Category: Humor and Weird Wilson-isms Page 6 of 35

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.

Are You A Member of the Resistance? We All Need to Speak Up!

By Connie Wilson

On May 28, 2025

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

Donald J. Trump giving “Loser” sign

[From Opinion Columnist M. Geesen in the “New York Times” (5/28/2025)]:

Columnist Geesen first sketched his background and experiences watching Russia become an autocratic state: “

“Living in and reporting on Russia when Vladimir Putin took and consolidated power, I was shocked many times. I couldn’t sleep in September 2004, after tanks shelled a school in which terrorists were holding hundreds of children hostage, and I was shocked when Putin used this terrorist attack as a pretext to eliminate elected governorships.” Geesen added: “I was shaken when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008. My world changed when three very young women were sentenced to jail time for a protest performance in a church in 2012, the first time Russian citizens were imprisoned for peaceful action. I couldn’t breathe when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. And when the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was poisoned in 2020, arrested in 2021 and almost certainly killed in prison in 2024. And when Russia again invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Along the way there were many smaller, yet also catastrophic, milestones: the state takeovers of universities and media outlets, the series of legislative steps that outlawed L.G.B.T.Q. people, the branding of many journalists and activists as “foreign agents.” The state of shock would last a day or a week or a month, but time went on and the shocking event became a fact of our lives.”

Geesen, at one point, noted that most Americans (or Russians) did not stay on top of the carnage being wrought. Daily life took over and the need for stability overtook the need to remain informed about such outrageous acts.

That theme was further reinforced for me by a documentary I viewed at Sundance entitled “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” The young Russian teacher, Pavel “Pasha” Talenkin, who gave up his entire life and family in Russia to show the world what is going on in Russian schools—the brainwashing, the indoctrination. Pasha has fled the country, leaving behind his only family (his mother) and is awaiting word on his request for asylum elsewhere.

Pasha cannot go back, as he will be imprisoned for merely taking film of what goes on in the Russian schools today, sort of a throwback to the Youth movements of the Nazis. I also have viewed the Oscar-winning films of this year and last year, “20 Days in Mariupol” and “No Other Land” (about the Gaza Strip).

HASTE MAKES WASTE

Elon Musk.

It is true that the breakneck pace of these catastrophic events make it hard to stay on top of what is really going on. After a while—even though Masha in the “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” documentary loses her brother to the Russian invasion of Ukraine Masha says, “I could care less about the war as long as it doesn’t impact me personally.” This seems to be the main opinion of the town.

And that, my friends, is sort of the message of a second editorial in today’s “New York Times,” excerpts of which will follow these final words from Geesen:

“The United States in the last four months has felt like an unremitting series of shocks: executive orders gutting civil rights and constitutional protections; a man with a chain saw trying to gut the federal government; deliberately brutal deportations; people snatched off the streets and disappeared in unmarked cars; legal attacks on universities and law firms.

Unlike the Russian autocratic breakthrough (or, for that matter, the Hungarian one, which has apparently provided some of Donald Trump’s playbook), the transformation of American government and society hasn’t been spread out over decades or even years. It’s been everything everywhere all at once.

And now that has become familiar. I’ve reported on many wars, and I’ve seen how they come to feel routine — to the people living through them, the people reporting on them and the people reading about them. Wars have a limited repertoire: bombings, shellings, offensives, counteroffensives, body counts. After the initial shock, few people keep track of the shifting front line.”

Says Gleeson: “In this country, too, fewer and fewer things can surprise us. Once you’ve absorbed the shock of deportations to El Salvador, plans to deport people to South Sudan aren’t that remarkable. Once you’ve wrapped your mind around the Trump administration’s revoking the legal status of individual international students, a blanket ban on international enrollment at Harvard isn’t entirely unexpected.

Once you’ve realized that the administration is intent on driving thousands of trans people out of the U.S. military, a ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care, which could have devastating effects for hundreds of thousands, just becomes more of the same. As in a country at war, reports of human tragedy and extreme cruelty have become routine — not news.”

FORMER HARVARD PRESIDENT/AUTHOR SPEAKS OUT

January 6th.

