“The conspiracy is open now. It comes down from the top. And because of its blatancy, men who were middle of the road have been pushed to the left, have become liberals. Liberals have been jammed over into becoming activists. The activists have, against their will, become militants…and the militants, who saw what this year would become, have now hideously, horribly, without their wanting it…been crammed all the way over into the revolutionary blood and death position.”–Harlan Ellison, “The Glass Teat”

This was going to be Part Two of the endless series on what’s wrong with homeless shelters, but it’s painfully apparent that national and world events have ramped up in urgency to a tipping point, as the Ellison quote (written in 1970) indicates. And unfortunately, the shelter issues aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so now we must dig deep into the apocalyptic, cataclysmic, dystopian situation in which we Americans–and by extension, the world–find ourselves.

Harlan Ellison’s “The Glass Teat,” a collection of columns that he wrote for the Los Angeles Free Press between October 1968 to January 1970, has been my revolutionary Bible, my own personal Common Sense. It’s chock-full of parallels between Nixon and Trump: their hatred of the press and anyone else who opposes them, their conviction that “if the President does it, it is not illegal.” It is long past time that Trump be disabused of that diseased notion.

There is a gargantuan iceberg of growing rage against Trump and his minions. Its causes: The incursions against due process. The persecution of LGBTQ+ citizens. Trump and Vance’s War on Dissent against the national news media and protests, is tantamount to censorship and police statism. Trump, Vance, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan and others making war on The Other, ranging from imprisonment to deportation to outright being disappeared. All this, and so much more, is clearly calculated to have a chilling effect on anyone who dares to utter a word of opprobrium against Dear Leader and/or his minions.

If matters weren’t so deadly serious, the recent stories of SecDef Pete Hegseth’s latest SNAFU on Signal and HomeSec Kristi Noem’s loss of her purse, containing–let me get out the list here–driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, DHS access badge, makeup bag, blank checks and $3000 cash, would be cause for hilarity. Our laughter catches in our throats when we consider the potential repercussions of further displays of incompetence on the part of these cabinet members. The next mistake these nimrods make could be fatal.

Meanwhile, we read reports of Dr. Oz’s daughter fainting at her father’s swearing-in ceremony, while her mother attempts to outdo Bill Maher in the sanewashing of Orange Adolf. All this talk of a “medical interruption,” and how “exceedingly warm, caring and generous” Dear Leader was towards the young lady.

What a shame that, say, Kilmer Abrego Garcia can’t have the same experience that Mrs. Oz and Mr. Maher had at 1600 Pennsylvania. But then, if you aren’t as effusive in your praise as they were, I guess you deserve whatever you get.
The pushback is coming in myriad forms. Bill Kristol–the neocon’s neocon–asked on X, “Where does the Abolish ICE movement go to get its apology?” A statement unthinkable from any conservative even three months ago.

And at the other end, we have Nicholas Decker, an economics student at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va, on Substack, asking a very non-rhetorical question: “When Must We Kill Them?”

Meanwhile, in the MAGAverse, an overweening concern for the safety of Cybertrucks and women athletes trumps (pun intentional) any concerns about the War on Dissent and due process for the 179 citizens sent to El Salvador’s concentration camps.

But even a hardened conservative like the late Antonin Scalia wrote that “…we have a First Amendment which says that the right of free speech shall not be abridged. And it is addressed, in particular, to speech critical of the government.” And on due process: “It is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in deportation proceedings.”

How many homeless among the disappeared?

We have to ask, because it was recently announced that the Trump badministration has been responsible for over 1200 citizens disappearing from the United States. These are small numbers by Pinochet standards, but growing daily. And unhoused people, being stateless, are even easier to disappear, having few family members and friends with the time, resources and desire to find them.

Am I concerned for my safety and homeless people in general? Yes. At all times, and even more so since Trump’s director of ICE, Tom Homan, started going after naturalized citizens–people who have been in the US legally for decades, without so much as a parking ticket to their names.

It should be crystal clear that the Ellison quote that introduced this piece is not hyperbole. It is a chillingly accurate statement of where we are right now as a country. And the next three years and six months – and what we do and don’t do as citizens – will determine the fate of the soul of our nation.