Weekly Wilson - Blog of Author Connie C. Wilson

Welcome to WeeklyWilson.com, where author/film critic Connie (Corcoran) Wilson avoids totally losing her marbles in semi-retirement by writing about film (see the Chicago Film Festival reviews and SXSW), politics and books----her own books and those of other people. You'll also find her diverging frequently to share humorous (or not-so-humorous) anecdotes and concerns. Try it! You'll like it!

Category: Humor and Weird Wilson-isms Page 2 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.

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

By

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 98th 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

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
audio icon 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

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

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.

 

“American Doctor” Screens at Sundance 2026

By

On January 29, 2026

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Mexico, Movies, Politics, Pop Culture, Reviews

A still from American Doctor byPoh Si Teng, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Ibrahim Al Otla.)

“American Doctor” is a Sundance documentary that follows three physicians grappling with the unbearable gap between what they’ve witnessed in Gaza volunteering at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis and what the world is willing to acknowledge regarding the reality of what is going on in Gaza. As I watched this documentary I recognized the familiar feeling that, when those in power lack human morality and compassion, the real life crises you are witnessing feel  hopeless. The doctors’ concern that their efforts are futile is just one more battle to be fought.

It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about senseless violence in the Ukraine, Gaza, Iran or Minneapolis, the feeling is the same. As articulated at one point by one of the doctors in this powerful documentary: “There’s an institutional trend to silence and speaking out about this. From the boards of every single university, from the boards of hospitals: they just don’t care at what cost this is achieved…Most American physicians are horrified, but they are too frightened to speak up….”  Consider that documentary statement as it relates to January 6th, Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, and  victims of senseless violence in any  ongoing war:  “They don’t give a shit about anybody else as long as they kill the person they’re after.”

CINEMATOGRAPHERS

Director Poh Si Teng keeps the cameras closely focused on the work of three American doctors in Gaza at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, letting the doctors’ exhaustion, anger, and quiet despair speak louder than any narration. Cinematographers include Ibrahim Al-Otta, Ramzy Haddad, Arthur Nazaryan, Chris Rentaria,  and Poh Si Teng, with editing by Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Christopher White.

The result is a film that radiates a specific kind of helplessness — not the helplessness of uninvolved bystanders, but of experts who have seen the consequences of violence up close and personal and still can’t get anyone to listen to them. We see the physicians returning to the United States to speak to representatives at Chuck Schumer’s office, John Cornyn’s office, Ted Cruz’s office—all for naught. This feeling of tilting at windmills is so widespread, so ubiquitous, that you walk away from the experience of this film  overwhelmed by the realization that Kelly Ann Conway’s “alternative facts,” when truth is what is required in society, has contributed mightily to the mess we are all now mired in.

THE DOCTORS

“The American” doctors followed in the Sundance documentary are (l to r) Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Dr. Mark Perlmutter, Director Poh Si Teng and Dr. Fereze Sidhwa. (Photo from AFT)

The doctors are Dr. Fereze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon from California and a Zoroastrian who actively wonders whether his inability to let the injustice of this genocide go on without protesting proactively in perpetuity is what is keeping him from finding the girl of his dreams. Dr. Mark Perlmutter: a Jewish orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina. As a Jew, he is more at liberty to speak out against the repressive far right regime of Benjamin Netanyahu, and he does so. He also shares that his father was a physician who helped concentration camp survivors in World War II, upon arriving with U.S. forces. The third doctor is Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a  Palestinian-America from Chicago who is an Emergency Room doctor in real life with a wife and two darling children.  He encounters more hassles than the other two doctors just to be allowed to enter Gaza as a volunteer, often being left at the border by red tape just hours before  entry. (“It’s a degree of inconvenience that’s essential. The Israelis choose to notify you that you are not being allowed in literally the night before.”)

All three are risking their lives to go into Gaza and attempt to treat dire injuries under the most primitive conditions. Since the Israeli Army intentionally targets hospitals, there is nowhere for the trapped populace—especially the children—to seek care. The doctors banded together to write an opinion/editorial entitled “As Surgeons We Have Never Seen Such Cruelty Like Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.” The X-ray machine at Nasser Medical Complex has been broken for 11 months; there are only 2 operating rooms.