Drew Gilpin Faust, the author of “This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War” and a former President of Harvard University also wrote an opinion piece for the NYT, entitled, “We Are Not Being Asked to Run Into Cannon Fire. We Just Need to Speak Up.”

“At a moment of national crisis that is frequently compared to the divisiveness and destructiveness of the Civil War era, we should look anew at the responses of Frederick Douglass and Lincoln handed down to us. Between 1861 and 1865, some 2.7 million men, almost all volunteers, took up arms to preserve the Union as a beacon of democracy at a time when representative government seemed to be fading from the earth. Today democracy is once again under worldwide threat, assailed as disorderly and inefficient by autocratic leaders from Budapest to Moscow to Beijing, leaders our own president openly admires. Yet in 1861, ordinary men from even the remotest corners of the Union risked their lives because they believed, as Lincoln articulated for us all, that “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

“They died for their country. … They died for their country,” Frederick Douglass repeated in helping establish what is now known as Memorial Day. “They had fought against the “hell-black system of human bondage” and for a nation that embodied “the hope of freedom and self-government throughout the world.” Americans must not forget that this was why the dead had laid down their lives in numbers no one had anticipated or could even have imagined.”

I, for one, shall continue to speak up.

I have taken to gifting people with a copy of “BEE GONE,” my book warning about DJT, and saying, “Now you’re a member of the Resistance,”

How about you?

Dana Milbank Nails Trump’s Actions in the “Washington Post”

By Connie Wilson

On May 27, 2025

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

Dana Milbank in “The Washington Post” nailed the embarrassing, cruel and lawless tack our current Chief Executive continues on, undeterred by public opinion or accepted norms of behavior. By all means, disparage your predecessor at a time when he has just been announced with a life-threatening cancer. Go ahead and invite the leader of another country to the White House Oval Office and attempt to humiliate them with gerrymandered facts and–in this case—an actual video montage of white crosses that had nothing to do with what DJT presented them as being. I was always embarrassed by “W,” but it had more to do with evident stupidity than criminal intent. I actually had a keyring that counted down the number of months, days and years until “W” would be out of the White House. Where is that watch when I really need it? And can we trust that THIS guy will even leave when his time is up, since he rarely does anything we expect our Chief Executive to do to represent the true feelings of the United States as the one-time leader of the free world. (Are we even the leader of the Free World any more?)

Read Dana Milbank’s to-the-point summation of this week’s embarrassing, illegal and humiliating acts by Donald J. Trump below:

“Turn the lights down and just put this on,” President Donald Trump commanded his aides. It was time for another Oval Office ambush of a foreign leader, this time South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. He then narrated a video, which, at one point, showed white crosses lining a roadside, which Trump portrayed as a mass grave for White South African farmers, murdered in what Trump has errantly described as a “genocide.”

“Now, this is very bad. These are the — these are burial sites right here. Burial sites,” Trump said. “Each one of those white things you see is a cross, and there’s approximately a thousand of them. They are all White farmers. … And it’s a terrible sight. I’ve never seen anything like it. Both sides of the road, you have crosses. Those people were all killed.”

Ramaphosa looked baffled. “I’d like to know where that is,” he said, “because this I’ve never seen.”

And there’s a good reason for that: It doesn’t exist.

The video was not of graves at all but of a symbolic protest five years ago. It has been promoted on X recently, including by one overtly racist account in South Africa to which Trump sidekick Elon Musk subscribed. “This is what Elon wanted,” Trump explained.

Trump seemed genuinely to believe that the phony graves were evidence of an actual atrocity — much like when he presented as genuine an obviously Photoshopped image purporting to show the characters “MS-13” tattooed on the knuckles of the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego García.

But Trump’s confusion went beyond the fake graves: He also confronted his visitor with video of two Black men he portrayed as South African government “officials” saying vile things such as “Kill the Boer.” As South Africa’s (White) agriculture minister patiently explained to Trump, those two men are opponents of the government. Apparently Trump didn’t know that, either.

If all this weren’t awkward enough, Trump, prompted by a reporter, explained why the United States, the wealthiest country in the world, needed to rely on charity from Qatar in the form of that donated 747 (which, it turns out, Trump had solicited): Qatar’s royals needed to “help us out because we need an Air Force One.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you,” Ramaphosa told him.

