Category: Editorial Page 2 of 37

In this age of Donald J. Trump and the Mueller investigation, you can expect updates on what is happening to our country and its Constitution.

Important Message from Professor Emeritus Dr. James Greenberg

By Connie Wilson

On September 26, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology

Please read this insightful and informational warning about the Rule of Law and our Justice system, from legal Professor Emeritus, Dr. James Greenberg.

James Greenberg

Justice in America is breaking. Not in its statutes or codes, which still sit on the books, but in the trust that makes them real. Prosecutors are supposed to pursue evidence, not enemies; courts should weigh facts, not loyalties.

LIKE RUSSIA

I used to teach a comparative course in law and development, and the lesson was always the same: once that trust erodes, law becomes theater. That is where we are headed.

The indictment of James Comey, pursued at Donald Trump’s urging, is more than a dispute between two men. It is a battle over whether the American judiciary will remain a neutral arbiter or become an instrument of retribution. Trump wants to transform the Department of Justice from an independent institution into an extension of his will. Comey, who refused to pledge personal loyalty and later confirmed Trump’s pressure to halt the Russia investigation, has become both symbol and target. The revival of charges—earlier dismissed for lack of grounds—cannot be understood outside this political frame.

LEGAL SYSTEM TRUST

In anthropology, the health of a legal system is not measured by its statutes but by the cultural trust that sustains them. That trust is fragile. In the United States it rests on two thin pillars: prosecutorial independence and judicial restraint. Both have been chipped away. When a president demands prosecution of an opponent, classification no longer guarantees fairness. A charge like “false statement” is drained of its meaning and poured into another mold: disloyalty. At that point, the form of justice may still stand, but the substance has gone.

Trump’s strategy is blunt. He shouts his demands in capital letters—“JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”—as if volume were verdict. In that gesture, accusation and conviction collapse into each other. Common law depends on the wide space between them, the courtroom itself. That space vanishes when the indictment becomes the sentence and trial becomes the spectacle. Whatever the outcome, the charge itself is punishment—and that is the point.

COMEY CASE

Comey’s case is less about old disputes than about rewriting the script of Trump’s presidency. By going after a former FBI director, he signals that defiance itself is criminal. For anyone who studies authoritarian systems, this is a familiar maneuver: law is turned from a shield for citizens into a weapon against them. Trials become ritual performances, staged to demonstrate loyalty and vengeance. The target is not only the accused but everyone watching. (In 2 OLLE classes at the University of Texas in Austin last year this was underscored.)

POLITICAL ECOLOGY

Political ecology offers another lens. Systems are interconnected; stress in one part spreads through the rest. Undermine prosecutorial independence, and the damage doesn’t stop there. It weakens protections for voting rights, environmental rules, labor standards—anything that depends on fair enforcement. Once courts become partisan stages, the whole edifice of governance tilts. Legal categories drift from neutral tools into political weapons. While the system may still use the same words, their meaning is altered.

TRUMP ACCELERATES DECAY

Comparative perspective makes the drift clear. In civil law systems, codification can slow political abuse; in common law systems like ours, reliance on precedent and discretion can adapt, but also bend. Everything depends on norms: restraint, good faith, and independence. Precedent is more than procedure; it is the memory of the system. When Trump revives long-dismissed charges, he severs that chain of memory. Courts stop functioning as repositories of experience. Once that memory is broken, decay accelerates.

ASSAULT ON THE JUDICIARY

Trump’s assault on the judiciary has been steady, cumulative. He has called judges “so-called,” branded rulings as partisan, and accused prosecutors of corruption. Each step chips away at legitimacy. The Comey indictment is another blow: a message that courts and prosecutors are simply tools of politics. Delegitimize the referee, and only loyalty counts; truth dissolves into performance.

The danger is not limited to Comey or to Trump’s direct critics. Once justice shifts from evidence to allegiance, no one is safe. Friends today can be enemies tomorrow. Categories like “traitor” or “enemy” float free from legal definition, ready to be pinned on whoever falls from favor. Anthropologists call this symbolic inversion: rituals meant to guarantee order are turned upside down and used to enforce domination. (*Some interesting reading on this “report your neighbor” stuff in a documentary about the East Berlin police force.)

For ordinary citizens the erosion can be hard to see. Life goes on. Judges still wear robes, hearings still convene. Yet symbols matter. Once the courtroom becomes a theater of power, the public’s ability to tell the difference between real adjudication and political stagecraft fades. Trust—already worn thin—begins to collapse. And fear does the rest. When prosecutors hesitate, when judges weigh not only law but personal risk, when citizens decide silence is safer, the system disciplines itself. Fear spreads like contamination through an ecosystem.