THE TASK

The three weary doctors are followed amongst their colleagues in Gaza through the halls and operating rooms  of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. In the 1 hour and 33 minute film, the hospital is hit by Israeli forces three times. In the film’s finale, a rocket hits the second floor men’s surgical ward, incinerating a 15-year-old boy whom the doctors had just saved. We see two little boys, aged 2, dead and brought in carried in their grieving father’s arms. A ten-year-old has no pulse in her left arm and shrapnel injuries to her foot.  If she survives, she is going to lose both legs and her left arm. Early in the film, the doctors remark on the number of children brought in with gunshot wounds to the head, which they say cannot be simply accidental. The killing of children here is 600 times that in the Ukrainian conflict.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest  civil rights and advocacy organization, has called for streaming platforms in America to carry this documentary, saying: “This important documentary shows, through the eyes of three heroic Americans, the reality of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.  All Americans should see this film.  We urge all streaming services in the nation and worldwide to host and promote the film.”

POLITICS ASIDE

Poh Si Teng, director of American Doctor, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Marcus Yam.)

After Dr. Ahmad appears with Dana Bash on CNN, he received a particularly hostile e-mail cheering for “Hamas to renege on the hostage deal before the Sunday deadline so that Israel can finish the job of eliminating the presence forever of every single Palestinian member of Hamas. Chew on that, Doctor.” The Israelis have protested that the Palestinian Hamas forces often hid their headquarters under hospitals, to avoid detection. Israel used that as their justification for bombing hospitals. We are all aware of the precipitating event when 251 civilians in Israel were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Dr. Ahmad’s response is: “I’m not a spokesperson for anybody. I’m not ‘pro’ anything. I’m a Palestinian who wants to see babies that look like my babies not being killed any more.” Over 1700 health care workers have lost their lives in Gaza since Israel launched its retaliatory attack on Gaza. 94% of the hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including the Nasser Medical Complex.

The U.S. has provided $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and took 251 hostages, according to a report by Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs.

EMOTIONS UPON DEPARTURE

At the end of the film, on March 18, 2025, when most of the Nasser Hospital seemingly collapses after bombing, the doctors must leave; they feel guilt. “When you leave, you really feel that you have no right to leave. You get this feeling of a kind of shame,” says Dr. Fereze Sidhwa. “I don’t feel like I should have left, because nobody was there and nobody was coming in to replace me. I think it would have been better to have stayed on. I had some access to media and to people who could write about these things.” Also articulated is this thought: “The people in Gaza told us that we have to advocate on their behalf.  None of us wants to, but we all feel a sense of duty.”

  • Peer-reviewed analysis in The Lancet estimated 64,260 traumatic deaths in Gaza by June 30, 2024, rising to over 70,000 by October 2024.
  • Demographics: Studies indicate that 59.1% of these deaths in Gaza are women, children, and the elderly.
  • Over 100,000 Palestinians have been injured.

CONCLUSION

A companion piece for “American Doctor” is 2024’s “No Other Land,” a film made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective that shows the destruction of the occupied West Banks’ Masafer Yatta by Israeli soldiers.

“American Doctor” is a very powerful firsthand account of what has happened and is happening in Gaza, told by those who have made multiple trips there to try to help. As the “Vanity Fair” Sundance team that wandered into this one when they couldn’t get into “Shitheads” said, “It’s the most powerful thing we’ve seen at Sundance, so far.”

“American Doctor” underscores the need for people of good moral fiber to stand up against and speak out against  injustice anywhere, whether in a place far from home or on our own doorstep. If it is wrong and the PTB have presented a “truth” or rationale  built on lies, that must be called out by people of good conscience.

From “American Doctor:” “First responders and journalists are being attacked. Every aspect of life has bee destroyed.  There’s been no accountability. Who is going to bring the perpetrators to justice?  Who is going to prosecute them?  Who is going to confront the perpetrators in a way that they cannot rest without seeing us. It’s the only way that we can achieve accountability and justice.”

Do those words from “American Doctor” apply in other settings?

Yes, they do.

Let’s all act like we get the message that might does NOT make right and we must unite,as Minnesota has, to stand up for our neighbors and the sanctity of human life.

ROB REINER REMEMBERED

By

On December 15, 2025

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

Rob Reiner, as he appeared on “All In the Family.”

The senseless murder of actor/director Rob Reiner, apparently by his son Nick, is some of the worst news of the year.

I met Rob Reiner on two occasions.

