Category: Humor and Weird Wilson-isms Page 1 of 36

In the spirit of her full-length book “Laughing through Life” that featured humorous stories of child-rearing and general life, Connie has written humor columns for a variety of newspapers, which Erma Bombeck’s widower described as being very much like her columns when presented with a book at an Ohio writing festival.

Bank of America, Ghostly Tales of Route 66 & Me: Installment #3

By Connie Wilson

On June 27, 2026

In Books, Editorial, Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Local, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture

Bank of America

Sep 20, 2025 — The emblem was a stylized monogram “BA”, with both letters merged in one smooth symbol with thick rounded lines and shortened horizontal bars.

Going to my Bank of America outlet in Chicago at Roosevelt Road and Canal Street requires a 7-hour drive—3 and ½ hours up and 3 and ½ hours back. Why don’t we have a Bank of America outlet in the Quad Cities?

I don’t know. Do you?

POPE LEO & ME

I went through a “verification” process similar to that described by Pope Leo (Installment #2) and it ended with me making a trip in, in person, to meet with a representative (supposed to be Caesar Hernandez, but I got Felipe) on Saturday, June 13^th. I took the 2 forms of ID, although, when I was told I needed my Social Security card (a passport would not do), I think I responded that I had not seen my Social Security card since I was sixteen. It did cause me to search for it, however, and—voila!—I found it! (Will wonders never cease?)

However, since the entire goal of “verification” seems to be to make things as obtuse and as computer-dependent as possible, I was told that the employees could not get to my page unless I gave them the specific amounts and dates of deposits from Amazon. Since I lost access to my Amazon account about the same time as I last saw my Social Security card, this turned out to be an impossible task. After the trouble with advertising “BEE GONE” and the directive that my cover had to be “changed,” things descended into the Stephen Colbert Canyon of Censorship. There didn’t seem to be much urgency about cracking the code on how to get back into my Amazon account to “write long”, once I tip-toed over to blogging full-time on WeeklyWilson.com and resumed reviewing movies on www.TheMovieBlog.com, I’ve been reviewing non-stop since 1970. Since Rex Reed and Gene Shalit recently shuffled off this mortal coil, I can try to lay claim to being the longest continuously-reviewing film critic in the U.S. (whether it’s true or not…and it might be.)

SOLUTION?

I don’t know the head of the Bank of America, so I didn’t have the route that Pope Leo took to get things fixed and updated in my literary account, where a REAL LIVE HUMAN might assist me in “fixing” and updating things without me having to drive 14 (fourteen) hours. (I know I said 7 hours, earlier, but this story goes on in installments, remember. This third installment only takes us through the first in-person meeting at the Roosevelt Road and Canal Street with Felipe. There is more).

FELIPE

Felipe was the one bright spot in the Bank of America verification process. Felipe is good. I will excuse him for asking if my granddaughter was “in the room” to help me during a recent phone call. No, Felipe, the granddaughters are in Texas. I’m in Illinois, talking to a bot most of the time. For hours. Becoming very aggravated. Wondering why I never got any reports on my literary account for over 7 years.

Felipe got stuck with me when Caesar got stuck with somebody else. There were lines of people queuing up at the cashier’s window at noon that Saturday (June13). They close at 2 p.m. I can vouch for the fact that it took all of the 2 hours to figure out how to recover my literary account. I still don’t know why I did not receive any “reports” or updates on that account since 2019. I received paper reports on my personal account, but my literary account seemed to reside only in my head and in the form of the checks I have that are supposed to allow me to use it. Both seem to be in limbo.

On June 13^th my personal account seemed to be chugging along okay, paying bills via auto-pay. However, that may have changed, as “suspicious” activity was noted because I went to the cashier’s cage, on June 13^th, IN PERSON, and moved cash from my personal account to the literary account. Let me repeat that: I did this IN PERSON, IN THE BANK. Yet this caused my account to have difficulties noted as suspicious thereafter. (This story isn’t over—yet.) My teacher’s pension is deposited in this account (a princely sum, as you can imagine, since I did not hit the Magic 20 number one must reach in order to actually be able to live on that money in retirement).

For years (and years and years) one-half of all Social Security payments made to government employees (i.e., teachers and firemen, etc.) was taken from us because we were public employees. It was patently unfair and resulted in years of legal wrangling until, quite recently, that one-half was restored. However, Social Security is not deposited into this account. It goes into the TBK less-well-known bank in the Quad Cities which has not yet made me come in twice in person to “fix” errors which cause bots to try to send verification codes to land lines and take over 6 weeks to “fix.” (Yes, I still have a land line. Deal with it.)

I always got PAPER reports on my personal account, although I did not get them for my literary account. As far as I am aware, I did not get e-mail reports, either, although I admit to moving from Einnoc10@Aol.com to Einnoc9876@gmail.com some years back. For almost 10 years, the state of Illinois has hovered over my literary account, eagerly suggesting it was “abandoned” and only too willing to take whatever pittance might reside in it. “Seized” is the chief goal of the state of Illinois with failing authors’ accounts, apparently. (I actually have a close friend who says she once worked on the “seize abandoned accounts” team in the state of Minnesota. Sheesh.)

A still from Seized by Sharon Liese, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jackson Montemayor.

Each of the three times I received written notices that the state of Illinois was hovering once again, hoping to “seize”my money, I wrote and explained that it was NOT an “abandoned” account. I was merely an unsuccessful (monetarily-speaking) author who didn’t have masses of eager fans gobbling up her books. The account, via Amazon, had its moments. Most of those moments can be laid at the feet of “Ghostly Tales of Route 66,” so kudos to Bruce Carlson for figuring out that ghosts were a guaranteed best-seller.

I did not intend to write only ghost books for my entire literary life. I wrote what interested me at that moment in time, whether politics, children’s books, horror stories, movie and television reviews—short and long—or one random book containing previously published columns and poetry. One can’t accuse me of not taking on a range of topics. Or, as one snarky guest writer at a QC Writers’ events once said, “You’ve ruined your platform.” (And then he went on ad nauseum to talk about writers’ platforms, ignoring the variety of things that a Stephen King, for example, might write about, aside from things that go bump in the night).

So, on June 13^th, I thought Felipe had “updated” all of the phone numbers (etc.) in my two BoA accounts. I even bit on the new Bank of America credit card, which sounded like a pretty good deal. I think Felipe was Top-Notch and whatever is now happening, to prevent me from being able to authenticate that credit card, is probably not his fault. It’s probably an inherent flaw in the BoA system and I’ve been victimized by it to the tune of a 14-hour driving trip. CEO of BoA: take note.

Me applying for a brand new BoA credit card was where things ended after my FIRST 7-hour “in person” trip to the Bank of America with everything “fixed”—or so I thought.

But, of course, things were not settled at all.

The bot was not finished with me.

Pope Leo, His Chicago Bank & Installment #2 In My Banking Life

By Connie Wilson

On June 27, 2026

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Local, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture

Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful at the Papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, July 13, 2025. Editorial Stock Photo

The viral story about the Pope and his bank involves Pope Leo XIV getting hung up on by a Chicago customer service representative who assumed his call was a prank. The amusing incident went viral after being shared publicly by the Pope’s longtime friend, the Reverend Tom McCarthy.

📞 The Call

Two months after Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected Pope Leo XIV, he personally called his local bank branch in South Chicago from the Vatican to update his address and phone number. [1, 2]

The Verification: He initially identified himself by his birth name, Robert Prevost, and correctly answered several security questions, providing his Social Security number and formal address. [1, 2]
The Bureaucracy: Despite answering perfectly, the representative informed him that bank policy strictly required him to complete account changes by visiting a branch in person. [1, 2]
The Climax: The Pope explained that traveling to Chicago would be very difficult since he was now living out of town. He finally asked, “Would it matter to you if I told you I’m Pope Leo?” [1, 2]
The Hang-Up: Believing it to be a prank call, the customer service representative immediately hung up on the leader of the Catholic Church. [1, 2]

💼 How It Was Resolved

The Pope did not let his papal authority stop him from needing to fix his banking records. He reached out to another fellow Augustinian priest in Chicago, Father Bernie Sienna, who happened to have connections to local banking executives.

