For those of us who hoped for a better new year, its beginnings have been horrendous.  First, on his own authority, Trump sent a military force to invade Venezuela, seize its leader Maduro with his wife, and bring them here as prisoners.  He now seems to be attempting to keep Venezuela’s oil revenues for himself.  Second, in an interview with the New York Times, Trump asserted that he could do whatever he wanted without any authorization from Congress or the courts.  Finally, in Minneapolis, ICE agents murdered a woman, Renee Nicole Good, who was trying to get away from them.  She had done nothing wrong, but was just bearing witness as  ICE was rounding up immigrants.

     The last action may have gone too far.  A number of citizens recorded this incident on their phones.  These videos show her turning her car away, an ICE agent approaching the driver’s window, and then shooting at her a number of times.  Shortly thereafter, government officials, from Kristi Noem, the head of Homeland Security, to Pres. Donald Trump have falsely claimed that she was planning to attack ICE agents with her car.  This tactic of theirs was anticipated by the late Hannah Arendt, who argued that the goal of corrupt authoritarian officials was not to convince people of the truth of what they say, but rather to get them to not believe anyone.

     However, I don’t think this is happening now.  Numerous demonstrations against this murder and Trump’s other actions are planned for this weekend.  They are taking place all over the nation and their slogans are on the order of “No Wars, No ICE, No Kings.”  ICE in particular has been given tremendous power by Trump.  Its budget is immense.  The requirements for joining it have plummeted, as few want to become ICE agents even though it pays very well.  It is supposed to replace both local police and states’ National Guard, but many locales are fighting back.  In my own city of New York, ICE agents in Chinatown were surrounded by average citizens who prevented them from seizing anyone.  This is happening in many other venues as well.

     In addition to demonstrating in crowds, numerous citizens –- including myself –- have placed candles honoring Good in their windows at night.  I’m reminded of an old saying: “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”  I thought this phrase was ancient, but it was first uttered by a minister in the early twentieth century.  It was then frequently used and popularized by America’s greatest first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.  I couldn’t agree with it more.  After all, a lighted candle melts ICE.

The fact that I don’t need to mention Trump’s name demonstrates the power of his loathsome authoritarianism now.  There’s an ancient saying: “De mortuis nil nisi bonum” -- “Say nothing but good of the dead.”  The fact that it’s still quoted in Latin dates it back to Ancient Rome, but it’s even older than that.  The same slogan is found in both Ancient Greece and  Hebrew Torah writings.  It is an age-old marker of civilization.

     And of course, Trump felt the need to breach it in his disgraceful response to the tragic deaths of Rob and Michelle Reiner at the hands of their son.  He declared that Reiner, “a tortured and struggling, but once very talented star…has passed away due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME…. (caps in the original) He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectation of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before.”

     If that were not enough, shortly thereafter Trump added plaques under the portraits of former presidents which hang in the White House –- after demolishing its entire East Wing to build a giant ballroom. A plaque under the photo of President Barack Obama says he “was one of the most divisive political figures in American History,” who “passed the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act.”  Going further back in time, Trump proclaimed under Ronald Reagan’s portrait that Reagan supported Trump’s desire to become president –- years before Trump had that ambition and when Reagan was suffering from Alzheimer’s.  Under a photograph of an autopen, with which Trump replaced the portrait of Biden, the plaque begins: “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History. Taking office as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States, Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction….” 

     Just today, December 19, 2025, the New York Times reported that Trump had his name added to the Kennedy Center, whose performances have tanked since Trump put his own board in place there.  Another piece condemns ICE for arresting parents as they bring their children to schools; a third states that ICE will set a quota for “denaturalization” of new citizens who Trump’s government doesn’t like.  I wrote a blog about ICE, or “Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” that I called “Our Gestapo.”  The word Gestapo, which committed horrendous crimes in Nazi Germany, got its name from a shortening of the German words meaning Secret State Police.

     So where will all this end?  Are we doomed to become a new Third Reich?  Or are there reasons to believe that we can overcome this dreadful regime?

     I deeply believe that it can be defeated.  First, Trump’s approval ratings have dropped dramatically, far more than those for other presidents.  His claims to bring prices down have completely failed.  Many Americans will soon lose health care, thanks to the “Great Big Beautiful Bill” which he shepherded through a supine Senate.

     But increasing numbers of Republicans, especially in the House, are leaving his sinking ship.  They need to run for re-election in November –- and I strongly believe there will be elections in November.  A number voted against Trump to release the Epstein files and I think increasing numbers will follow, largely to save their own skins.

     But even more importantly, Americans all over the nation are organizing against this government.  The most recent U.S. protest, the No Kings March of October, took place in over 2700 locations and attracted 7,000,000 people,  making it the largest political protest in our history.  Another march is planned for the spring.  Indivisible, a powerful protest organization, has too many groups to count: each week, the leaders read off 10 new groups that have formed and have to leave many out.  More and more average citizens are demonstrating against this regime.  To give one local example, when ICE tried to arrest immigrants in New York City’s Chinatown recently, average citizens overwhelmed them and prevented them from capturing anyone.  The election of Zoran Mamdani as mayor demonstrated that a Democratic Socialist can defeat better financed, more conservative candidates. 

     Moreover, these elections and rebellions are happening all over the nation.  From Grijalva in Arizona to Wu in Boston, new figures are winning elections.  And people realize that except for Native Americans, we are all immigrants.  Many industries, from restaurants to farming, are feeling the loss of such workers.

     So, I have hope for the future.  I think Americans will increasingly protest and reject this horrible authoritarianism.  Like our forbears in the 1770s, we will defeat a tyrannical regime.  I urge you to join in if you haven’t already and to exhort your families and neighbors to act as well.  That is the way that we can all have a Happy New Year!