The first time I met him was when I was a “Deaniac” during the run for President of Dr. Howard Dean, back in the “sleepless summer” of 2004. Dean was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election. Later, Howard Dean’s implementation of the fifty-state strategy as head of the DNC is credited with the Democratic victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Afterward, he became a political commentator and consultant to McKenna Long & Aldridge, a law and lobbying firm.

Because I paid for a large ad in our local newspaper (the Quad City Times), advertising Howard Dean’s upcoming appearance at Davenport’s West High School (ad approved by the Des Moines Dean headquarters), I was introduced to Rob Reiner, who was also pulling for Howard Dean and was present at a rally in the capital city of Des Moines. Reiner gave me a warm hug. We shook hands and exchanged a few pleasantries. He was warm and gregarious, like a large teddy bear. A “huggy” kind of person, as you might expect from his television appearances as Michael ‘Meathead” Stivic in “All In the Family.”

Rob Reiner
Rob Reiner

• 1971–1979
FILM PROMOTION

Later, in Chicago in 2014, Rob Reiner showed up to promote “And So It Goes.” I was part of the Press at the showing of “And So It Goes.” He was just as warm and friendly and gregarious when I met him on the Red Carpet for that film. I mentioned our previous meeting in connection with the Howard Dean campaign, then 10 years prior, so obviously not someone he would remember (Ha!)

And So It Goes is a 2014 American comedy drama film directed by Rob Reiner and written by Mark Andrus. The film, which stars Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton and Sterling Jerins, was released on July 25, 2014. It received mostly negative reviews from critics, and performed modestly at the box office. The film was the second collaboration between Reiner and Douglas, after The American President (1995). This film was also Frances Sternhagen‘s final feature film role before her death on November 27, 2023.[4]

MY IMPRESSIONS

Reiner was like a sweet, cuddly, out-going teddy bear. The idea of Rob Reiner and his wife being stabbed to death by their own son is  heinous and tragic. What is even more tragic is the response from Donald J. Trump, who had to make it all about him and said (among other totally inexcusable things), “I wasn’t a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person.” Rep. Don Bacon (R, Nebraska) commented that this remark about the tragic death of Rob Reiner was “something you’d expect from a drunk guy at a bar. Can the president be presidential?”

The answer is, “No. DJT cannot be presidential. He needs to BEE GONE, as soon as possible.

 

 

On the Internet Nobody Knows Who You Are: HollyShorts 2025

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On November 16, 2025

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

Dave Freeman in ‘Dave Nation” Episode #894 as portrayed by Jesse Einstein.

HollyShorts 2025 has many shorts in competition this past three days (most of which I spent on the road to Texas). Last year, the count was 427.  The short that caught my eye was “On the Internet Nobody Knows Who You Are,” a 23 minute, 26 second offering from J.M. Logan that starred Jesse Einstein as Dave Freeman.

Jesse films himself for a feed called “Dave Nation” (GoPro?), and the Episode of Dave Nation we open on is #894. He explains that his father took him camping in his youth to a lovely forested area at the top of a mountain Dad referred to as Magic Mountain. Now that his father has been dead  three years, Dave wants to take his father’s ashes to the top of Magic Mountain and scatter them there. (It’s a scene reminiscent of a similar undertaking in “The Big Lebowski.”)

Things do not go exactly as planned.

For one thing, even when he was young, Dave wasn’t keen on hiking and camping.  “I was 12 years old.  The last thing I wanted to do was to be alone with m dad in the woods.”

Dave Freeman (Jesse Einstein) of “On the Internet Nobody Knows Who You Are.”

But Dave sets off, despite the information that the next day is going to require a 6 mile hike. He has many small setbacks, but the bear attack in the night leaves him saying, “I have no gear, no tent, no food, no socks, and I don’t really remember how to use a compass.”

Who knew,” he asks, “that bears ate socks?”

Things get real very fast when Dave thinks he is hopelessly lost.

I love short films like this one that are more about being “real” and less about teen-age eternal love or Grandma (that would be me) becoming friends with a youthful soccer player from Nigeria or Timbuktu. (I won’t name names, because the acting in that one was great, but the originality of the piece was not.)

This one reminded me of the award-winning 7 minute short “Retirement Plan” that Irish Director John Kelly has just posted on YouTube, which is hilarious. (Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mqa4zfJdx4)  

Atop Magic Mountain in “On the Internet Nobody Knows Who You Are.”