“I wish you did,” Trump replied. “I’d take it.”

EMBARRASSING

This is just embarrassing — maybe not for our president, who seems incapable of such a sentiment, but for the rest of us. Everywhere I looked this week, I cringed for my country.

Asked to comment on former president Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis this week, Trump twice remarked that the cancer must have been growing a long time “to get to Stage 9” (there is, of course, no such thing) while also boasting about himself: “I did a very complete physical, including cognitive test. I’m proud to announce I aced it.” Earlier, Trump had revealed that he doesn’t seem to realize that a doctorate in education is not the same thing as a degree in medicine, something that most high school students would know.

On Capitol Hill, even Republicans are growing embarrassed that a credulous Trump is being outmaneuvered by Russia’s Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. “That guy is stringing President Trump along. We don’t appreciate it,” Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa) told Semafor. Sen. Todd Young (Indiana) said that “it’s pretty clear to me that Putin has been jerking us around for months.” And Sen. Mike Rounds (South Dakota) remarked that “nobody likes to see somebody try to play the president.”

MORE GRIFT

Vietnam is in talks with the Trump Organization to build a new Trump Tower in Ho Chi Minh City, Reuters reported — a transparent attempt to buy Trump’s favor while it tries to persuade him to drop tariffs he imposed against the country. Vietnam just approved a $1.5 billion golf project by the Trump Organization, and has offered favorable terms to Musk’s Starlink internet service. Closer to home, Trump held a black-tie dinner Thursday night to celebrate the top investors in his meme coin, who have collectively expanded his personal wealth by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Asked this week for his thoughts on the first American pope, Trump turned it into a celebration of himself. The pope’s brother “is a major MAGA fan,” Trump said. “He’s got MAGA and he’s got Trump, and I look forward to getting him to the White House.”

TRUMP LOVES TRUMP

In a “briefing” this week at the White House for young children, press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a moment of candor when one of the tots asked, “Which is Donald Trump’s favorite president, besides himself?”

“A good question,” Leavitt said, “because it would be, uh, probably, himself.”

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, presiding over the administration’s deportation of migrants without due process, shrouded herself in glory this week when Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire) quizzed her: “What is habeas corpus?”

“Well,” Noem replied, “habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.”

Sen. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) continued the quiz, asking whether Noem knew which article of the Constitution mentioned habeas corpus.

“No, I do not, sir.”

In New Jersey, a federal judge scolded prosecutors for their “embarrassing” decision to drop charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka just a few days after charging him with trespassing at an immigration detention facility. The judge said that after this “worrisome misstep,” the U.S. attorney’s office, run by former Trump lawyer and campaign adviser Alina Habba, “must operate with a higher standard.” But Habba’s office has now filed assault charges against a sitting member of Congress, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-New Jersey), in the same incident and is threatening charges against two other lawmakers. Trump cheered this banana republic roundup of political opponents, following a similar move against a Wisconsin judge, saying that “the days of woke are over.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) introduced a resolution to expel McIver from the House, saying McIver “must be held accountable to the highest standards of conduct in order to safeguard the public’s faith in this institution.” This came a day after Mace upheld those standards in a committee meeting by displaying a nude photo of herself taken by her “predator and rapist” former fiancé. “This naked silhouette is my naked body,” she explained to the panel.

THE BIG BAD BILL

But perhaps the biggest embarrassment was the ugly way in which the House passed Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” full of tax breaks and cuts in help for the poor: during an all-night session on the House floor, following an all-night session the night before in the House Rules Committee.

The frantic rush allowed the Republican majority to pass the gargantuan bill, packed with last-minute provisions to buy the votes of holdouts, before there could be a final assessment of how much the bill would increase the federal debt (somewhere around $4 trillion), how many people would lose their health insurance (10 to 15 million) and at least some of their food assistance (also north of 10 million)

In the absence of such relevant information, the administration filled the vacuum with fantastical ideas. Trump promised that working-class people “won’t lose health insurance.” Leavitt claimed the bill “does not add to the deficit.” Trump further said the bill, which cuts some $300 billion from food stamps, “is going to give everybody much more food.”