Word quickly traveled up to the bank’s president. When the bank initially tried to cite standard protocol, the Pope’s intermediaries politely hinted that the Holy Father was fully prepared to move his money to a different institution. Eager to avoid losing the historic account of the first American Pope, the bank quickly bypassed the rules and updated his information manually. [1, 2]

📰 The Public Reaction

The story, heavily detailed by The New York Times and shared across networks like CNN, resonated widely with the public. Commenters and Catholic leaders praised the anecdote, noting it offered a remarkably humble, human look at a Pope dealing with the exact same automated, frustrating customer service hurdles that everyday people face.

Bank of America, Ghostly Tales and Me

By Connie Wilson

On June 26, 2026

In Best Paranormal Stories Online to Read | Paranormal Podcast, Books, Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Local, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture

I have been involved in a now-long-running attempt to reclaim a bank account I established at the Bank of America in Chicago in 2003. I needed to have a bank to “close” on a condo there that was going to be my daughter’s residence while she attended DePaul for College. The year was 2003. I do not remember why I selected the Bank of America. Perhaps it was the proximity of the branch on West Roosevelt and Canal.

Later, I opened a literary account with them, as well, one for which I got no reports for 7 years. Of course, it is possible that reports were sent to my old AOL account, but there are 375,000 pieces of unread e-mails in that one, while I have been using Gmail for at least the past ten years. The state of Illinois has circled, vulture-like, on 3 occasions, trying to take the funds in my literary account, declaring it “abandoned.” On each occasion I have written them a REAL letter saying the account was NOT abandoned, but that I was merely blogging these days and no longer writing “long.”

David Morrell (yes, THE David Morrell, creator of “Rambo”) told me during a one-on-one conversation at a Writers for New Orleans conference many years ago that I should establish a separate bank account for my literary earnings. I hoped this meant that he saw promise for me as a writer. I have revised that opinion downward. It was probably very good advice—-if you’re David Morrell.

For me, it has set up a cumbersome set of aggravating interactions with the Bank of America that make the Pope’s experiences in trying to arrange for a transfer of funds from a Chicago bank an object lesson in questionable customer service. It’s lengthy and frustrating and almost impossible to explain, but I shall try in some installments.

But first let me share with you the story of the Pope trying to gain access to HIS Chicago money and being told that he, too, had to come in, in person, with 2 forms of ID.

Pope Leo explained that he was out of the country and would not be able to come in in person. He asked, “Would it help if I told you I was the Pope?:

The bank hung up on him.

THE BEGINNING

I made three trips, on foot, from my condominium to the Roosevelt Road location to set up direct transfer of funds from my Amazon account to this literary account. Most of it had to do with e-books. It is at least a mile if you walk it. I walked it in those first days after retirement, giving me some much-needed exercise after I wrote all night long in my writer’s lair.

From 2003 to 2019 I was productive, at least, once writing through the worst blizzards in Chicago history and watching the sun come up over the Field Museum building across the street from me. I remember these two blizzards well, as I wrote through them and never left the building while motorists abandoned their vehicles on Lake Shore Drive, which I could see from my window:

January 31-February 2, 2011, 21.2″

19.3″

January 21-February 2, 2015

I had hoped that David Morrell recognized dormant talent when he suggested I open a literary account.Ran into him again as a panelist at the last Hawaii Writers’ Conference.Think he selected one cover illustration over another when I asked his opinion. Got a blurb from a complete stranger who wrote “Flashback” (very nice guy). Did not get any help for my effort(s) from “Rambo’s” father. But I did have that special “literary” account, awaiting riches beyond my wildest dreams.

I did my best, advertising using Amazon and Facebook. Videos were made for various books (“The Color of Evil,” “Hellfire & Damnation”). Most videos are still up on YouTube and the e-books, at least, survive. Some videos are now making a belated appearance on Instagram and TikTok. (I hope the Chinese don’t sell all my contact information).

Alas, the flow of riches that Morrell experienced in his legendary career did not flow to Yours Truly. My account had brief moments of solvency. But, in 2019 when DJT was running for office the first time, neither Amazon nor Facebook would allow me to advertise the “BEE GONE” satirical take-down of Trump’s contest with Hillary Clinton UNLESS I CHANGED THE COVER. I refused.

Things took a dark turn. I became one of DJT’s first victims of retribution for the crime of making light of Donald J. Trump. In that regard, I was and am in good company. If only the Seth Meyers-es and the Jimmy Kimmels would mention my little book, which has admirers amongst those who think Trump is absolutely awful, [like Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who recently gave us the video detailing “500 Days of Corruption.”]

The MAGA threats on Amazon increased and even a few relatives bought into Trump’s always-changing lies and distortions at that early point in time. For my part, I think the dangers the small book pointed out were right on target. I’m still very proud of it, especially of the great illustrations from Gary McCluskey. And I hope the relatives have realized the error of their vote(s).

I quickly leoarned that mocking DJT, even very gently, was not well-received in MAGA-land. In addition to negative and violent attacks on my fairly gentle take-down of the Orange One, I’ve only come that close to death threats during the presidential run of 2008, blogging for Associated Content, when Yahoo named me its Content Producer of the Year for Politics and got me inside the DNC in Denver. People who had read my prediction that Obama would carry Iowa would say things like, “I’m going to come back and make you eat those words.”

Only they did not. Because I tip-toed off to review film for The Movie Blog and did not look back. Until the phone call fro Quixote Books while wintering in Texas.

It was one of the single greatest political nights of my life when Obama won, not only in Iowa, but secured the Democratic nomination and the presidency. That was then; this is now. It was a different country, then, with hope and optimism and “Yes, we can” vibes. What are we now?

Before I move on from this story of how I was a precursor of Stephen Colbert, told I could not advertise “BEE GONE” on my normal channels (Facebook, Amazon) unless I changed the cover (which I refused to do), let me relate a true story. The thin-skinned DJT apparently did not like the depiction of himself as a bumblebee (a drone) intent on taking over the hive from the Queen Bee. Killer illustrations and prescient observations (made in 2019) like:

“So, the hive lost its honey,

Its queen, and its money.

It was really a mess,

And that isn’t funny.”

My Bank of America personal account that I set up for auto-pay things (HOA dues, electricity, gas, etc.) remained active, but I tip-toed away from the literary account, leaving it to whatever e-book sales might occur. I also quit bothering to check on my Amazon dashboard, which means that I soon lost my ability to remember the password. Why bother? I was done writing “long,” as I called it.

Or was I?

GHOSTLY TALES REVISITED

While I was sitting out the winter in sunny Austin, I received a call from Iowa’s largest publishing concern, Quixote Press. They wanted to revive and redo Volume One of “Ghostly Tales of Route 66,” which they had first published in 2012, because it was the 100th anniversary of the opening of Route 66.

Some changes were to be made, including new material, but the “Resurrection Mary” story that I slaved over in 2007, [which was one of the winners of a Chicago “Tribune” scary story competition 5 years before the book came out], was omitted. There still is a “Resurrection Mary” story that I sleuthed out with my daughter-in-law in tow many years later, but the explanation of how the myth of Resurrection Mary came to be was spelled out more fully in earlier books pictured.

But the first Volume One had a very bad cover (IMHO) and some very short stories that were not up-to-par. It also was never “proofed” prior to publication, for reasons that I cannot explain. I handed it in and the next thing I knew, it was “out there.” It had no pictures, unlike volumes 2 and 3, which depict my travels along the road from Chicago to Santa Monica.