McCARTHY ERA

We have seen this before: the McCarthy hearings, Nixon’s enemies list, the detentions after 9/11. Each twisted law to partisan ends. What makes the present moment different is the breadth and the brazenness. Trump is not content to exploit the judiciary; he wants to redefine it in his image. That is why the Comey indictment matters. It is not a minor skirmish. It is a marker of systemic change.

Anthropology reminds us that law is never only technical. It is always cultural: a mirror of trust and expectation. When those expectations tilt toward vengeance, the entire system tilts with them. Political ecology adds the warning: stressed systems reach tipping points. Just as an ecosystem pushed too far may fail suddenly, a judiciary stripped of trust may not recover. Rules can be rewritten, but trust—once gone—takes generations.

The indictment of Comey is not just about one man or one office. It marks how far the judiciary has been dragged into the theater of loyalty. Trump’s attack on the courts is an attack on the very trust that sustains democracy. Whether that trust endures may decide if democracy itself does.

56th Nashville Film Festival Closing Night Tonight

By Connie Wilson

On September 24, 2025

In Editorial, Movies, News, Pop Culture, travel

“Man on the Run” is a terrific documentary about Paul McCartney’s caarer and life, post Beatles.

Here in Nashville, we could not get the Jimmy Kimmel Show last night (Tuesday, September 23). It was one of the states where station owners refused to carry the program. Very sorry that we were bombarded, instead, with a boring montage of Tennessee historic footage. Couldn’t find Kimmel on my computer, either. Spent most of the night looking for it on various services, to no avail.

We came home from an audience award winning documentary about hunting for pythons in Florida, “The Python Hunt,” excited to see Glen Powell (‘Twisters 2″) as a guest on Jimmy’s return to the air waves. No dice. We were able to see some of the opening monologue and a bit of Glen Powell’s appearance on YouTube today, a day late, but Kimmel’s free speech was curbed and for no good reason. Nothing he said was that inflammatory. This is clearly a case of a wannabe dictator moving the levers of power to become that dictator . It is exactly what Putin did in Russia, limned for us in 2 classes at the University of Texas in Austin during OLLIE classes last year.

Furthermore, DJT is talking about trying a second shake-down of Disney, after a $16 million cave when he threw his presidential weight around last time. How can we stop this? Why isn’t more being done to return our country to a constitutional democracy that guarantees life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and grants us 1st Amendment freedoms that are the envy of the rest of the world? I feel sad today about the new administration’s emphasis on revenge, retribution and hanging onto power by any means necessary. It’s unseemly and illegal and absolutely not the vision the Founding Fathers had for our country. I’m embarrassed by Trump and his remarks at the U.N. yesterday show that there is something very wrong happening, and we need to stop it and restore whatever we can of our dignity and status in the world.

Also, apparently there is some sort of anti-gay or anti-drag movement here in Tennessee (and nationwide) being proposed, much like Russia. One of the movies we saw, “Magic Hour,” had four drag queens making an appearance, including one who recently won an Emmy for make-up and goes by the name of Lusious Massacr.

The celebrity speaker about making indie movies, Jay Duplass of the Duplass Brothers (Mark appears on “The Morning Show” and won the supporting actor Emmy for his role), was in town, so I had high hopes that he would stop by the Q&A for his sister-in-law’s movie, “Magic Hour,” but that didn’t happen.

I did sit through the movie and am working up Director Katie Aselton’s remarks on the changing nature of indie film-making in a streaming world. The same might be said of the publishing world, which has changed substantially since my first book came out about 13 years ago. (Not counting the publication of “Training the Teacher As A Champion” by Performance Learning Systems, Inc,, some years earlier, their company Bible.) Very recently, I had an SEO expert tell me that A.I, would put all bloggers out of business, so there’s that to consider, also, and one reason I try to work in a personal detail or two that only a human would know or have.

I continue to inject an opinion that obviously came from a human, just to make sure that the bots don’t take over the world, so be prepared.

Closing night film, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” at the Belcourt Theater tonight. Jennifer Lopez is in it, but is not here tonight. Nicole Kidman spoke on Sunday, but that got past me, as it sold out in less than a day and I did not get the notice (of Aug. 29) until Aug. 31st. I’ve not seen a thing about her remarks.

One cast member is supposed to appear tonight. Maybe I’ll make an After Party tonight, my first.

Mother Jones & Union Activism in the U.S.

By Connie Wilson

On September 16, 2025

In Editorial, Education, Local, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

Activist and organizer Mother Jones.

We’re on the way to the 56th Nashville Film Festival. Driving 7 hours to Paducah, Kentucky was the start.

On the way, we stopped at a rest stop in Southern Illinois, where I communed with Mother Jones, patron saint of the magazine for the reasons you can read here for yourself. Mother Jones was a union organizer and activist. So was I. Mother Jones formed the United Mine Workers, hoping to stop the exploitation of underage minersand the habit of taking advantage of immigrant labor that still exists.

