MAGAs Want to Spread Hate, Fascism and Disease. Don’t Let Them

We are all on the edge

By Frank Carini / ecoRI News columnist

A racist thug who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection confronted a trio of police officers last weekend who defended the Capitol during that violent attack and accused them of being cowards.

The day before Enrique Tarrio was brazenly harassing the officers — Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn, and Aquilino Gonell — through the lobby of a D.C. hotel that was hosting the Principles First conference where one of the officers received a “Profile in Courage” award, the 21st-century Nazi had been arrested again, this time for assault. (The next day, Feb. 23, conference attendees and hotel guests were forced to evacuate because of a bomb threat.)

“You were brave on Twitter,” Tarrio, a member of a hate group that promotes and engages in political violence and terrorizes immigrants, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community, told the officers. “You guys were brave at my sentencing when you sat there and laughed when I got 22 fucking years. Now you don’t want to look in my eyes, you fucking cowards.”

Gonell, a Dominican-American, was the officer honored. Dunn is Black. Tarrio is deplorable.

Jeffrey Epstein’s good friend who spews a firestorm of hate and lies from the Oval Office pardoned Tarrio and roughly 1,500 other insurrectionists soon after taking office.

This is who MAGA is. Goons and their admirers, such as Rhode Island senators Jessica de la Cruz, Gordon Rogers, Elaine Morgan, and Thomas Paolino, who support the thuggery. EDITOR'S NOTE: Elaine Morgan "represents" the northern half of Charlestown. - Will Collette

It can’t be anything else, because the Mad King’s only policy positions are retribution, demonization, and abomination, and being constantly praised. MAGAs hide behind cries of fiscal responsibility, but most of their actions are irresponsible, and repulsive.

The failed Rhode Island Senate resolution introduced by de la Cruz and supported by the other three sycophants congratulated the MAGA King “on his inauguration and historic and extraordinary victory in the 2024 presidential election.” The three pages of fawning note where their king was born and that he “hosted the hit reality television series the Apprentice and was widely recognized as being one of the leading and most successful business magnates in the world.”

The last line says it all: “Resolved That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to President Donald John Trump.”

No point in bootlicking if the receipt doesn’t see the slobber. I dare you to read the resolution without vomiting.

MAGA Rep. Michael Chippendale introduced the resolution in the Rhode Island House. It was passed by acclimation, which omnipresent journalist Steve Ahlquist covers here.

Unsurprisingly, the resolution doesn’t make reference to the Mad King’s bankruptcies; his many failed businesses, from vodka and steaks to a board game and an airline; his fraudulent charity; nor the fact he is both a felon and sexual predator. It glosses over his vile and deadly handling of the coronavirus pandemic. It doesn’t mention he has a long history of being a racist.

This isn’t an administration; it’s a regime. A bunch of fake tough guys and gals cosplaying as mobster Tony Soprano and his henchman “Big Pussy,” Al Capone, and Vladimir Putin. It’s authoritarianism with plans for fascism. The oligarchical class is carrying out a brazen takeover of the federal government. The filthy rich want to profit off more cruelty.

Editorial cartoonist Dave Granlund draws on Elon
Musk's salute at the 2025 presidential inauguration.

During the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., a spectacle of Nazi salutes, hatred, and knee-bending, the regime’s border czar warned Massachusetts law enforcement officials he is coming for them.

“I read a story last night: the police commissioner of Boston, you said you’d double down on not helping the law enforcement office of ICE,” Tom Homan said. “I’m coming to Boston and I’m bringing hell with me.”

Like the rest of the regime’s repellent heap of hooligans, Homan doesn’t belong in public service.

But MAGAs love being ruled by vandals. They cheer as hammerheads destroy public education, public health, and the environment. They applaud when people lose their jobs. They don’t care if low-income senior citizens and children living in poverty lose Medicaid coverage. They want the poor to beg for health care. They want the hungry to starve. They are obsessed with building a wall. They don’t mind a chainsaw-wielding narcissist paid billions in government contracts stealing their private data and that of other U.S. citizens and businesses.

They’re fine with defunding cancer work and other medical research. They think eliminating the team studying the bird flu is a jolly good idea. The federal deficit is a problem when the king isn’t in office, but tax breaks for the superwealthy when he is. Only they have a right to free speech. They shrug as an international Nazi terrorist group with origins in the United States appears to be rebuilding its global and U.S. ranks. They have no problem with the regime’s central focus: cruelty.

They want to guzzle fossil fuels, spread measles, and tar and feather transgender people.

If you support the Mad King, all of that and more hideousness is what you desire, as long as the wrecking ball doesn’t clobber your home and family. You can tell yourself otherwise, but the rest of us aren’t buying it. The Mad King told us exactly what he was going to do and you gleefully roared.

On the same day the Proud Boys juvenile was calling decorated police officers names, a rally and food drive was held at the Rhode Island Statehouse to denounce the oligarchical coup and support those being attacked, which is most of us. About 3,000 people attended.

Across the street and behind a line of police officers, a dozen or so members of another white nationalist hate group, the Patriot Front, briefly marched, their faces finally covered by masks.

At this critical moment in U.S. history, you are either a fascist or not. Some Rhode Island elected officials have apparently chosen the former. Sieg heil.

Pathetic, or, as a sign at the Feb. 22 Statehouse rally simply read, “Sad.”

Perhaps a few words from songwriter Florence Welch will inspire regime supporters to reject their miserable king: “And it’s hard to dance with a devil on your back. So shake him off.”

Note: While I normally don’t condone telling people how to vote, I believe Rhode Island and the rest of the free world would be much better off without elected officials who support a wannabe king and a punishment-first regime.

Frank Carini can be reached at frank@ecori.org. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.