Normally, I might not have bitten on the project, but the publication site for Quixote Books had moved from Wever, Iowa, near Burlington to my old hometown of Independence, Iowa. Bruce and Marilyn Carlson sold the business to Shari Hartkmeyer and, subsequently. Sadly, Bruce died in March of 2026, having sold over two million books. I always told Bruce that I was looking for a ghost that could cook, since he had cornered the market on ghost books and cookbooks. I’m still searching for that Culinary Casper.

It must be a sign from above that the new home of Quixote Books (and the Hearts and Tummies cookbooks) was Independence, Iowa. Now we could properly proof the stories I had written and put on a better cover. Also, we could remove the clip art, but that didn’t happen. Still, it is a collection of tales told me on the long journey from Illinois to California. I investigated to the best of my ability, unlike someone sitting in their living room (without the Internet) making up extremely short stories with no story “arc .”

If you want to read the lengthier backgrounding that I undertook for the story of Resurrection Mary, you might need to purchase the older books, too, but that’s completely up to you. I won’t be taking them to future Printers’ Row outings, because the reprint is much more error-free and has new material and a better cover.

Now comes the part about my dealings with the Bank of America that I will have to serialize, since it is an ongoing struggle the likes of which anyone who has ever attempted to do something by phone with a bot on the othr end can relate to.

End of Installment One

“Last Picture House” Movie Trivia Night: June 22, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On June 22, 2026

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Local, Movies, Music, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture

Movie Music Trivia Night at the Last Picture House, Davenport, Iowa on June 22nd, 2026.

I journeyed over to the Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa, to play movie trivia tonight, but I misunderstood the extent of the task. I thought a snippet of music would be played and all I had to do was name the movie the song came from.

Wrong, Snore-Snout! This was only one of 3 things that I needed to be prepared to do. Rather than matching the music with a movie, you had to name the song, give the artist, and THEN name the movie the song was featured in.

Welllllll. This would have been 3 tasks per entry on Round One (15 points). I knew I needed daughter Stacey once it became clear that I was going to have to dredge up THREE things, rather than just one. There were 5 questions (worth 15 points) on the first round and there appeared to be 8 rounds with 5 questions each that were going to be asked of about 30 teams. Some teams had 8 people or more and many were foursomes. Seats were at a premium.

ARRIVE EARLY

Movie Trivia Night, June 22, 2026, The Last Picture House, Davenport, Iowa.

I did not get there early enough to get a seat but, thanks to Cathy and Carrie, I got a backless footstool, which was both good and bad. It was good to meet Cathy and Carrie, who let me sit with them, but the lack of a back sent me packing after I scored 9 points out of the first 15 possible in Round One. (This, to be clear, was not a “good” score, but it was also not the worst of all of the teams.)

I also had not eaten and it was getting to be close to 8 p.m., my back hurt, and, in round 2, the first song was a rap song. Yeahh…I wrote down L.L. Cool Jay, (which will date me and him), had no idea what the song might be, and had even less of an idea what movie utilized that song. (I use the term song loosely, being Old School…and just plain old).

MEA CULPE

But the biggest sign of my incompetence was knowing that Bette Midler sang this song in “Beaches” and also having once sung this song on a ship cruise (during amateur hour.) And my beautiful daughter-in-law once sang “Wind Beneath My Wings” in a beauty competition, which she won. However, did I remember the name ‘Wind Beneath My Wings?”

I did not. And that was some pretty dismal forgetting, when you think of my history with the song. (AAARRGGHHH.)

The original notice of the movie trivia event said it was to last from 7 to 8 p.m.

It was already 8 p.m. and we had not (yet) heard the results of Round 2. When you have close to 30 teams…..(finish that thought).

I had now consumed half a bag of popcorn, some Junior Mints, and a Diet Coke, but I had had no real food. You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you go to the movies and eat a bunch of movie junk food without having had a meal? It’s kind of a sick-to-your-stomach sickening feeling that requires a real meal to remedy it.

I knew that, back home, my golf-playing better half was going to be picking up Subway sandwiches, my back hurt, and my score, so far, was 9 points (of 15) which was not going to set the world on fire (or win this lengthy game)

The 100 or so participants at The Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa, were doing well, and I learned a valuable lesson about going early enough to get a chair with a back—although the young folk pictured were doing just fine, seated on the floor playing Solitaire.

Ah, yes. I remember those days of floor-sitting.

Solitaire game in progress at Movie Trivia Night by floor sitters at The Last Picture Housel

As a team of one—and not one who paid much attention to the names of songs—I was at a distinct disadvantage.

Now I know I need daughter Stacey to make Team #17 have even a ghost of a chance—although I do want it on my record that, as a team of one, scoring 9 of 15 was not the worst score in the joint. But it looked like it was going to be downhill for me from then on without the assistance of daughter Stacey, who would have known every song and the name of every performer.

Next time.

David Letterman Guests on Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show:” May 14, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On May 15, 2026

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

David Letterman and Stephen Colbert atop the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater on May 14, 2026.

Tonight, May 14th, 2026, Stephen Colbert—approaching the beginning of his last week in what was David Letterman’s late night television show—had Letterman, himself, as one of his final guests. Dave showed up with the unattractive Father Christmas long white beard he has worn since leaving the air. (Lose the beard, Dave.)

It was a night of nostalgia, with Colbert paying tribute to Dave’s stewardship of The Late Show 33 years prior. Now, thanks to a president of the United States who is so thin-skinned that he cannot stand any criticism or mockery, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is going to be replaced with the late night comedians who previously followed in the wee hours (and were never that funny).

It’s a loss to late night show fans, whether you preferred Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyer or John Oliver (some might include Jon Stewart) and may signal the demise of late night shows, in general, as unscripted reality shows or late night comedians perfecting their routines is cheaper to put on the air. And we, the audience, are the losers, while DJT gets to further boost his extremely fragile narcissistic ego by killing one of the shows calling him out on his undemocratic and unpatriotic actions as president. [God help us all!]

Dave displayed photos of his new puppy, Doc, mentioned his son (who is graduating from college) and, after inquiring about the blue chair on which he sat, asked who owned the furniture. Stephen, of course, acknowledged that the chair Dave sat upon (and a duplicate blue one) were CBS property, as was Stephen’s own chair, which was an Eames. The Eames classic chair is “extraordinarly expensive” and vintage versions of the chair go for well over $10,000. “It is an expensive chair,” said the originator, who compared it to a well-worn baseball glove.

David Letterman and Stephen Colbert tossing watermelons off the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater on May 14, 2026.

Viewers got to see David Letterman and Stephen Colbert toss the two blue chairs and Stephen’s Eames classic host’s chair off the roof of the Ed Sullivan studio in New York City. They also tossed watermelons and Dave saluted Stephen, thanking him for all he was doing for the country in pointing out the gap between reality and fantasy that the current administration tries to foist on the public daily. (Remember: it’s not a war, it’s an “excursion”—which is probably a misuse of the term “incursion” by the dunderhead using it.)

LATE NIGHT WIth DAVID LETTERMAN

Many years ago I was in New York City for one of the Thrillerfest conventions. This was so long ago that Letterman was still sitting in the host’s seat. I did not have tickets purchased in advance. In fact, I had given no thought at all to attending a taping of “The Late Show,” but I wandered out of the formerly owned Trump hotel that is attached to Grand Central Station to take a walk in NYC.

At a traffic intersection I was approached by someone who wanted to know if I watched David Letterman’s The Late Show, and when I answered in the affirmative, I was told that—if I could answer a question correctly—I could attend that night’s show. The question was for me to give the name of the deli owner whom Dave frequently visited in person. Although my mind went temporarily blank regarding Rupert’s Deli, I was given so many helpful hints that I ended up queued up in the lobby entryway of the studio, being grilled on how to demonstrate appropriate enthusiasm when the host and guests appeared. This went on for a good half hour while we all patiently stood in the long queue, not much different than approaching the TSA agents at the airport.

A memento of my visit The Late Show with David Letterman (cursor pad).