I led the 3-year charge to unionize (organize) the SEA (Silvis Education Association) and I worked hard and long, as, I’m sure, Mother Jones did. My efforts were once scorned by a dinner partner who tried to assign malign characteristics to unions, when, in fact, they are one of the reasons that American workers began to be paid a living wage and treated fairly. This particular critic didn’t like the NEA (National Education Association) and was a white male who was, no doubt, during his working years, a managerial type.

Union Organizing by Mother Jones

When I started teaching in Silvis, Illinois, in 1969 unions were the farthest thing from my mind. We had an education association, which was basically a milk-and-cookies type after-school meeting with no power at all. There had been no recognition of the organization as representing the teachers who taught in Silvis, who numbered about 50 souls in grades K through 8. The SEA had been in existence since 1962, a time period when I was still in high school.

It wasn’t until at least 10 years after my employment began in Silvis that I became aware of the fact that every other school district around us had representatives who sat down with the school board to discuss issues like salary, class size, and work hours, while we had nothing. We read our new year’s salary in the newspaper and it rarely went up. I started teaching in Silvis for $5,280 a year and, out of that, paid for pre-school supervision for my then-one-year-old son. If you think that sounds like a paltry sum for working a full year, you are right.

In defense of the hair do that looks like it was beaten by an egg-beater, I had my sun glasses on top of my head until a few moments before this picture was taken.

I remember saying, to our then-principal, “They should never have rattled my cage,” which had to do with the administration taking my one day of personal leave when my son was hospitalized with double pneumonia and I was told to go right to the hospital from work. I was gone one day. The district took advantage of my necessary absence due to the ill health of my then 2-year-old son, showing absolutely no sympathy to the first-year teacher. (I remember being asked, “Is he going to die?” to justify leaving after I got the call that he was in the emergency room.)

So, I began finding out what it took to unionize our milk-and-cookies organization. It would require a vote supervised by the League of Women Voters and the next 3 years were a blur of finding out how to achieve this. The days of a powerless organization that had no discussion rights with the administration and had to content itself with reading next year’s salary in the local newspaper were gone.

It took me three years of P.R. efforts and going door-to-door in the Silvis neighborhoods, while my two best friends, Linda and Judy went off to Egypt and rode camels during Easter break. But not me. I worked on finding out how to get our group recognized by a recalcitrant school board and administration for 3 years and later was asked to lead workshops elsewhere by the IEA (Illinois Education Association) because we chose to run three candidates at once rather than do the “bullet voting” that the IEA recommended. I defended myself against dogs that ate the buttons off my coat and endured teetering on the brink of blasted-out concrete porches (no idea why the center portion of one house’s porch looked like it had been Ground Zero for an explosion, but it did).

We won the vote and, as far as I am aware, the Silvis Education Association still has negotiating rights with the Silvis School Board. In order to get that right, our organization had to interview and then back new candidates for the school board. We campaigned for our endorsed candidates, whom we interviewed at the local library, and put up billboards. I organized a phone tree to contact local voters. We won, but it took three years of work. We elected four members of a seven member board. Unlike DJT, we were not out for revenge. We just wanted what every other school district’s employees had: collective bargaining rights.

That is what Mother Jones helped miners to achieve and I’d recommend reading what the rest stop monument informed us about her life and achievements.

I may not have single-handedly made Silvis teachers rich (or rich-er), but we established a Sick Leave Bank into which employees could contribute a day (or more) of their unusued sick leave towards someone with a catastrophic illness. I know that it came in handy for Marion Gray when she was out a lengthy period recovering from a mastectomy. We were able to secure some other benefits for the underpaid Silvis employees, and, most importantly, we opened the door to the SEA being treated as a representative organization for future teachers in the Silvis School District.

And that’s your history lesson for the day.

Jolie Eden as Thuy Nguyen in the short "Little Bird" at the HollyShorts Film Festival.

“Little Bird” & “The Stand” At HollyShorts Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On August 15, 2025

In Editorial, Movies, Reviews

Jolie Eden as Thuy Nguyen in “Little Bird” at the HollyShorts Film Festival.

Vietnamese filmmaker and AFI Conservatory MFA Graduate Oanh-Nhi Nguyen is the only filmmaker to have two films accepted into the HollyShorts Film Festival, taking place August 7-17^th in Hollywood, California, “Little Bird” and “The Stand.” Oanh-Nhi Nguyen collaborated on writing the screenplay with Ysabeaux Ng. Timothy Shin was the cinematographer.

Nguyen’s goal is to examine Southeast Asian refugees and other immigrant groups with her two films, “The Stand” and “Little Bird.” The shorts run only roughly 15 minutes, but those 15 minutes are aimed at dehumanizing ethnic groups that the Writer/Director says have been “invisibilized.” She notes: “In the current times we live in, immigrants are seen as criminals.”