 

“Retirement Plan” was the best thing I saw last spring at SXSW, with the possible exception of “The Studio.”  This one reminds me of it, except that it was  3 times as long. The cinematography and sound are great and Jesse Einstein—who looks exactly like a real-life friend of mine named Jimmy Mack—did a fine job. The original score by Antoni M. March, used atop Magic Mountain, was suitable in that spot.

Apologies to the HollyShorts people for my belated and unimpressive output this year. I was driving from Illinois to Texas during most of the (short) festival run. Things did not go exactly as planned. Unexpected things happen when two fossils set out to drive 1,000 miles. They generally happen in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Then, you have to twist tie your car together and drive 6 hours in that condition, which is even worse than Dave Freeman having to hike the last 6 miles to the top of Magic Mountain. Pulling over every so often to remove pieces of your ruined vehicle and keep them from flying off and causing catastrophes for other vehicles on the road: one tactic. Telling your spouse “act invisible” when  GPS tells you there is a speed trap ahead: another less useful tactic.

Is “On the Internet Nobody Knows Who You Are” any good?

Does a bear in the woods eat socks?

From Substack: This Will Hold

By

On October 29, 2025

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

Evil on Steroids

To be clear, when we say “Trump,” understand we’re talking about the Heritage Foundation’s agenda. Trump and his tigers, elephants, and giraffes are not the ones steering this country, although it’s evident he’s enjoying the cruelty. The infrastructure behind him—ideological, financial, and operational—is what’s actually in control.

Elon Musk and the DOGE boys served as the slash-and-burn team, generating the chaos and distraction required for the early stages of Project 2025 to move forward. Trump is simply the vehicle the Heritage Foundation used to gain power.

Do they really intend to deport all brown immigrants, including birthright citizens? They’re certainly trying; the Supreme Court has the case on its docket. And if they succeed, who will work the agricultural jobs? Well, what happens when millions are unemployed, hungry, and sick? Crime rates increase.

So why the new prisons and camps? To house the “new criminals.” And what happens to those criminals? They become “free labor” in the fields.

The Heritage Foundation and the tech bros are building their own fiefdom. Sound far-fetched? More than 40 million Americans are about to lose their SNAP benefits. 13.8 million have already been laid off under Trump’s administration. The uninsured population could climb to 31 million or more by 2026. And when enhanced ACA subsidies expire on December 31, 2025, premiums are projected to increase 114% for 22 million Americans.

Now add the ridiculous tariffs designed to skyrocket the cost of living, along with every other heinous policy meant to push the American people to the brink of despair.

How will they control all these people? With the “law enforcement” they’ve created to report to the Executive Branch, of course.

The ICE Budget for Weaponry

Puppy-killer Kristi Noem received two luxury jets valued at $200 million, and ICE is flush with cash like a hog at the trough with a $170 billion budget. It’s as if torment and cruelty are now line items in America’s priorities.

In 2019 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spent just $5.7 million on the “small arms” category through October 18; during Trump’s first administration the government averaged about $8.4 million per year. In 2025, ICE has increased that weapons spending by 600 percent. In the last nine months alone, they have spent $71,515,762 on purchases listed as “small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing.”

Think about that: the MAGA Big Budget Bill made ICE the largest federal law enforcement agency in the nation’s history, with a budget larger than most of the world’s militaries and a 600 percent increase in weapons spending.

This is a domestic enforcement agency—not going to war “over there,” but here: in our streets, against our people.

Blonde and Blue Jesus Forgives Them

I listen to pundits ask, “Why? Why would Republicans give up all their power? Aren’t they concerned about legacy? Why have they abdicated all authority to this Epstein-adjacent convicted felon?”

In short: The GOP has spent more than forty years twisting, remolding, and regurgitating Christian nationalist rhetoric until this moment feels like their long-awaited “crusade.” In their worldview, all one has to do is believe that a white Jesus was the Son of God—and their eternal elevator will come equipped with an “up” button.

Yes, Jesus is their get-out-of-Hell-free card—because in their version of Christianity even Hitler is forgiven. And what is “legacy” when the people destroying history are the ones holding the pen—what does it even mean to be on “the right side” of it?

“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” – George Orwell, 1984

The Republican Party of fiscal responsibility and rule of law is dead. In its place stands a movement that made a deal with the devil: fall in line behind Trump and his whims, or be destroyed in a primary. And as we’ve seen over the past year with Elon Musk, the DOGE boys, and the election data, it’s no longer just the voters deciding who wins—at least not in elections large enough to cross a certain vote-count threshold.