My seat turned out to be about 10 rows from the left front portion of the theater–not too far from where Letterman and Colbert came to rest tonight in the audience, after 6 men removed all of the guest and host chairs to the roof. The night I attended, the guest was Eva Longoria, who tottered out on very high heels. I don’t remember much about the rest of the program, except that the studio was chilly, as has been pointed out. We were warned not to go downstairs to the women’s rest rooms that were located there, because the building was old and dipalidated and the plumbing might not be up to snuff.

From the remarks that Colbert made to Letterman while they were seated in the audience, that last bit of information is out-dated, because Stephen explained how ALL of the audience seats were replaced when he took over The Late Show in 2015. They widened the seats from nineteen inches to twenty-four inches. I would speculate that the downstairs rest rooms also received a facelift, because, as Letterman pointed out, the theater ceiling also had an extensive make-over, which Dave compared to the very ornate Bellagio ceilings.

I’m going to miss Stephen Colbert’s Late Night Show from the Ed Sullivan Theater, a venue of historic importance now being run into the ground by its owners at CBS. Courtesy of Wikipedia: “Colbert’s work as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s news-parody series The Daily Show gained him wide recognition. In 2005, he left The Daily Show to host The Colbert Report. Following The Daily Show‘s news-parody concept, The Colbert Report was a parody of personality-driven political opinion shows including The O’Reilly Factor, in which he portrayed a caricatured version of conservative political pundits, earning Colbert an invitation to perform as featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in 2006, which he did in character. This event led to the series becoming one of Comedy Central’s highest-rated series. After ending The Colbert Report, he was hired in 2015 to succeed David Letterman, who was retiring as host of the Late Show on CBS. Colbert hosted the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2017.”

David Letterman thanking and congratulating Stephen Colbert on his career helming The Late Show, which Letterman originated 33 years prior on May 14, 2026, one week before the show ends. CBS has buckled under to DJT in a clear violation of Freedom of the Press and the freedoms granted to Americans by our Constitution, which are being attacked daily by sycophantic followers of the current POTUS.

I will really miss the gentlemanly humor and intelligent repartee of Stephen Colbert. I would like to join David Letterman in thanking him for doing his best to defend our First Amendment Freedom of Speech in the face of the autocratic and bullying tactics of the MAGA crowd and Donald J. Trump. I pray that patriotic Americans will wake up to the damage being done to our Constitutional rights and freedoms by the current administration and some of them will grow a spine and stand up to the man who has, at the moment, perched the world on the edge of WWIII.

“Phoenix Jones: The Rise & Fall of a Real-Life Superhero at SXSW 2026

By Connie Wilson

On March 18, 2026

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Pop Culture, Reviews, Texas

“Phoenix Jones: The Rise and Fall of a Real-Life Superhero” at SXSW.

Director Bayan Joonam appeared with the documentary “Phoenix Jones: The Rise and Fall of a Real-Life Superhero” at SXSW and shared the six-year project with an audience that, for the most part, has grown up on/with social media. Bayan is best known for partnering with actor Rainn Wilson to translate SoulPancake’s mission into digital video on sites such as YouTube.

As Head of Production for SoulPancake between 2012 – 2018, Bayan led the development and creation of award-winning original programming such as SoulPancake on OWN, Kid President, and My Last Days, which led to nearly a billion views, multi-season television franchises, and acquisition by Participant Media in 2016.

SYNOPSIS

With “Phoenix Jones,” Joonam tells us the story of Ben Fodor, born 5/25/1988, who, according to Director Joonam, as Superheroes go, “Phoenix Jones, to me, is the most legit of them all.””In 2010, reports began surfacing of a masked vigilante in a black-and-gold Superhero costume stopping crime on the streets of Seattle. His name was Phoenix Jones. Armed with pepper spray, a taser, and a team of costumed crime fighters, Phoenix Jones quickly became an international media sensation. But when his true identity was exposed by the Seattle Police Department, the heroic image began to unravel and his team abandoned him.

During the Q&A following the film, Joonam acknowledged that he learned about Ben Fodor’s Phoenix Jones persona through Rainn Wilson, who starred in the 2010 superhero movie “Super.”Rainn portrayed a self-anointed vigilante known as the Crimson Bolt in the film. (“Super” did not do well financially, grossing only $593,933 against a budget of $2.5 million but it has since become a cult classic, particularly among fans who appreciate its subversive and unconventional approach to the superhero genre.) Rainn Wilson makes a brief appearance in the documentary to state, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to put on a costume and jump into a dangerous situation.”

STORY ORIGIN

Bayan Joonam, Director of “Phoenix Jones: The Rise and Fall of a Real-Life Superhero” at SXSW.

It is clear that Joonam, who learned of Phoenix Jones when working for Rainn Wilson (“The Office”) has given a lot of thought to creating this in-depth portrait of a troubled young man, whose biological parents gave him up for adoption. How much of his “abandoned at birth” story is real and how much is manufactured for effect is up for discussion.

What struck me was the charisma that Ben Fodor exudes could have taken him to the top of so many endeavors. He was adopted soon after birth by two loving Moms, Margaret and Susan, who adopted other troubled youths. Ben created an alternate version of his early life in which he spent 11 years in an orphanage. Director Joonam has also worked for Jay Z. It is not beyond the realm of the possible to think of a young man like Ben Fodor with such charisma utilizing it in a similar fashion as Jay-Z and becoming a shooting, rather than a falling, star,

His older (adopted) brother Caros Fodor quickly shot down Ben’s untruth about spending 11 years in an orphanage, and also physically fought him (and beat him) in an MMA cage match for money. Ben Fodor in costume is an imposing presence, but this documentary makes it clear that he is a very troubled one, despite his charm and charisma.

FREEDOM FODOR

Perhaps the most sane and well-adjusted person to appear onscreen is Ben’s young son Freedom, whom Ben obviously loves very much. Freedom says, of his father, “My dad is a person who really cares and is really damaged, and I saw that. Ben Fodor has extreme trauma.”

Son Freedom traced some of his father’s more recent trauma to the death of a young woman from a drive-by shooting that Phoenix Jones and his rag-tag band of vigilantes were attempting to police. They had gathered to fight crime in the streets of Seattle, headed to 5^th and Spring, the old federal courthouse, to “confront what was going on,,” when Nicole was shot. Phoenix said, “We just stood there and watched her die.”

The cinematographer documenting the superheroes fighting against crime, Ryan McNamell, filmed the exploits of Phoenix and his band of crime-fighters from 2011 to 2012 and called the death of the young woman “fucking terrifying.” (The film is dedicated to Ryan, who recently died.)

SUPERHEROES

The list of people—-“dorks all” according to one of them who called himself “crime interventionist, Midnight Jack” (“I’m one step away from homeless”)—who have donned costumes and turned out to fight crime is lengthy: The Watchman, Mr. Sticky, Knights of the Night (“The Office’s” Dwayne Schroot’s name for one), El Caballero, Purple Reign (who was married to Phoenix at one point) and L.A.’s Rock Hard. The list of superheroes—or poseurs pretending to be superheroes—would fill a novel; their stories are complicated and suggestive of severe, persistent mental illness.

Phoenix says, “I was fine before I did this. I’m not fine now.” He also admits “I think my life is just sort of out-of control.”

DENOUEMENT

Ben Fodor became the subject of an undercover police drug investigation on November 5, 2019, which led to his arrest for selling Molly and cocaine (2 lbs.) to an undercover agent at the Silver Cloud Hotel.

Phoenix’s supporters from “the old days” of 2010-2013 are struck by the ultimate hypocrisy of his arrest, since Phoenix Jones frequently railed against drug dealers and drug dealing. On January 29, 2020, Fodor pleaded guilty in a Seattle court and was fined $500 and time served. He retired from crime-fighting and announced that he was going to go to college to study criminal justice and business and then run for Mayor of Seattle. He did ask his attorney about the consequences if he didn’t pay the $500 fine.

His progress towards those lofty goals may be hindered by the fact that there are currently two warrants out for his arrest, for driving without a license and not paying the $500 fine handed down during the (furtively filmed) drug sentencing.