The markets weren’t fooled. Moody’s Ratings downgraded U.S. debt, specifically warning about continued high deficits “from current fiscal proposals under consideration.” Bond yields spiked on Wednesday, while stocks and the dollar fell, as a “sell America” sentiment took hold among investors. But lawmakers went ahead anyway in the wee hours, forcing the bill through the House just hours after the final package was introduced, before quitting town for an 11-day recess.

This is no way to run the greatest country on Earth. In fact, it’s embarrassing.

To be sure, “embarrassing” isn’t the only adjective that comes to mind. There’s also “lawless.”

LAWLESS

A federal judge this week said the Trump administration had “obviously” and “unquestionably” violated his order requiring detained migrants be given a reasonable chance to challenge their removal. Instead, seven migrants from Mexico, Cuba, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam were deported to South Sudan, which is on the verge of civil war, on just hours’ notice. The administration continues not to comply with court orders requiring it to arrange the return of other migrants who were improperly deported. Though the Supreme Court made it easier for the administration to revoke the legal status of 350,000 Venezuelan migrants, Trump’s lawyers continue to pile up court losses, most recently in their attempts to shut the Education Department and take over the U.S. Institute of Peace; at least 171 rulings have temporarily blocked the administration’s actions, in the latest New York Times tally.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division abandoned investigations into several police departments over misconduct. Instead, the DOJ is investigating Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson because he touted how many Black people he hired, the Chicago Tribune reports. Justice also agreed to send nearly $5 million in taxpayer dollars to the family of Ashli Babbitt, killed during the Capitol riot as she attempted to break into the House chamber where lawmakers were sheltering.

The Constitution, of course, requires that the president “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” But Trump continues his faithless reign: halting the enforcement of federal rules and regulations he doesn’t like, cutting funds to states that voted Democratic while sending additional funds to Republican states, and combing the federal government for new opportunities for vengeance, particularly against Harvard University.

Trump, in an early-morning post this week, called for a “major investigation” into whether Kamala Harris’s campaign paid Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Bono. This is on top of legal action threatened or taken lately against other political opponents, including former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI director James Comey and the New Jersey officials. When NBC News’s Peter Alexander asked Trump about his Air Force One gift from Qatar Wednesday, Trump erupted and said of the head of NBC News parent company Comcast: “Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated.”

After the Biden family disclosed his advanced prostate cancer diagnosis, a senior counselor in the DOJ, Leo Terrell, suggested that Jill Biden should be prosecuted. Responding to an X post claiming the former first lady “knew about President Biden’s health problems” and “still wanted him to run for President,” Terrell wrote: “Elder abuse! Criminal charges??”

Donald Trump Jr. was thinking along the same lines. “What I want to know is how did Dr. Jill Biden miss stage five [sic] metastatic cancer or is this yet another coverup???” he posted, adding that, “without question,” the announcement of the diagnosis was an effort to distract attention from “the fact Biden was running the country as a vegetable.”

His father joined in, saying that “there are things going on that the public wasn’t informed of” — and calling for yet another investigation.

Come to think of it, “paranoid” is another relevant adjective.

At one White House briefing this week, Leavitt gave the first question to a “correspondent” from the outlet ZeroHedge, which promotes far-right conspiracy theories. The questioner asked about one such fantasy known as the “Clinton body count,” which holds that Bill and Hillary Clinton have murdered many people. He then went on to propose that Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking was done “on behalf of intelligence agencies, and even potentially as part of a blackmail ring with potential ties to the Israeli government.”

Leavitt offered no refutation.

CRUEL

Bee Gone

Add “cruel” to the adjectival assortment.

In the Oval Office this week, when asked about the “devastating impact” in Africa caused by the administration’s shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Trump replied: “Well, it’s devastating.” He went on to complain: “Europe doesn’t help. Europe hasn’t given anything.” (European Union nations collectively gave more in foreign aid than the U.S., even before Trump shut USAID.)

He seemed equally unmoved about the effects of his “big, beautiful bill,” which, the Congressional Budget Office found, would cut the income of the poorest 10 percent of Americans while raising the income of the wealthiest 10 percent — and that was before last-minute changes that accelerated cuts to Medicaid and added new tax breaks favoring wealthy homeowners.

