It was a lovely weekend here in Humboldt, with music festivals and sun-kissed afternoons and a big dinner party at my house. Somehow in the midst of all that I missed that the second American Civil War started.

It’s not a shooting war yet, thank goodness. But if you’re a Democrat or live in a big, Democrat-led city, the President of the United States has declared war on you, like it or not. You’re the “enemy within” (as he said to the generals last week); you’re a “little gnat… on our shoulder” that needs to be swatted (as he said to the Navy Sunday). When ICE pulls up, zipties your naked children to each other, and detains everyone subject to having their citizenship verified (as happened in Chicago over the weekend), it’s no more than you deserve.

This may come as somewhat of a shock, though it’s not like we haven’t seen it coming. It’s sort of like when that drunk guy who’s been staring at you across the bar finally comes up and tells you to your face that he doesn’t like you. (If only Obi-Wan Kenobi were here.) You may not think you’ve done anything, but you have a problem now.

So how do you deal with this?

If you’re Patrick Swayze, you invite the guy to step outside and you beat the shit out of him. But what if you’re small, or a pacifist, or just don’t want to fight for whatever reason? Well, you can buy the guy a drink and try to make friends (not gonna work in this case); you can make a run for it; or you can try to get someone else in the middle.

I can’t say I know what’s the right thing to do this time. But one thing you should never, ever do is turn your back on the guy. Head on a swivel, people. That is all.