Director Bayan Joonam at midnight during the Q&A following the showing of “Phoenix Jones: The Rise and Fall of a Real-Life Superhero” at SXSW on March 17, 2026.

This was a very thorough and thought-provoking film that made me aware, once again that some people are much better liars than others. (See “Chili Finger” review.) I couldn’t help but think of the wasted potential of a personality as magnetic as Ben Fodor’s. How much of his crime-fighting was about sincere love for his community and how much was just someone desperately the limelight? Was it all just a focus on self-mythologizing and enjoying the spotlight that social media provides?

At this point, as reporter Jason Rentz said of Phoenix Jones, “People clearly do not trust you,” so there goes the political career—or does it? There are some personalities who lie repeatedly and their actions clearly contradict their words, yet devoted fans sycophantically continue to sing their praises in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. You won’t have to think very long or very hard to come up with a list that goes all the way to the top.

CONCLUSION

A thoroughly enjoyable 105-minute look at modern social media’s effects and the messed-up folks who live and die by it, as well as a thoughtful look at vigilante justice and the societal problems it presents.

“Chili Finger” Screens at SXSW on March 15, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On March 16, 2026

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Reviews, Texas

“Chili Finger” at SXSW with Sean Astin and Judy Greer. (Photo by Cristina Dunlap).

Directors Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad brought the indie film “Chili Finger” to SXSW, which premiered on March 14 at the Zach Theater. I broke a tradition of decades of watching the Oscars “live” to journey to the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar on March 15th to see it. It was not the World Premiere, which took place May 14th, but it was only the second screening of this thought-provoking movie. It was worth stepping away from our annual Traveling Trophy for Oscar Predicting, which I am nominally in charge of (and, yes, there IS a real Oscar trophy—of sorts.)

This 100 minute character study starred Judy Greer, Sean Astin, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman, along with new-comers Madeline Wise, Paul Stanko, Sarah Herrman and Sara Sevigny. Writer/Directors Benda and Helstad are partners heading up Beyond the Porch productions, blending their Michigan roots and their shared USC educations to create independent films. “Chili Finger” was shot in Champaign, Illinois, in the heat of summer. It involves a fictional Wisconsin fast food chain, Blake Junior’s (they filmed in an old Hardee’s restaurant), to bring us a story based on reality.

“Chili Finger” cast members Madeline Wise and Paul Stanko during the Q&A for “Chili Finger” on March 15, 2026 at SXSW.

TRUTH TO FICTION

In March 2005, Anna Ayala falsely claimed to find a severed human finger in her Wendy’s chili in San Jose, California, creating an international scandal that cost the chain over $21 million in lost sales. Investigations revealed the finger was a hoax, traced to a colleague of Ayala’s husband who lost it in a workplace accident. Ayala was sentenced to nine years in prison for the scam. At the beginning of the film we are told: “Some of the events depicted in this film actually happened. Some did not.”

DOES THE FILM FLIP THE FACTS?

I had not read this synopsis: “When Jessica Lipki discovers a severed human finger in her bowl of chili, she recognizes an opportunity to seize control of her stagnating life. Jess blackmails the regionally-beloved fast food chain for $100,000 in return for Jessica and her blissfully ignorant husband Ron (Sean Astin) remaining quiet about the incident.”

When I entered the theater—abandoning the 98^th Oscar ceremony “live” for the first time since 1955–I had been too busy working as press at SXSW to read extensively about the film beyond its theme-revealing title. I realized it had its original inspiration based on the Wendy’s true incident, but I honestly did not remember what the outcome of the original chili finger discovery had been. Did the original diner who perpetrated fraud do prison time? Did not know. Am glad I did not know, going in, who was guilty of what—or if Judy Greer’s character was an innocent accused of something she would never do.

CAST

Writer/Director Steven Helstad of “Chili Finger” at SXSW. (Photo by Megan bailey).

I recognized going in, however, that this cast would be dynamite, and they were. (Questions about how they came to be hired abound.) Madeline Wise as Blake Junior and Paul Stanko as Trevor Stempor, two of the newbies, were also spot-on in their roles. The two Sarahs (Sarah Herrman as the pregnant girlfriend of Trevor and Sara Sevigny as Jackie, the server) were also good. Having a good script and good actors: a good start. Add to that the storyboarding, especially of the character Dave Pendleton (Bryan Cranston), and Cinematography by Cristina Dunlap, editing by Todd Zelin, sound design by Peter Bawiec and original music from Dan Deacon: Voila! Chili Finger: Fantastic Film.

Q&A

Paul/Trevor during the “Chili Finger” Q&A.

Paul Stanko told us, in the Q&A following the screening what it was like acting with John Goodman and Bryan Cranston. He said he was “so intimidated.” Paul added, “They were all wonderful people. They were all there to support. They elevated my performance. All I had to do was be there and say my lines.” He described the experience as “surreal” and “amazing.”

The shooting site, Champaign, Illinois, in June can be very hot and muggy. (No shock there. I live in Illinois half the year and grew up in Iowa.) Sara Herrman, who had to wear a pregnant belly on the first day of shooting, inside a trailer that was stiflingly hot and swampy, on a day when rain was pouring down, repeated her words from that first day of shooting [in a very small voice]: “It’s just so hot.”

Writer Stephen Helstad said he wrote the script during the pandemic; there were numerous drafts. What set the script above other scripts were the twists that come, one after another, as we invest in Judy Greer’s character of Jessica Lipki.

By the end of the film I began to wonder if Jessica would be able to live with herself—and with her husband Ron—after everything that has happened. Like Amy Madigan’s Oscar-winning character in “Weapons,” I almost feel as though there should be a follow-up film that focuses on how Jessica’s life plays out from the final frame forward.

JESSICA

Edd Benda and Stephen Helstad of “Chili Finger” on March 15, 2026, at SXSW.

Jessica is a small-town divorce attorney who seems too good-hearted a person to be a con artist responsible for trying to scam anyone. At various plot points Jessica demonstrates that she is not a “bad” person. She literally saves Dave Pendleton’s (Bryan Cranston in a scenery-chewing turn) life. Is this woman a con artist or not? That question lingered, for me, for quite some time. (*Remember: I’ve been attending late-night films and, also, fairly early films. I passed out in the lobby of the Paramount last year on Opening Night,after covering 3 Red Carpets from 4 p,m, until 2 a.m. Bear with me. I also had great empathy for the poor beer bottling employee who lost the finger in opening scenes after ripping my right thumbnail off at the Austin airport—an “avulsion”— in a bizzare luggage rack incident. These things only happen to me and made me the perfect audience for “Chili Finger.”)

Jessica demonstrates angst over the departure of her daughter for college (the dreaded “empty nest” that I avoided by having two children born 19 years apart. Family motto: “Every 20 years, whether you need to or not.”) It becomes clear that husband Ron is much more enamored of fast food at the local café than Jessica is. There may well be more cracks in the relationship as other truths surface. Ron is “in” to WWII and dancing the polka. Jessica seems less thrilled about these mid-life couple activities. There are musings about the supposed “joy(s)” of having children. Since the U.S. birth rate is at an all-time low (and most births occurring are to women over 30) that statistic percolated in the back of my brain (and also in the sub-text of the dialogue.)

AFFORDABILITY

Director Edd Benda of “Chili Finger” at SXSW 2026. (Photo by Ben Winchell).

The constant refrain of finances being tight comes to the surface over and over for all concerned. I couldn’t help but wonder if $400 to fly to visit their daughter in Philadelphia was enough. (Not right now, certainly). I wanted to ask what Ron was doing at “the mill.” Whatever it was, the smell lingers on the workers’ hands long after they leave work. Did he also work at the beer bottling plant? I noticed that Jessica is carrying an old-fashioned paper boarding pass at one point and thought, “Well, THOSE are on the way out!” (Because they are.)

