Dispatches from the Department of War and the Woke Resistance

When President Trump declared Portland a “war-ravaged city” and sent troops and helicopters to monitor peaceful protests, it wasn’t just political theater—it was a dress rehearsal for authoritarianism. His speech at Quantico, flanked by Pete Hegseth and 800 stone-faced Joint Chiefs, landed with all the warmth of a lead balloon. Meanwhile, in at least one independent living facility, resistance is brewing—not with rifles, but with paperclips. This essay traces the absurdity of militarized rhetoric, the rise of meme warfare, and the quiet defiance of everyday Americans who know that fascism doesn’t always arrive with jackboots. Sometimes, it shows up in speeches about kombucha and fat generals. AI….


According to Google the idiom, ‘Always waiting for the other shoe to drop’ means we are  “anticipating an inevitable, usually negative, event after a prior one has occurred, similar to hearing one shoe hit the floor in an apartment and expecting the second to follow.” A deeper dive brought the explanation that the expression got its start from old Vaudeville routine where a comedian would say: “A man comes home late to his room in a crowded boarding house. As he gets ready for bed, he removes and drops a shoe with a thump on the floor. Remembering that his downstairs neighbor often complains of late-night noise, he takes off the other shoe and places it gently on the floor. After he settles under the covers, an irritated voice from the room below shouts, ‘When are you going to drop the other shoe?’”  

Meanwhile in Portland, Oregon

Ever since Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense or Secretary of War—take your pick) delivered his speech before the 800 stone-faced Joint Chiefs at Quantico September 30th coupled with the president declaring Portland, Oregon, to be “a war-ravaged city and a threat to our national security” I’ve felt like the other shoe is finally going to drop. Trump not only deployed the National Guard against the governor’s wishes, he has helicopters circling the skies above the city to keep track of an “insurrection” that city and state officials say is just citizens peacefully exercising their rights to free speech. 

“There is no insurrection,” Oregon Governor. Tina Kotek said on Saturday. Portland officials think Trump is watching footage from 2020 when there was protests in Portland against George Floyd’s murder. Remember the “I can’t breathe!” cries he made while a police officer held him down with a knee to his neck for nine minutes, 29 seconds?

You’ve got to love the internet and the creativity of Americans. No sooner did the troops arrive in Portland than the memes started showing up on Facebook. Memes written in the same tone and gravitas as soldiers wrote back home during the Civil War. “Dearest Mother, I write to you from the front lines of the Great Portland Conflict of ‘25 where our battalion bravely holds a line between the artisan kombucha stand and the vegan co-op….” 

That’s one end of the spectrum of reactions to what happened but on the other end—the end that makes me think the tide if finally turning against Trump’s administration—is a lot of high ranging military men are posting articles about how the military will not follow UNLAWFUL orders from a president. These were in response to Trump’s speech at Quantico before the generals and admirals, where he said the military should use Democratic-led cities as training grounds on what he characterized as “a war from within.” The road to fascism isn’t theoretical anymore. It’s paved with speeches like these two delivered at Quantico with rhetoric aimed at turning citizens against one another.

Trump started his speech out by noting how no one applauded Hegseth’s speech just before he took the stage, “You’re allowed to do that, you know.” He paused, expecting them to applaud.They still didn’t, so the president said, "If you don't like what I have to say you can walk out and kiss your careers and pensions goodbye." And if you read the full transcript you’ll understand why they didn’t applaud. One thing Hegseth said was “Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations...and seeing fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.” And that was the least offensive thing he said. As one pundit put it, "Hegseth called them all fat, gay losers."

Hegseth also said he was once again going to “empower drill sergeants to instill a healthy fear into new recruits. And if that makes me toxic, then so be it.” He’s going to unweasonize—his word not mine—words like bullying, hazing and toxic in the military. It’s another brick in the road to fascism when leaders celebrate fear over respect coupled with ignoring governors, by-passing Congress and breaking as many norms as the current administration does. It's eroding our Democracy—all actions that are the very hallmarks of authoritarianism. 

Trump’s entire speech was mostly his usual word salad of his Ten Greatest Hits: Tariffs. How he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Sleepy Joe Biden. And how he hates autopens. (Trump went on and on about how he’d like to sign things in pure gold but it takes a certain kind of paper.) He talked about how his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico makes sense “because we own 92% of the frontage.” And of course, he talked about his renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War. He said, everyone loves it because it’s no longer woke. A renaming that from all accounts he can’t do without congressional approval which didn’t stop him from getting new signage put up along side of the old as well as renaming the website, The Department of War which reflects militaristic values formerly only valued in communist and fascist regimes. 

Back at Home

Closer to home someone in our Tuesday Night Conversation Group (otherwise known as the Secret Society of Liberal Ladies) passed around an article about The Paperclip Project and so we’ve all be wearing one attached to our collars or sleeves as a sign of our resistance against fascism. It’s a small act of pushing back, and it feels empowering when you see someone else in solidarity wearing one. Another member of the group hosted a happy hour to introduce us to a local democratic candidate for Mayor. She had a turn out of 15+ people—all from our independent living apartments—and most of us were wearing our paperclips. 

It’s a little thing—copied from what the Norwegians did during the WWII Nazi occupation to signal unity. Here, the only reaction so far came from a MAGA supporter who asked about the paper clip. When told it was a symbol of resistance against fascism, he scoffed: “You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.” That idiom, by the way, dates back to 1546. 

History teaches us many things and one lesson we must not forget: the road to fascism is paved with apathy. Trump isn't building a mole hill, he’s constructed a mountain. History also does not forgive or forget those who look away when it’s time to fight back. So this is your call to action. Do something to help sound the alarm. It can be anything from going to the 'No Kings Protest' coming up later this month to wearing a paperclip then sharing your concerns when asked about it to supporting public figures who are in the trenches already. Find a way to make your voice be heard. We can’t wait for the other boot to fall. © 

I've spent more time than I care to admit trying to make live links of to the transcripts to both Trump's and Hegeth's speeches but something keeps going wrong. If you are interested in reading them you'll have to google them yourself. Hegeth's is a master class on how to demoralize our troops and worth reading. They flew in every single high ranging military personal from all the branches of the government from all over the world to sit in that room. Judging by the way the Joint Chiefs reacted to these speeches I'm hoping that history will judge them as the beginning of the end. But which ending? The ending of Trump's power or the ending of our Democracy? 

ICE Fishing in Portland