The mammoth bill followed a familiar trajectory toward House passage. Members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus complained that it added trillions to the federal debt. Moderates demanded larger tax breaks and objected to the huge cuts to Medicaid. They called each other names. The whole thing appeared to be collapsing.

To win them over, Trump went to Capitol Hill — and talked about himself, proclaiming, among other things, that he is “a man of God” and that “there’s nobody like me as a fiscal hawk.” Probably none of this persuaded Republican holdouts. But something else did: The White House issued a statement saying any defection would be the “ultimate betrayal,” and Trump delivered similar threats in person. Republicans cowered. It was approved by a single vote, with two Republicans in opposition, one voting present, one absent and one falling asleep in a back room.

Democrats tried to make the majority squirm, forcing votes during a 19-hour Rules Committee meeting on several of the 537 amendments that had been filed. Republicans blocked one amendment limiting the tax cuts to people who earn under $400,000 a year. They blocked another restricting the tax cuts to those who make under $10 million a year. Because the legislation hiked taxes on some, Republicans had to waive their own rule, adopted four months ago, requiring a supermajority for such increases.

The votes of some Republican holdouts had to be bought with special provisions. At the last minute, a $1.4 billion provision deregulating firearm silencers and repealing their sales tax found its way into the bill, at the request of Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia), a gun dealer.

Another 11th-hour change: The legislation requires that baby trust accounts created by the bill, in which every newborn American child would get $1,000, be officially named “Trump Accounts.”

Unofficially, they should be named “cringe accounts.”

READERS’ REMARKS for Dana Milbank’s “Washington Post” column

The comments overwhelmingly express deep embarrassment and shame over President Trump’s actions, particularly his portrayal of a misleading video to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Many commenters highlight the negative impact on international relations.

A Nation In Peril: Political Experts Weigh In

By Connie Wilson

On May 22, 2025

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

New York Times Op Ed Page, May 20, 2025

Thomas B. Edsall has been a contributor to the New York Times Opinion section since 2011. His column on strategic and demographic trends in American politics appears every Tuesday. He previously covered politics for The Washington Post. He polled experts for their opinions on Trump’s actions, so far, during his first 100 days in office. Here are the opinions of experts from a variety of colleges and universities:

The quotes below represent the views of the nation’s experts in politics and economics in 2025. They echo my own sentiments, so I’ve excerpted some of the lines from my own 2019 book, BEE GONE: A A Political Parable”

Watching what has gone on, so far, makes me weep for my country. “I told you so” is cold comfort.

Bee Gone: A Political Parable (book by Connie Corcoran Wilson, illustrated by Gary McCluskey)

From my book BEE GONE:

“I could help this hive more by running the state.”
“Oh, No!” cried the others, “We think SHE’S the one. You’re new and you don’t seem to know much

She knows a lot. She’s been in this spot, While you haven’t ever done such.”

They would not agree that he should rule.

They thought he should go back to school….

So Donnie got in and then tried to rule.

He wouldn’t attempt to learn things in school.

He just wanted to do what he wanted to do.

If objections were raised, he’d simply shout, “Shoo!”

‘Oh my!” said the other bees, after his rise.

“This really is awful. Our whole hive might die.”

The Queen, who was out in the forest alone,

Said, “You should’ve listened to me about this bad drone.

But some of you didn’t and thought he was great.

Just how will you feel when it’s really too late?

If we don’t pull together and get this drone out,

He’ll ruin us all—the big crazy lout!”

“We don’t want to be violent

But he’s got to go.

Our lives and our honey he just doesn’t know.

He seems to think only of playing and greed.

He doesn’t care for us, does not meet our needs.”

But Donnie was known as a very bad bee.

He was not very truthful as all bees could see.

A valuable lesson was learned then by all:

Be careful in choosing or you’ll all take a fall.”

Insurrection of January 6, U.S. Capitol

Michael Luttig (former Federal Appeals Judge appointed by George H. W. Bush):

“There has never been a U.S. president who I consider even to have been destructive, let alone a president who has intentionally and deliberately set out to destroy literally every institution in America, up to and including American democracy and the rule of law. I even believe he is destroying the American presidency.”