GUILTY OR INNOCENT

Once again, I was grateful, going in, l that I didn’t know whether Jessica was guilty of being a con artist or not for a long time. Do yourselves a favor and don’t read the IMDB snippet before watching the film. How much more interesting the film becomes when you, as an audience member, are trying to judge whether a woman who seems as basically decent as Jessica could have tried to perpetrate fraud. Did she or didn’t she?

Edd Benda, Director of “Chili Finger”.

TRUTHS

Two truths that were underscored by this film, for me: 1) Some people are much better liars than others. (2) The “affordability” crisis that the majority of Americans are feeling right now is real. Since American voters were conned by a master con-man we now find ourselves facing an affordability crisis not unlike the one we faced during President Carter’s years in office.

To quote A.I.: “During Jimmy Carter’s presidency (1977–1981), gas prices in the U.S. more than doubled, surging from roughly 61 cents to over $1.25 per gallon by 1980. Triggered by the 1979 Iranian Revolution and subsequent oil supply shocks, consumers faced severe shortages, gas lines, and high inflation, resulting in a “crisis of confidence.”

Does any of that sound familiar? Probably not, if you are young. Trust me. It was brutal. A teacher of junior high schoolers at the time, the administration screwed our thermostats down to 60 degrees to save money. In Illinois. In winter. I was sick with strep throat for months. Having lived that gas shortage of 46 years ago, I sent the spouse to fill up my Prius tank here in Austin immediately. I remember what came next. (*Side note: one of my friends, Mary Beth Koob, was an Iranian embassy hostage freed by Carter after being held prisoner for 444 days. Ronald Reagan took all credit for Carter’s diplomacy in getting the hostages out alive.)

CONCLUSION

Believe me when I say that “Chili Finger” is a wonderful indie film that shows great promise. I’m looking forward to future films from these two filmmakers. As a former business owner in Bettendorf, Iowa (home to Scott Beck and Bryan Woods of “A Quiet Place” fame) let me heartily recommend that fans check out this film.

To the young filmmakers, if you’re still in town after “Chili Finger” finishes screening, I’d love to ask you some additional questions before you depart [or send them to you via e-mail.] Drop me a line. I’m here through May 15 (when Bruno Mars beckons at Soldier Field, Chicago.) I did not want to distract you tonight from fully enjoying a night of Triumph among True fans who turned out on Oscar night (3/15/2026).

Side-note: I did get a chance to (a) meet Edd’s Uncle (b) congratulate Director Edd Benda on “Chili Finger” (c) Tell Edd he resembled Seann William Scott of 1999’s “American Pie” vintage, which will date me even further(d)Talk to Hannah Shealy about her TV pilot “Birth Is for P*ssies.” (Excuse the rambling; repeated 3 a.m. write-ups are taking their toll.)

I hope that the filmmakers find this semi-review on my blog and drop me a line so I am able to send some additional questions their way and find out about their upcoming projects. Stay tuned for further developments (if any). Keep checking www.TheMovieBlog.com for a more “professional” approach to reviewing whenever I/we get around to it.

I also hope they fix the elevator in the parking garage, but that’s a very faint hope.

San Antonio, Texas, on February 28th, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On March 2, 2026

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

Elise Wilson on Feb. 28, 2026.

On Saturday, February 28th, 2026, we journeyed to San Antonio to watch granddaughter Elise play in a volleyball tournament. The tournament featured the CTX (Central Texas) team, not the school team, but the short snip of Elise playing with her Valor School team at the bottom of the page will give you an idea of what the past three years have meant for her as volleyball player/Captain of her school team (and for us as spectators and fans). We really enjoy seeing her play. I’m so lucky that volleyball was the game of choice, as my enthusiasm for soccer, hockey, et. al., is not nearly as high.

As senior year approaches, we will miss watching Elise do so well as a team member of two volleyball teams. She played very well again on Feb. 28, 2026. I’m sure she will benefit from everything she has learned about teamwork during these last three years. Another tournament in Reno beckons in May.

View from our Mariott AC hotel in downtown San Antonio.

San Antonio is about an hour’s drive away. The location of the tournament was quite a long way from the downtown Alamo tourist spots. After the last two games ended, (which Elise’s team won), we checked into a Mariott downtown with the name AC (which instantly made me think of Air Conditioning).

As my husband went to check us in, he left me in the car with the window open. I was sitting there minding my own business on this balmy night when a woman with a group of passers-by began telling me “Jesus loves you.” I responded, “Good.”

A few more of the group began “chatting” (if that is the right term) with me through the open window ( I am IN the car, waiting for the spouse to check in; the group of 10 is on the sidewalk). I was not in any way indicating that I wanted or needed a sermon right from the streets of San Antonio, but that is what I got.

After the religious talk ceased slightly, I suggested that the members of this random group vote in the March 3rd primary election (They seemed harmless, but later that night, in Austin, a gunman shot and killed 2 people on 6th Street and wounded 14 others, so...). James Talarico is squaring off against Jasmine Crockett to see who runs against a GOP opponent in November. The MAGA crowd is much more concerned about a male opponent than a Black female friend of Kamala Harris’s. Likely MAGA candidate will be incumbent John Cornyn, so we may be witnessing another Beto O’Rourke moment. Or not. Who knows?

Dining along the Riverwalk.

If Texas continues to attract voters from other states because of its beautiful winter weather and its reasonable cost of living, could it represent ALL Texans, including new ones from other states? [Assuming we have fair elections that aren’t rigged and that aren’t called off because of a power grab from the top.]

Maybe some day we could have a few Democrats in office other than just GOP Trump-friendly folk? Is it time to loosen the GOP stranglehold on this very red state? Maybe we could have a different governor than Abbott, who has been in a wheelchair for years from a long-ago accident when a tree fell on him while he was jogging.

Abbott brags about how he went to work every day with the sole purpose of lodging lawsuits against Barack Obama during Obama’s two terms. There seems to be a lot of anger that we elected a Black President who did a good job, tried to help the average citizen with a Healthcare program, and whom most people liked. A God-fearing happily married husband and father who represented us articulately abroad, but was castigated for not wearing a flag pin on a tan suit, as though that were grounds for impeachment. And please get rid of Texas’s Kenneth Paxton. His own party seems to have disowned him. His whistleblower staff outed him. His wife divorced him. (Etc., etc., etc.)

Riverwalk.

Maybe don’t vote for the guy who brags that he has voted with DJT “99% of the time.” (Cornyn) Maybe don’t vote for the guy who puts MAGA in the middle of his campaign slogan (Middleton) and is totally down with things going on in places like Minneapolis or Venezuela. (I did not say “Or Iran” because we can debate Iran’s nuclear ambitions and their stated national goals, but now we’ve martyred their 37-year leader at a time when the experts say there was no “imminent” danger of nuclear weapons being feasible. How popular will we be with Iran’s devoutly religious average citizen whose cities we are busy blowing up?)

It seems that the goal for the incumbent 47th President is to leave a huge mark on the U.S.—and an equally huge mark on the world scene— by throwing U.S. military weight around as bullies and barbarians at the gate, an image that we spent over 60 years trying to undo. ($20 million a day just to float around off the coast of Iran; the need for an excuse to cancel elections and distract from the Epstein files really loomed large.) Plus, there’s the tacky gold redecorating and the proposed Arch de Triomphe that would dwarf the Lincoln Monument (not to mention the embarrassing pleas for trophies and the Nobel Peace Prize and that FIFA monstrosity.)

DJT seems to be arbitrarily instigating decades of war to re-emerge, despite such world wars in Europe involving the U.S. being dormant (because of NATO and negotiating and diplomacy) since 1945 (Remember: Now it’s not the Secretary of DEFENSE; it’s the Secretary of WAR. And it’s not the Gulf of Mexico, either, if you want to rewrite history. Which seems like the goal here.) Putin is pleased that, as a nation, we are repeatedly shooting ourselves in the feet.

