging the country, wildfires are raging, and hurricane season approaches. 

 

Do all rabid Trump voters in Texas approve of Secretary of Homeland Security, Krisi Neom, defunding emergency call centers, withholding FEMA experts and support for days, and ordering a halt to any expenditures over $100,000 without her personal approval? Trump wants to eliminate FEMA and transfer those responsibilities to individual states, which lack the expertise and financial resources to handle cataclysmic disasters.

 

And will those ignorant supporters continue to bow to the diapered slob in the White House when their Medicaid coverage is discontinued, their Social Security checks stop arriving, the Veterans Administration stops providing care for our veterans, or 13.8 million children go hungry because school lunches, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and food banks are eliminated so the rich can receive a gigantic tax refund?

 

Our citizenship represents a social contract among all of us, whereby we are obligated to protect and defend our rights and freedoms, and to contribute to the common good. When the country is under attack, we all stand up to defend our principles and the way of life we cherish. That commitment is what binds our diverse population of pink, black, brown, yellow, and red immigrants (and, yes, we are all invaders and immigrants, with the exception of real Native Americans) into a cohesive nation. 

 

It does not work without everyone’s contributions. It does not work when the country is divided into tribes that subscribe to hate and division, rather than endorsing inclusion, cooperation, and a common purpose. It does not work when one faction believes they are better or more deserving than the rest, and it does not work without your commitment to demanding an end to American fascism.

 

Stand up! speak out! Make a difference before it’s too late!

 

PS – If you know any immigrants who have been, are, or might be subject to arrest for attending required court hearings, a group of volunteers based out of a USC Dornsife program established a free hotline to help those with in-person immigration hearings file motions to move their appointments online. 

 

The hotline is available for use by anyone, anywhere, and may be reached at 888-462-5211. Services are available in both English and Spanish. For the full article, please visit: https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2025/06/18/usc-agents-of-change-establishes-hotline-to-help-move-immigration-hearings-online/

 

Thanks for your support! I look forward to your thoughts and your dedication to freedom! And I hope you will share these thoughts with everyone you know!

 

For more visit: www.rickstiller.com, and for a moment of calm, enjoy the flowers from my garden at www.rickstillerart.com

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