“Little Bird” was my favorite of the two of these excellent shorts, primarily because of the luminous performance of the Vietnamese child Thuy Nguyen, played so genuinely and touchingly by Jolie Eden. What a find! She is a charming and beautiful child actress.

Jolie Edens as Thuy Nguyen in “The Stand” at the HollyShorts Film Festival (Aug. 7-17).

In the story, she and many others have been living in slumlord Mr. Chou’s (Perry Yung’s) squalid apartment with numerous other immigrant families for 8 and ½ months. She is also separated temporarily from her parents. The large group in the horrible apartment is 4 weeks behind on the rent. Mr. Chou also wants to raise the rent by $120 and ignores their pleas to fix the many broken things.

The eviction lady who works for Mr. Chou, Linh Tran (Chantal Thuy), has been sent to distribute eviction notices in 1980 Los Angeles, right after the Vietnam War ended. Little Thuy is living there with relatives (but not her parents) and, touchingly, invites the eviction lady to join them for soup.

Linh Tran is invited into the crowded apartment because of confusion over who she is. The residents think she is the Chinese American housing organizer (Debbie Wei) . Real-life efforts to help the immigrants organize a rent strike in Philadelphia inspired the message of compassion and empathy that this much-honored Vietnamese filmmaker memorializes with this short.

Linh (Chantal Thuy) attempts to intercede with the disinterested landlord Mr. Chou, who urges her to go back out and evict more, saying, ‘Do your job or I’ll find someone else who will.” Ultimately, Linh’s humanity and sense of righteousness and fairness lead to her aiding the group. One male member of the many in the apartment says, ‘We have a roof over our heads. Isn’t that enough?” five minutes into the film. No, it is not, and little Thuy expresses her hope that she can remain in this home away from her homeland.

Because Linh Tran works for Mr. Chou, she knows that he is behind on filing the necessary paperwork and is in breach of agreements, as the reports are a year old. Linh shares this information and a rent strike is organized. The ultimate conclusion is optimistic for the immigrants. If only the outlook were this positive for all immigrant communities in the United States.

AUTHENTIC TOUCHES

There are many authentic touches in this film, which was part of Writer/Director Oanh-Nhi Nguyen’s work in 2024 for the American Film Institute for her MFA. She knows this cultural territory and utilizes references to delicacies like che ha mau, which is a three-color dessert. The music and song (Co Nho Dem Nao) by Khanh Bang, performed by Phuong Tam is also utilized to good effect and the actors “dance like crazy monkeys” (a scripted line.)

But the very best thing in this film, captured well by Cinematographer Timothy Shin is the little girl Thuy (Jolie Eden) and her interaction with Linh Tran (Chantal Thuy), both of whom do a great job in their roles.

Bravo!

“THE STAND”

“The Stand” at the HollyShorts Film Festival, Aug. 7-17th.

The second short by Oanh-Nhi Nguyen at HollyShorts is “The Stand.” Nguyen wrote this one with Corey Pinchoff and Ace Wang edited the cinematography by Ed Wiu.

The stars of “The Stand” are Jovie Leigh and Kailen Jude. Again, there are so many awards that the short has already won (over 10) that this review would be filled simply by listing them all.

Suffice it to say that Jovie Leigh, a Filipino actress who won as the Best Young Actress Award for 2023 from Hollywood Film Festival, is great as the lead, the daughter of a divorced Mom who depends on running a stand that sells skewers of pork and chicken for money.

Young Quinn has just been selected for a solo at the school concert, and she wants her mother to be able to attend, but the concert falls on one of the busiest times for the stand, so Mom is unsure that she is going to be able to go. Add to that the change in a court appearance (dispute over child support payments) that causes Mom to leave the stand in the command of her high school aged daughter (Jovie Leigh as Quinn), who is also to supervise her little brother Liam (Kailen Jude). Things do not go as smoothly as Mom hoped, but the denouement of this short is positive.

I was impressed to learn that the young Kailen has appeared in the M. Night Shymalan film “Old” and also has had appearances alongside celebrities like John Stamos and Sharon Stone. He is only about ten years old but has been working since age three. The entire effect of the 16:44 minute short was to mark Oanh-Nhi Nguyen as a promising young director with a great future ahead of her in the world of film.

Both shorts have important messages for us all.

The feeling I had as the two shorts ended was, “Long live Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. And good luck to this promising young AFI Film School graduate.” I couldn’t help but ask,“What can we do, as a country, to rid ourselves of those who would persecute and prosecute and victimize immigrants, people who are simply seeking a better life for their families and are the life blood of our melting pot of a country?”

Congratulations to this bright young Vietnamese filmmaker for making us all more aware of our need to try to be good people to immigrants of all countries who come to America.