Tearing everything down was always the goal of the corrupt Steve Bannon (guilty of fraud) and his interview with Errol Morris should be required viewing if you love our democratic norms and the Constitution that DJT tramples on daily. [2018 Steve Bannon interview “American Dharma”] It’s the blueprint of Project 2025, which DJT always claimed he knew nothing about—until he began following it to the letter.

A good Christian candidate in the Democratic primary March 3rd for Senator is Democrat James Talarico, who is studying to be a Presbyterian minister. His grandfather was a Baptist minister. If Jesus/God loves us (me, anyway, according to the woman on the sidewalk) why did She let the current occupant of the White House wrest power back in 2024? [THAT was a bad move!] Why select a convicted malignant narcissist racist misogynistic felon with pedophile tendencies who has appointed only incompetents and enriches his friends and family while doing little for the rest of us? As another huckster (P.T. Barnum) once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

DJT has appointed Cabinet members like Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce. Lutnick was also linked to Jeffrey Epstein and admitted to having lunch with Epstein on his island (and he took his wife and kids!). And THAT guy is still around and showing up in international negotiations, sadly. Or RFK, Jr., who is bringing back measles and whooping cough and shutting down research on mrNA vaccines and childhood cancer. Or the woman who shot her dog (Ice Barbie, Krsti Noem, former Governor of South Dakota) who is now supervising the group (ICE) that is shooting citizens in places like Minneapolis. Or Crazy Eyes Kash Patel, widely considered an incompetent buffoon within the FBI/CIA ranks–with good reason. The list goes on and on.

Trump’s kakistocracy (look it up) doesn’t inspire confidence. Makes me less positive about the Deity’s judgment, but nevermind. Talarico believes in the separation of church and state and so do I. I also believe in the Constitution, which is being completely trampled on at the moment on so many levels.

I’m not cool with alienating all of our allies and bombing boats and countries, even if the countries, themselves, as Lindsey Graham has long believed, needed a good old-fashioned bombing. Cutting off the oil to Cuba and China sounds good until you realize that China, if it seizes Taiwan, will be controlling all of the high-end computer chips that our technology must have to function. (We have ignored this warning for years about Taiwan making 90% of the high end computer chips.) And what if the Chinese were to start in on our currency situation, as Michael Moore warned about in his 2009 documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story.” I suggest you watch it, too. (Too many documentaries; too little time.)

Downtown San Antonio from our hotel.

The bombing of Iran will not only keep MAGA from continuing to ask those pesky questions about DJT’s best friend, Jeffrey Epstein (or so he hopes) but will probably cause Trump to try to suspend mid-terms for a “national emergency” that he totally created, since there is data to support the position that Iran was already tottering on its damaged feet and incapable of using nukes against us (too far away). I’m okay with bombing the nuclear sites, but didn’t DJT tell us they were “completely obliterated” quite a while ago? Apparently not, if you need a distraction from the Epstein files.

And let’s not forget: anything to seize power and install friends and family in positions of leadership if you’re Donald John Trump. You want a pardon? Hit him up—for a fee. How about the money Melania pocketed for her quasi-fashion-documentary? (No corruption here—right? And I haven’t even mentioned the Qatar jet plane.) And now the GOP faithful, falling into line behind DJT and spending pots of money, has set their sights on buying up media (CBS, etc.) and distorting our ability to receive real news, just like in Russia, where Putin set about putting the media under his thumb to seize and keep power. (*Note to Fox fans: when lawsuits were underway recently, Fox News claimed to be an entertainment channel, not a news channel, as a defense.) We have already seen Stephen Colbert bite the dust and the Washington Post is dying in broad daylight, rather than in darkness. Can Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyer be far behind?

Soon we may have WWF wrestling on the lawn of the White House to celebrate the years since 1976 to 2026, our Semiquincentennial (250th birthday). Trump’s already ruined the Kennedy Center, so there goes any U.S. claim to culture [with more downgrades to come.] Remember when Pablo Casals played at the White House, November 13, 1961? No? Well, I do. Casals played in the East wing (now torn down by Trump without any permission and with LOTS of money pouring into Trump’s hands from “donors” to build—the wall?). I was 16 years old and JFK’s time in office was the epitome of class and culture for the Presidents I have known, which go back to Truman. And Donald James Trump represents the tackiest and least competent President—even eclipsing “W” of all time. (Which is going some!)

External audio
You may hear Pau Casals performing Antonín Dvorak‘s “Cello Concerto” with George Szell conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1937 Here

Under Trump, for culture, you have to content yourself with a third-rate country singer or Kid Rock or KISS–except that one of them recently died and KISS retired but got the Medal of Honor along with hate-monger Rush Limbaugh— so, yes, DJT is old, as well, and hardly “cutting edge” regarding culture in the U.S.

We may well have Vince McMahon of the WWE putting on a wrestling tournament on the White House lawn, instead. After all, Trump has already appointed McMahon’s wife, Linda, to be in charge of the SBA (Small Business Administration.) Linda McMahon: another member of the kakistocracy. (How very presidential of DJT.)

Netanyahu and Trump are a lot alike in continued clinging to power and favoritism (and pardons) for their cronies. Yes, the avowed Iranian post-Shah mantras were (1) Death to America (2) Death to Israel (3) Women must wear head garb and never have a say in government. So, not waiting until the already 86-year old died of natural causes probably looked like a good idea (especially since there were many more like him to come), but will the Iranian people agree? It isn’t as though this administration, which unleashed DOGE on us, surgically figured out a way, Maduro-like, to off the Ayatollah. Not at all–thanks to the influence of the Lindsey Grahams and the Benjamin Netanyahus, we are still bombing Iran.

Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran’s oldest son, in 2025.

It appears that the Shah’s son—long gone from Iran after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s overthrow in 1979—may be being groomed to return to Iran and rule. In a “60 Minutes” interview tonight the Shah’s son denied any desire to be a King or a President. He just wants to be a “transitional leader,”since 48 Iranian leaders were killed in the very recent bombing. Of course, the Shah’s now-grown son also admits to consulting with the White House and being in touch with Congress. Hmmmmm…

Meanwhile, San Antonio beckoned. Good idea to get away.

We had a lovely meal at an outdoor venue, enjoying the eighty-degree weather. It’s hard to believe that we are going to have weather this warm for the next two weeks with nothing lower than seventy degrees. And yet when I turn on my television, I see blizzards in the Northeast, temperatures in the single digits in places like Minneapolis (the “nice” neighbors in Minnesota who are standing up for their Constitutional rights while they still have them), and not-very-warm readings in cities and towns like Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and Independence (Iowa). But the worst of the weather has been the massive amount of snow in places like Central Park (NYC) and Massachusetts and even the cold temperatures in Florida. (“But there’s no global warming,and all of the brakes on carbon emissions have been kicked to the curb.”)

So, enjoy volleyball while we all wait for the other shoe (or bomb) to drop. Here are my two lovely 17-year-old twin granddaughters, Elise (blonde, left) and Ava (brunette, right) eating ice cream on the Riverwalk.

Elise & Ava in San Antonio.

San Antonio Riverwalk.

Text of Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, at Davos

By Connie Wilson

On February 1, 2026

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

This blog contains the full transcript of a special address by Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, delivered at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos.
Carney emphasized the end of the rules-based international order and outlined how Canada was adapting by building strategic autonomy while maintaining values like human rights and sovereignty.
The Canadian PM called for middle powers, such as his own, to work together to counter the rise of hard power and the great power rivalry, in order to build a more cooperative, resilient world.

This transcript was produced using AI and subsequently edited for style and clarity. The edits do not alter the substance of the speaker’s remarks.

Thank you very much, Larry. I’m going to start in French, and then I’ll switch back to English.

[The following is translated from French]

Thank you, Larry. It is both a pleasure, and a duty, to be with you tonight in this pivotal moment that Canada and the world going through.

Today I will talk about a rupture in the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a harsh reality, where geopolitics, where the large, main power, geopolitics, is submitted to no limits, no constraints.

On the other hand, I would like to tell you that the other countries, especially intermediate powers like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the various states.