BUDGET CUTS

Regarding the cuts in the share of grants going to universities and hospitals and proposed cuts of 40 percent or more in the budgets of the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Science Foundation: “This is going to completely kneecap biomedical research in this country,” Jennifer Zeitzer, the deputy executive director at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, told Science magazine. Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association, warned that cuts will “totally destroy the nation’s public health infrastructure.”

Sean Wilentz, Professor of History at Princeton:

“The gutting of expertise and experience going on right now under the blatantly false pretext of eliminating fraud and waste is catastrophic and may never be completely repaired. There is no precedent, not even close, unless you consider Jefferson Davis an American president. Even to raise the question, with all due respect, is to minimize the crisis we’re in and the scope of Trump et al.’s. intentions. Trump’s closest allies intended chaos wrought by destruction which helps advance the elite reactionary programs. Chaos allows Trump to expand his governing by emergency powers, which could well include the imposition of martial law, if he so chose.”

Andrew Rudalevige, a political scientist at Bowdoin: “Not to be flip,” Rudalevige replied by email, “but for children abroad denied food or lifesaving medicine because of arbitrary aid cuts, the answer is (these cuts are) already distressingly permanent. The damage caused to governmental expertise and simple competence could be long lasting. Firing probationary workers en masse may reduce the government employment head count, slightly, but it also purged those most likely to bring the freshest view and most up-to-date skills to government service, while souring them on that service. And norms of nonpoliticization in government service have taken a huge hit.

The comparison that comes to mind is Andrew Johnson. It’s hardly guaranteed that Reconstruction after the Civil War would have succeeded even under Lincoln’s leadership. But Johnson took action after action designed to prevent racial reconciliation and economic opportunity, from vetoing key legislation to refusing to prevent mob violence against Blacks to pardoning former members of the Confederacy hierarchy. He affirmatively made government work worse and to prevent it from treating its citizens equally.”

PROJECT 2025

Rudalevige on the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025:

“Project 2025 was not just a campaign manifesto but a bulwark against the inconsistency and individualism its authors thought had undermined the effectiveness of Trump’s first term. It was an insurance policy to secure the administrative state for conservative thought and yoke it to a cause beyond Trump or even Trumpism. It was not just a campaign manifesto but a bulwark against the inconsistency and individualism its authors thought had undermined the effectiveness of Trump’s first term. It was an insurance policy to secure the administrative state for conservative thought and yoke it to a cause beyond Trump or even Trumpism.

In the past, when presidential power has expanded, it has been in response to crisis: the Civil War, World War I, the Depression and World War II, 9/11. But no similar objective crisis faced us. So one had to be declared — via proclamations of “invasion” and the like — or even created. In the ensuing crisis more power may be delegated by Congress. But the analogue is something like an arsonist who rushes to put out the fire he started.”

RELATIONSHIPS WITH TRADITIONAL ALLIES

Mara Rudman, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center:

“The most lasting impact of this term will be felt in the damage done to the reputation of the United States as a safe harbor where the rule of law is king and where the Constitution is as sacred a national document as any country has developed.

Through his utter disregard for the law, Trump has shown both how precious and how fragile are the rules that undergird our institutions, our economic and national security and the foundation for our democracy. Among the top four in U.S. News rankings (Buchanan, Pierce, Andrew Johnson), Trump was the only one not associated with the Civil War. He is proving to be superlative within that small club and may yet overtake his historical competition for the top ranking.There is no indication that these new Trump voters, his winning margin, voted for demolition of the basic structures of governance in this country as DOGE has done, impeding the services, e.g., Social Security and Medicaid, and the jobs upon which they depend.

Ideological loyalists such as Stephen Miller and Project 2025’s primary pen, Russell Vought, now O.M.B. director, seized a longstanding agenda and have the skills to implement it, Vought particularly so; recall pre-election when Vought boasted of inflicting maximum trauma on career civil servants.”

Bruce Cain, a political scientist at Stanford, shares the belief that Trump has taken a wrecking ball to foreign relations

“What will be hard to fix from all of this is a substantial undermining of trust in American government that created important alliances and a strong economy. The poster child of ruined trust is Canada.