Kyle Langford Poses Outside Auschwitz in GOP Run for California Governor

By Connie Wilson

On August 13, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology

Did Kyle Langford, a Republican candidate for governor of California, post a photo of himself in front of Auschwitz as an advertisement for “My 0% unemployment Plan.” Yahoo fact checked it and here’s the truth:]

“The Week” Nails DJT Kakistocracy as “Ship of Fools”

By Connie Wilson

On August 8, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

By William Falk, Editor, “The Week”

[ August 8, 2025 edition of “The Week” magazine]:

“It’s a fierce competition, with no winners and only losers. Which of the unqualified kooks and fawning toadies working for Donald Trump is the most incompetent?

Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel are currently the most visible contenders, thanks to their tragi-comic bungling of the Jeffrey Epstein debacle. They promised the MAGA base the release of the full “Epstein files,” even though their boss was the sex trafficker’s best buddy for more than 15 years and noted during that time that Jeffrey liked women ‘on the younger side.’ (Ha, ha!)

When Bondi and Patel discovered with cold fear that Trump’s name appeared multiple times in the voluminous records, they announced, ‘Nothing to see here. Case closed!’ Now they’ve saddled the president with a festering scandal that won’t easily be reburied. (*Although JFK’s assassination and the truth has been fairly well buried for over 60 years.)

FBI Director Kash Patel.

But the self-inflicted Epstein wound is no anomaly. It’s just the most lurid demonstration of the Trump gang’s pervasive ineptitude. Pete Hegseth, a Fox News talking head chosen as Defense Secretary for his chiseled jaw and good hair, has blabbed classified information on an unsecured app about an imminent military attack, cut off defensive weapons to Ukraine without the president’s approval, and demanded that top aides and generals take polygraph tests to prove they weren’t telling the press he was unfit for his job. (*Not to mention including the Editor of “The Atlantic” on a Top Secret meeting about war plans.)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a quack who thinks jet contrails are a Pentagon plot, is aggressively dismantling the country’s vaccination regimen and shutting down scientific research on viruses and cancer, while promoting suntanning, cod liver oil, cane sugar, and measles. (Whooping cough is also on the rise.)

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (rumored to be on the way out.)

The ghoulish senior advisor Stephen Miller does not hide his sadistic glee as he dispatches masked agents to drag away migrant workers from farms, construction sites, meat processing plants and restaurants.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, aka “ICE Barbie,” has shown up at migrant raids and El Salvador prisons while sporting cowboy outfits, tactical gear, false eyelashes, and a $50,000 Rolex (when she isn’t having her purse stolen at D.C. restaurants). After catastrophic floods killed 138 people in Texas, she delayed disaster relief for three days, because everything had to be “approved” by her personally.

And so it goes.

It’s a ship of fools, and we’re all passengers.”

Emil Bova: Another DJT Tool to Take Over

By Connie Wilson

On July 29, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

Emil Bova,

Anyone who doubts that DJT is, slowly but surely, moving towards seizing control of all the levers of power in government and transforming the United States from a democracy to an autocratic Russian-style autocracy should pay special attention to the Senate’s confirmation of Trump’s personal lawyer, Emil Bova, to a lifetime post on the federal appeals court. Many say that Trump has even higher goals for Bova, since Trump has sometimes carped that the three conservative Supreme Court justices he stacked the Supreme Court with during his first term have not stood behind his agenda as fully as he would like.

Said the New York Times, “Mr. Bove had spurred outcries at the department by directing or overseeing the firing of dozens of employees and ordering the dismissal of bribery charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York. According to one whistle-blower who went public, Mr. Bove also told government lawyers that they might ignore court orders in pursuit of President Trump’s immigration policy goals.”

The actual quote circulating is that Bove told Justice Department lawyers that they’d need to say “Fuck you” to judges who might try to block Trump’s deportation agenda (which currently has only a national approval rating in the thirties.) According to a new Gallup poll, even Republicans have become disillusioned with the ham-fisted way in which ICE is going about deporting illegal immigrants, with support dropping by 40%, from 88% to 48%. When you factor in the Democrats, nationwide support for racially profiling immigrants and seizing them from outside courtrooms where they have shown up to legally report has nationwide support for the totalitarian antics of the Steve Miller and Tom Homan MAGA fores down to 38% from 62% (and falling).

Jackie Calmes in the Los Angeles Times called Bove “one of the worst judicial nominations ever.” Chuck Grassley, the 93-year-old Iowa Republican chairperson of the committee, refused to allow Democrats to air objections to Bove’s appointment or to hear from the whistleblower who would testify to Bove’s use of the F word. The Democrats stormed out of the vote. More than 900 former Department of Justice attorneys and 75 retired judges wrote the Senate to oppose Bove’s confirmation, saying that “he cannot be trusted to uphold the Constitution and act with integrity.” Former district attorney Mimi Rocah in MSNBC.com said, “I can’t recall such fierce and widespread opposition” to a nomination.

Jeffrey Toobin

Jeffrey Toobin (New York Times) wrote “Bove has proven that he belongs to the president” and that Trump is now likely “grooming (Bove) for bigger things.”