Their recreational depravity is evil on steroids, and I feel it every time I scroll the news or check on a friend who’s barely hanging on. You probably feel it too. Or you’re trying not to. We watch as Trump’s sycophants hack away at the agencies that keep us alive, leaving them bleeding and gasping for air.

This is how they break the spirit of the American people.

To act as if this is just “Trump being Trump” is to underestimate their underlying agenda.

“Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?” Trump to former SECDEF Mark Esper in 2020.

This quote is disturbing, but it’s 2025 and we’re nowhere near the civil unrest of the 2020 Floyd protests—unless they’re able to create it.

The Manufactured Flashpoint

I think about the families in North Carolina—maybe you do too. One storm. One night. And suddenly they’re living under a tarp in the hills, shivering, staring at the mud where their home used to be. They waited for FEMA. They prayed for FEMA. And then came the denial. Trump said no. Just… no. No aid. No lifeline. No reason. Try telling a child huddled beside you that the government of the richest nation on earth just shrugged. DESPAIR.

Or the mother who did everything right—every well-check, every vaccine—until the lies and poison from RFK Jr. made her second-guess what she once trusted. Now she sits beside a hospital bed, watching her child fight a disease we had already beaten. She carries the guilt. Her child carries the consequences. HOPELESSNESS.

Then there are the farmers who voted for Trump with their full chest, now watching as the slashing of USAID and the illogical punitive tariffs decimate their businesses. Meanwhile, Trump handed Argentina a $40 billion bailout, cut a deal to purchase their beef, and in return Argentina struck new agreements to sell soybeans to countries that once bought from U.S. suppliers. All as JD Vance and his AcreTrader investors scour the country for farms on life support, ready to swoop in and rob hardworking American families of what they spent generations building. ANGUISH.

And then there’s the veteran I can’t stop picturing—perhaps because I am one, and this visual occupies space in my brain and heart that I can’t turn off. It’s reality for too many. Trump’s tariffs were supposed to help the economy and the American people; that’s what they were told. Instead, prices exploded. Jobs disappeared. The VA slashed support. Some were hit twice, never realizing that “eliminating DEI” also meant eliminating programs that kept women in the workforce. Now they stare at stacks of bills no one with PTSD should ever have to face. They’re a month away from losing their home, and SNAP benefits are days away from a hold-status until the government reopens.

An unnecessary government shutdown that could have been avoided if Speaker Johnson would just release the Epstein files. They’re confused and crushed. Fox is on in the background, reporting that Trump is building a $300 million ballroom. For who? The billionaires? The oligarchs? RAGE.

Bannon’s Firehose of Maximum Outrage

And now we have the beginnings of the uprising that Putin, Trump, Steve Bannon, the weak-ass tech bros with their pre-built bunkers, and the Project 2025 Nazis have been engineering—by slashing and burning the people’s lifelines.

This is the architecture of despair:

He tore down the fucking White House—our White House.

It’s the methodical destruction of our sacred institutions and the places we turn when we are scared, sick, or desperate. It is the breaking of the American spine by men drunk on unearned power, men who enjoy watching people crawl.

And that is why $170 billion to ICE matters. Because once you break people, you need an army to control the pieces. An army they plan to have in place by the spring, before the midterms.

“Eternity” Closes Out 61st Chicago International Film Festival

By

On October 27, 2025

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

The closing night film of the 61st Chicago International Film Festival was an homage to films of the 80s and 90s, romantic comedies like “Notting Hill,” written by Patrick Cunnane (his first feature screenplay) and Director David Freyne (“Dating Amber,” 2020). During the Q&A onstage following the showing on October 26th, Trevor White, a producer who works with his brother, Tim, talked about the film that the audience had just enjoyed.

PLOT

“In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen)is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life (65 years) with (Miles Teller, “Whiplash,” 2024, “The Gorge,” 2025) and her first love Luke (Callum Turner, “The Boys in the Boat,” 2023; “Masters of the Air,” 2024) who died young and has waited 67 years for her to arrive. [It reminded me of the Albert Brooks/Meryl Streep vehicle “Defending Your Life” (1991).]

Guided by an After Life Coordinator (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Oscar winner for “The Holdovers”), they have just one week to confront the ultimate dilemma: where and with whom to spend eternity.” Da’Vine and fellow ALC afterlife coordinator Ryan (John Early) are hilarious in their roles and add much to the film. So does a neighbor of Joan and Larry’s, Karen (Olga Merediz). These supporting cast members get high marks for humor.