The power of the lesser power starts with honesty.[Carney returns to speaking in English]

It seems that every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.

And this aphorism of Thucydides is presented as inevitable, as the natural logic of international relations reasserting itself.

And faced with this logic, there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along, to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that compliance will buy safety.

Well, it won’t.

So, what are our options?

In 1978, the Czech dissident Václav Havel, later president, wrote an essay called The Power of the Powerless, and in it, he asked a simple question: how did the communist system sustain itself?

And his answer began with a greengrocer.

Every morning, this shopkeeper places a sign in his window: ‘Workers of the world unite’. He doesn’t believe it, no-one does, but he places a sign anyway to avoid trouble, to signal compliance, to get along. And because every shopkeeper on every street does the same, the system persist – not through violence alone, but through the participation of ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false.

Havel called this “living within a lie”.

The system’s power comes not from its truth, but from everyone’s willingness to perform as if it were true, and its fragility comes from the same source. When even one person stops performing, when the greengrocer removes his sign, the illusion begins to crack. Friends, it is time for companies and countries to take their signs down.

For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, we praised its principles, we benefited from its predictability. And because of that, we could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection.

We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.

This fiction was useful, and American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods, open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.

So, we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.

This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.

Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.

You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.

The multilateral institutions on which the middle powers have relied – the WTO, the UN, the COP – the architecture, the very architecture of collective problem solving are under threat. And as a result, many countries are drawing the same conclusions that they must develop greater strategic autonomy, in energy, food, critical minerals, in finance and supply chains.

And this impulse is understandable. A country that can’t feed itself, fuel itself or defend itself, has few options. When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself.

But let’s be clear eyed about where this leads.

A world of fortresses will be poorer, more fragile and less sustainable. And there is another truth. If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate.

Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships.

Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty.

They’ll buy insurance, increase options in order to rebuild sovereignty – sovereignty that was once grounded in rules, but will increasingly be anchored in the ability to withstand pressure.

This room knows this is classic risk management. Risk management comes at a price, but that cost of strategic autonomy, of sovereignty can also be shared.

Politics Resurfaces: Views from Around the Globe

By Connie Wilson

On February 1, 2026

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

I’ve been reporting on Sundance non-stop for the past week.

As the stated topic(s) on WeeklyWilson are movies/TV AND politics, it’s time to condense for you some world views of the situation with our current administration, as articulated by various international political commentators.

With close friends in Minneapolis (who have an adopted South Korean son who now has to carry his naturalization papers with him at all times, for fear ICE will harm him), I’m upset by what is going on in our country. There should not be federal troops in ANY American city, and most definitely not simply to intimidate and punish

Killing two citizens and then trying to blacken those citizens’ reputations by portraying them (inaccurately) as trouble-making terrorists is inexcusable and a technique that would only be employed by an administration led by someone without any ethical or moral center. Since that is the very definition of the man and the Trump administration, it follows that Trump will try to “spin” the truth to benefit himself, without any regard for reality. After all, that’s how he got elected.

ICE agents are responsible for 2/3 of the murders in the city of Minneapolis this year (2 out of 3). Sending more ill-trained troops simply to terrorize and punish the populace for being a blue state is the very definition of bad government and divisiveness. Greg Sargent in The New Republic put it this way: “This is a campaign of deliberate terror designed in part—yes—to encourage illegal migrants to self-deport. But mainly it’s to send a warning to ordinary Americans that if we resist Trump’s agenda our citizenship will give us no more protection than it did Renee Good.”

Here are the views of world leaders on the heels of the Davos Conference in Switzerland, where Trump repeated his plans to take control of Greenland. Addressing a packed conference hall at the World Economic Forum Trump repeatedly referred to Greenland as “Iceland.” Nations including Britain, France and Norway sent troops to Greenland in support of Denmark. In Denmark’s capital of Nuuk some of the 57,000 residents of the island demonstrated, chanting “Yankee, go home!”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (whose full speech should be required viewing here in the U.S.) received a standing ovation for his speech in which he declared, “We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.” (For a translation of Carney’s remarks, I will append it in a second post tomorrow.)

Trump seemed to reverse his constant messaging about owning Greenland, one way or another, but, as Eli Stokola and Diane Nerozzi wrote in Politico, “So while the immediate crisis may have been averted, Trump’s retreat did little to reverse a deep-seated sentiment among Europeans that they can no longer consider the U.S. a reliable ally.”

Lauren Aratani in “The Guardian:”

Trump’s semi-retreat from his previoust repetition of how he planned to take over Greenland came after his tariff threats alarmed Wall Street and Europe, which said they refused to be blackmailed and that they might have to unleash a trade bazooka that would further damage U.S. economic interests. Bloomberg, in an editorial, said “lasting harm had been done.”

Said Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. in the Wall Street Journal, Greenland is “Trump’s white whale, calling his obsession with taking over Greenland “foolish” and a sign that “he needs more therapy.” Jenkins also said that it may be a sign that Trump is “flirting with cognitive decline.”

Paul Krugman said, “To read Trump’s unhinged text to the Norwegian prime minister, full of false claims, self-aggrandizement is to see hard evidence that America’s president is deeply unwell and getting sicker…America and the world are being held hostage to the whims of a petulant, violent, and deranged individual.”

Andrew Sullivan (Substack) wrote: “The imposition of one man’s will on an entire policy with no checks, balances, or even reasons cited to back him up” is insane. “A U.S. takeover of Greenland is an insane idea that no Greenlander wants and that three-quarters of Americans oppose. Trump himself has given no coherent rationale for wanting it.” He’s spoken of the “psychological” benefit he’d derive from “owning” the territory. “Essentially, he’s upended the Western world out of pure solipsism and pursuit of personal glory. That’s really all this is.”

Jack Blanchard (Politico): “Even if Trump’s step back from the brink holds, something much bigger and unstoppable is now underway…For 80 years allies have viewed American military protection and U.S. respect for a rules-based order as articles of faith. Even if Trump’s Greenland adventure ends without a hostile takeover, that illusion has been shattered and there’s no going back.”

Donald J. Trump & Ghislaine Maxwell.

From The Guardian:

“Less than two weeks before Jeffrey Epstein’s death in jail, his lawyers and Manhattan federal prosecutors met and discussed his potential cooperation, several documents within a cache of newly released investigative files state.“On July 29, 2019, FBI and [prosecutors] met with Epstein’s attorneys, who, in very general terms, discussed the possibility of a resolution of the case, and the possibility of the defendant’s cooperation,” an FBI document titled “Epstein Investigation Summary & Timeline” stated.”

To sum up, here’s what Kevin D. Williamson wrote in The Dispatch:

“Donald Trump aspires to be the sort of man Xi Jingping is, the sort of man Vladimir Putin is, the sort of man Li Peng was when he ruthlessly suppressed the Tiananmen Square demonstrations—a vicious act of repression that Trump has spoken of admiringly. The acts of unjustifiable violence and extralegal threats carried out by his agents are, manifestly, to Trump’s taste. He is fundamentally totalitarian. And he seems to desire violence. Why wouldn’t he? He has the guns and the gun thugs. Where there are genuine acts of violence being perpetrated against federal agents, those carrying out the acts are giving the Trump administration what it desires: a pretext for escalation.”

Donald & Melania Trump , Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell,

To that end, Minnesota (and, particularly, Minneapolis residents) keep on keeping on in the admirable way you have behaved in the face of ruthless and unprincipled behavior perpetrated on the pretext of making us “safer” from our neighbors and friends who came into this country years ago (and have been model citizens ever since, in most cases.) The world and the majority of Americans salute you and stand with you. ICE in Minneapolis is NOT the way we aspire to behave in the United States of America I’ve lived in for eight decades. It is un-American behavior on the part of the corrupt administration of a convicted felon and probable pedophile.

Don’t take the bait organized by the Steven Millers of the world. You’re better than that. I, for one, am proud of your Minnesota Nice behavior in looking out for your neighbors.