Those who voted to confirm this unsuitable candidate need to go before their acquiescence takes our democracy down. Start with Chuck Grassley (R, Iowa, nearing 93 in September), who has already announced his retirement.

Francis Ford Coppola in Chicago with “Megalopolis” on July 25, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On July 26, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Interviews, Local, Movies, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

Francis Ford Coppola in Chicago

As part of my Birthday Tour (7/23), I purchased tickets to see “Megalopolis” (for the second time) with Francis Ford Coppola in attendance. He was coming to the Chicago Theater in downtown Chicago. I was in town celebrating a big birthday, with tickets to see Caitlin Clark play on Sunday (probably injured and not playing—and neither is Angel Reese), tickets to a Cubs game on Tuesday, a trip to the Green Mill to hear live music on 7/23, and my second time plowing through “Megalopolis,” which I originally saw at the Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa—a theater owned by filmmakers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (“A Quiet Place,” “Heretic”).

I did not review “Megalopolis” when I saw it the first time, shortly after its release on September 27, 2024. It seemed to want to be a commentary on Trump 2.0 and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire came up as a good way to compare the two time periods. Beyond that, the film seemed primarily random bits, as did Coppola’s comments this night, when he appeared onstage to introduce the film and came back at the end to ostensibly take questions from the audience.

The director may deserve criticism for not preparing something more along the lines of “An Evening with Cary Grant,” which recapped that famous actor’s career. Of course, as I headed out to that one, the radio alerted us that Cary had just died of a heart attack (in Davenport, Iowa), so these strolls down memory lane with elderly actors and directors are always fraught with risk. I can’t really compare how Cary did, because I ended up trying to cheer my mother up because my father had just died in his eighties with an ill-timed celebrity outing to someone I had lauded as “still going strong in his eighties.” Francis Ford Coppola’s birth year is 1939, so draw your own conclusions.

Time is the risk. Don’t we all (secretly) know it?

Will Coppola talk about his other films? (A: No).

Francis Ford Coppola at the Chicago Theater on July 25, 2025.

Will Coppola seem on top of his topics? (Yes & No. He rambled, but so did the film.)

Is the film as bad as critics at the time said it was? (A: Again, yes & no. I have a feeling that, like “Heaven’s Gate,” it could well be viewed in a totally different light a decade from now.This one was eventually picked up for distribution by Lionsgate in May of 2025, but they have now dropped it as an offering, so getting to see it at all will become as difficult as seeing the original “Manchurian Candidate” was after the assassination of JFK or as seeing “Heaven’s Gate” became after it bankrupted the studio.)

When Francis Ford Coppola graced the stage, welcoming us to the theater, he said, “When the audience is willing to enter a door that they have not entered before, they may experience something they haven’t experienced before. I’ll see you again in a few hours.”

I had entered that door over a year ago during the 138 minute-film’s initial release. I was confused by the lack of a coherent story line then, and I had hoped to hear—at the very least—stories from the making of this, his latest film, a project that consumed him for decades. Eventually, Coppola—the director responsible for such iconic films as “The Godfather” series,”Apocalypse Now,” and “The Outsiders” had to sell part of his vineyard to raise the $140 million the film supposedly cost. Touring with it to a variety of cities (6, initially) is another way to offset his financial loss, since the film has only had a worldwide gross of $14 million, to date. The director is now suggesting he will recut the film to add even more dream sequences and other “weird” things. (Good luck with that.)

There is one point in the film where the lights come up and a “live” person comes out and has a brief discussion with its lead, Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina. That did not happen when I saw the film at the Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa, but it apparently happens on the tour, as it happened in New Jersey and happened again in Chicago.

I was hoping against hope that Coppola would offer more behind-the-scenes stories from the shooting in Georgia and more personal anecdotes from a lifetime of revered films, but that didn’t happen. Part of it was the fault of the star of the evening, FFC, and part of it was the poor preparation to ask questions by the audience. I have read that Coppola’s original speech post film had 10 points, which he then reduced to 7 points. We made it through 5 points. They had to do with how our society deals with time, work and money, among other things, all somewhat random and disjointed. Along the way, he would introduce random information, such as the fact that both he and DJT attended the same New York Military Academy (New York Military Academy; Francis Ford Coppola played the tuba there.)

Factoid shared randomly: “Marlon Brando once told me that the secret for actors is, “You can’t care, or they’ll see it on your face.” Not sure I understand that bit of wisdom, but, then, not sure I understand most of “Megalopolis.” (Was hoping for further illumination on that very topic; did not happen.)

Random Factoid #2: “I’m alternately rich and then broke…I’d rather have one million friends than one million dollars.” Along with the concept of being “alternately rich and broke” came a story of giving his kids quasi credit cards, which came with rules for usage. Could not be used to make money. Could not be used to buy sex or love. Could not be used to purchase violence against another. Could not be used to buy gifts.