GENESIS

Director David Freyne of “Eternity.”

Screenwriter Patrick Cunnane, who is the son of Congresswoman Madeline Dean, met Producer Trevor White (and Tim, his brother and production partner) at the White House where Cunnane was then working as a member of the White House speechwriting staff (the East Wing was intact then. Yay!). This fortuitous meeting propelled “Eternity” forward. The  addition of Director David Freyne (co-credited as writer)  was also serendipity. Cunnane said, “When David came on, everything went to the next level. David had a clear vision of the afterlife…It could have looked 110 different ways…I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way this turned out. It is better than I imagined it in my head.” (This is not what many screenwriters say, so give this production a Gold Star for being a happy set. It was also better than I imagined it would be, which is a recommendation for audiences to check it out.)

IMAGINING THE AFTER-LIFE

This was Freyne’s third movie and his third with Elizabeth Olsen. A corkboard outside his office led to creative suggestions for how the afterlife might appear. Since the idea was to blend romance with comedy, emulating the rom-coms of old (“That was the North Star for this movie”), some of the ideas added to the corkboard during production caused the duo to admit to the audience’s amusement, “Some were very funny and probably not appropriate for PG13.” The screenplay was on Hollywood’s Black List of the Best Unproduced Films since 2022, so its potential was recognized.

CREW

That potential was turned into reality by the expert work of Production Designer Zazu Myers (“My Old Ass,” 2024) and Cinematographer Ruairi O’Brien (“Dating Amber,” 2020; “Sea Fever,” 2019). The composer was David Fleming (“Superman,” 2025; “The Last of Us,” 2023) and the Costume Designer was Angus Strathie. (Edith Head he was not; the red-and-white checked outfits for Joan’s character and the gold-striped shirt worn by Miles Teller in the same scene did not enhance the constant remarks about how attractive the lovely Elizabeth Olsen looked, from each of her husbands. For that matter, how many of us would vote for Miles Teller as the more attractive husband of the two? But I’ll leave that plot point open to viewers, while admitting that, in terms of attractiveness–which is emphasized in the script—they could have flipped the parts, for me, but might have lost Teller’s flip finesse with humorous lines, his forte.)

SCREENPLAY

Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, and Callum Turner in “Eternity,” the closing night picture for the 61st Chicago International Film Festival.

“Eternity” goes from Chicago to Austin’s Film Festival next, where it will be a Spotlight film. Austin is known as a screenwriter’s festival and the screenplay is very good. I particularly enjoyed the digs at the Korean War (not one of the “cool” ones) and lines like, “We can go to space for eternity, for all I care as long as Luke (husband #1) is not floating around,” from Larry (Husband #2).

HEAVEN?

The various iterations of the afterlife are presented like a giant convention, with scads of brochures about spending your after-life in 1930s Germany, but with 100% fewer Nazis; Parisland 55 (where they speak English, but with a French accent); or Infantilization World. There’s even a run on eternities where there are no men, but it filled up fast and a second similar eternity was under construction. All of the throw-away lines/ concepts were very clever.

RELATIONSHIPS

Screenwriter Patrick Cunnane and Producer Trevor White of “Eternity” at the Q&A, closing night of the 61st Chicago International Film Festival.

The opening scenes of “old” Larry and “old” Joan driving to a gender reveal party were charming and realistic. Betty Buckley, now 78 years young, played Dr. Karen Fletcher in 2016’s “Split.” I’ve missed her. Barry Primus (2013’s “Grudge Match”) portrayed old Larry. Their bickering is characteristic of marriages that have endured for decades (67 years). I can personally attest to this. The relationship question of this film is intensified when the real question is how you would choose a mate for eternity if your family were a love triangle.

CONCLUSION

The screenwriter freely admitted to stealing real-life stories from his elderly parents’ lives (the flat tire story). Cunnane shared a touching story of his mother, on-set watching the film while it was shooting, breaking down in tears when one  episode unfolded.

That says it all: there are real-life lessons about family and its importance in this one, much as there were  real-life lessons about important people in your life in the George Clooney vehicle “Jay Kelly.” Life without someone special can be hollow. But who will Joan choose to spend eternity with—and which of the hilarious afterlife options will win out? Check out “Eternity” in November to find out.

Important Message from Professor Emeritus Dr. James Greenberg

By

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.

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