Random Factoid #3: “We are one human family–homo sapiens. We think we’re 300,000 years old. You are all my cousins.” He went on to proclaim us all geniuses, when compared to other species.

Question #1 from the audience revealed a problem with the way this was going to work—or not work. FFC had difficulty hearing the question(s) and the questioners did precious little forethought when struggling to gain the microphone to ask a question. A better method for selecting questioners could be found. (I’d recommend the SXSW method, myself).

The first questioner, a young man, did not really have much of a question for the legendary director. He just wanted to know if it was true that Marlon Brando, who had been urged to lose weight for his role in “Apocalypse Now,” when badgered to do so, instead went out in a canoe and ate a bunch of hamburgers. If that question makes no sense and seems like a waste of all of our time, you are right. FFC dismissed it as one he couldn’t hear and seemed irritated, at points, that so few women were managing to gain microphone time. (Again: get a better system).

Second question was slightly better: “What are you the most excited about right now?”

This brought forth reflections on family and life: “We will evolve so that we will live in a beautiful world. All I care about is the kids.” He went on an extended reverie about playing with his grandkids and great grandchildren and said that he felt much is learned from play and from playing with youth.

At one point the actress who played Vesta Sweetwater in the film (Grace VanderWaal) shared with us that she wrote the songs she sings while suspended from a swing, supposedly shilling (in the film) for millions to support her in her quest to remain virginal—although she is really 23 and not virginal. Grace sang two songs and my mind instantly flashed back to a poetry workshop I once went to in Washington, D.C., where an elderly Mickey Rooney sat in a fancy Robert Louis Stevenson chair while his wife sang. (And that was the entire program!) Mickey and I ended up in the same elevator at one point (his mistake) and he barely came up to my shoulder. And I am only 5′ 2.” Random factoid for you right there!)

Question #4 from Nate dealt with what lessons Coppola might have learned while making the film. The questioner had referred to this particular film as ” a passion project” and FFC said, “Every movie is a passion project. Take away the lesson that you don’t have to play by someone else’s rules.”

During the second of Vesta Sweetwater’s two songs, I left and walked around outside of our mezzanine section seats, because the leg room in R was less than on the most crowded plane I’ve ever been on. (Seats started at $65, but these, with an unobstructed view, were in the $80s. However, there was no mention of the potentially crippling lack of leg room.

We had now been sitting, watching the film, for over 2 hours (138 minutes) and there were also the introductory remarks and FFC’s comments as he rejoined us (“I even put on a tie”). [I think I would have been permanently crippled if I had remained in my seat much longer without getting up. We arrived at 6:30; it was over 4 hours later.

People were beginning to drift away from the marathon viewing now. FFC was not nearly done and shared more random factoids, always promising to circle back to another mentioned topic:

Random factoid: FFC wanted to be able to tap dance as a young boy. He was somewhat mistreated by fellow classmates and he always envisioned himself climbing atop the lunchroom table and tap dancing expertly. (Didn’t happen).

Random factoid: Francis Ford Coppola’s father was a classical musician and played First Flute in the NBC Symphony Orchestra, directed at the time by Arturo Toscanini. Music in films has come from the Coppola clan. This time it is courtesy of Osvaldo Golijov, with Mahai Malaimare, Jr. as cinematographer.

More random topics to follow in further posts.

I’m writing this from the road. My Birthday Extravaganza has not (yet) ended, and won’t until the month ends. A very nice African American lady at the DMV in Chicago told me to always celebrate your birthday for the entire month.

Let the games continue!

The Experts Weigh In On Stephen Colbert’s Firing

By Connie Wilson

On July 20, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Interviews, Local, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics, Pop Culture, Television

Stephen Colbert.

The Washington Post (Emily Davies) asked some prominent authorities in the field of television about the likelihood that the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show was just based on financial considerations, as Paramount maintains. The experts aren’t buying it; neither should we. Forty-eight hours after Colbert called the $16 million payment to Trump by Paramount a bribe on his show, one designed to help facilitate the sale of CBS to Skydance, Colbert was fired, despite being #1.

“How often does the No. 1 guy get canceled? You can analyze this 100 different ways, but Colbert has the No. 1 show in late night and they’ve canceled him. If it walks like a duck, it’s a duck,” Rob Burnett said. “I don’t know the ins and outs of what’s going on up there, but I just don’t think if Stephen Colbert isn’t saying the things he’s saying that this happens.” Rob Burnett ran things at the Tonight Show for 19 years as David Letterman’s producer.

Burnett conceded that revenue is down in late night: At its peak, during Johnny Carson’s long stint as host, NBC’s time-slot champion “Tonight Show” drew 17 million viewers, according to Adweek, whereas Colbert’s top-rated “Late Show” has averaged about 2.5 million viewers this year. All the late-night shows now share digital excerpts online. That allows fans to consume an episode in pieces whenever they choose, and younger viewers choose to do that. But YouTube doesn’t offer nearly the same ad revenue as television. Still, the lock on late night viewers is no longer the pull it was for older generations. Viewers under 35 might not watch any of the late night hosts.

Merrill Markoe

Merrill Markoe, who was the head writer on Letterman’s show during its early-1980s incarnation on NBC before he went on to launch “The Late Show” and moved to CBS in the 1990s, said she “had nightmares” after she heard the news about Colbert.

“CBS, Paramount, the merger, the buyout with Trump, all of it came tumbling down like dice and added up to me in a second,” she said. “It hit me in a very hard way. He was No. 1 in his time slot. And a talk show is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment there is.”

As far as what’s next, Colbert still has many shows to produce at CBS before May. Daniel Kellison, another former Letterman producer, doubts he’ll make it. “I just hope he’s going to go all scorched-earth now. There’s no way he’s going to be on the air for nine months,” Kellison said. “He’s such a smart guy, and it would be really cool if he did a slow burn.”

It’s classic authoritarian behavior to forbid criticism, especially if the target is someone as thin-skinned as DJT. Our First Amendment freedoms are under attack and the Jimmys (Fallon and Kimmel) and other hosts (Jon Stewart, Seth Meyer, Bill Maher, Conan O’Brien, John Oliver) are being bullied into submission, just as our universities, our judges, our elected representatives in Congress and anyone whom DJT has a beef with is being bullied into submission.

How long before our First Amendment Freedom of Speech and of the Press and of the right to assembly are eroded? Our leaders of conscience of any party must stand up for the Constitution and the right of habeas corpus and all of our cherished American freedoms, before DJT and Steve Bannon and the boys completely destroy the freedoms our citizens have exercised and prized for 250 years.

Some suggest that Colbert ought to run against Lindsey Graham, since they are both from South Carolina. It would be a waste of a top-notch talent we sorely need at these moments of crisis.

Thank you for speaking truth to power, Stephen Colbert, and let’s hope that the venality of the nation’s biggest bully—out there for all to see—gives pause to some of the worst excesses of MAGA land.

FBI Told to Erase All Mention of Trump in Epstein Documents

By Connie Wilson

On July 18, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

Donald J. Trump & Ghislaine Maxwell.

BREAKING: Senator Dick Durbin drops a massive bombshell and reveals that Attorney General Pam Bondi “pressured” roughly 1,000 FBI personnel to sift through tens of thousands of Epstein documents to flag all mentions of Donald Trump.

And it gets so much worse…

In letters sent to Bondi, MAGA FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, Durbin revealed that his office has received “information” that Bondi has “pressured the FBI to put approximately 1,000 personnel in its Information Management Division” on 24-hour shifts to dig through 100,000 Epstein-related documents ahead of a possible document release.

The personnel were “instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned.” No benign explanation has been provided for the frantic operation and it has supercharged allegations of a coverup.

Durbin is demanding more information about the administration’s deeply suspicious handling of the files and for an explanation as to why officials are flagging documents that mention Trump.

In his letters, Durbin pointed to the now-infamous 2002 remarks in which Trump stated that he had known Epstein for 15 years and thought that he was a “terrific guy” who was “a lot of fun to be with.”

He also mentioned the “bawdy” letter that Trump sent to Ghislaine Maxwell for inclusion in a birthday album for Epstein. Durbin stated that the letter “contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker” in addition to Trump’s signature.

Durbin asked Bondi, Patel, and Bongino to explain if they have personally reviewed all of the Epstein files and if the FBI has Epstein-related documents that the DOJ has no reviewed.

“Is there a log of the records mentioning President Trump? If yes, please transmit a copy of the committee and the OIG,” Durbin wrote, meaning the Senate Judiciary panel and the Office of Inspector General.

On top of that, Durbin is demanding clarification on Bondi’s previous statement that the Epstein client list was sitting on her desk for review. More recently, a DOJ memo claimed that the list doesn’t exist. Either Bondi was lying then, or the Justice Department is lying now.

Senator Durbin wrote that the memo’s claim about the list “contradicts public statements” that Bondi “repeatedly made.”

Not done there, Durbin also drew attention to problems with the “fully raw” footage that the administration released of the prison cell where Epstein allegedly committed suicide.

“Public skepticism of the government’s transparency in this matter has been needlessly increased due to your release of surveillance video from outside of Jeffrey Epstein’s cell,” wrote Durbin. “In fact, the footage was likely modified, according to the metadata embedded in the video.”

He demanded an explanation for any modifications or edits made to the footage before its release.

Durbin concluded by asked for answers by August 1st.

“Prompt attention to this important matter is crucial to understanding the truth and preventing this administration’s actions from causing greater harm,” wrote the senator.

The American people deserve the truth.