Canadians have been dependable allies and economic partners for decades, but President Trump’s preposterous ideas about taking over Canada have angered Canadians to a point of at least difficult return. Trust in relationships is easily lost and hard to regain.

The war on academic research will have long-lasting implications for technical innovation in America. Scientists who cannot support their labs while President Trump holds their funds hostage for the sake of MAGA theater over the next four years will take their labs elsewhere.

China will be a winner in this. Uncertainty about government commitments will make it harder for investors to take basic and applied research in universities and move it to market. The longer the time horizon for investments, the more trust and stability matter. In the end, disrupters like Trump and Musk leave us with a much bigger legacy of doubt and uncertainty than achievement.

Destruction has a role in both business and government. The creative disruption of technological innovation can destroy some businesses and elevate better ones. Similarly, political destruction such as democracy revolutions have dramatically improved the form and function of government.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are disrupters from the economic realm who have migrated into the political realm. The migration has been rocky for both are driven more by instinct than knowledge, vindictiveness than good intentions and impatience than carefully designed plans. They may make enough money out of their deals to do well for themselves. The same cannot be said for the Republican Party. If things get bad enough, we could be looking at 1974 all over again.”

Ellen Fitzpatrick, a professor emerita of history at the University of New Hampshire:

“It’s fair to say that if we look at the arc of American history from Reconstruction to the current day, there’s no question that Trump is busily destroying much of what several generations of Americans worked very, very hard to achieve.”

“The anti-immigrant sentiment of the late 19th and early 20th century, and the rhetoric abroad in the land today area shocking reminder of the distance the nation traveled over the course of the 20th century and how quickly those gains are being recklessly swept away. To see the effort to dismantle what was achieved with great difficulty in the realm of civil and voting rights in the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and subsequent administrations is appalling.”

MOST DESTRUCTIVE PRESIDENTS:

In ranking the most destructive presidents, the scholars polled mentioned both Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan.

Geoffrey Kabaservice, the vice president for political studies at the Niskanen Center, a center-left libertarian think tank, wrote:

“Will the Trump presidency be as destructive as James Buchanan’s presidency, which led directly to the Civil War?

What I think we can say with confidence is that no president in living memory has attacked the sources of American strength and dynamism in the way that Trump already has done. In particular, his withdrawal from American global leadership and his sabotage of American scientific and technological pre-eminence — at precisely the moment we are vying with China for superiority in those areas — has no parallel.”

Paul Rosenzweig, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in the Department of Homeland Security under George W. Bush/ lecturer in law at George Washington University:

“The damage is permanent. Not because it cannot be fixed — it can be with effort. But rather because nobody will ever trust the United States again that something Trump-like won’t recur. Would you as a young person take a federal job today? Would you as a foreign student trust that you could attend university in the United States safely? Would you as a European government trust the United States to maintain the security of your secrets?

Trump was elected to enrich and protect Trump. That was his only motivation. On issues of direct concern (e.g., getting a plane as a gift from Qatar or profiting off cryptocurrency), he has views. Otherwise, he is an empty vessel.”

Is Trump laying the groundwork for a more autocratic form of government in the United States?

Robert Strong, a professor of political economy at Washington and Lee:

“I previously felt that the predictions of authoritarian government in the United States were exaggerated. The pace and scope of actions in the early months of Trump 2 have changed my assessment.

The levels of open corruption, the direct challenges to the rule of law, the assaults on institutions have been larger and more consequential than I expected. We are in a period of grave political peril.”

Russell Riley, a professor of ethics and co-chairman of the Miller Center’s presidential oral history program, took this view a step farther, noting that Trump explicitly dissociated himself from Project 2025 during the campaign and then, once in office, adopted much of the Project 2025:

“Any president seeking fundamental changes in our political system needs to be empowered by the American people to take on that challenge. This typically comes from two principal factors historically: (1) a resounding electoral victory based on (2) a clear program openly taken to the voters. Trump barely won the popular vote, with just under 50 percent — hardly an electoral mandate, even for an incremental program. Indeed, as a candidate, Mr. Trump openly distanced himself from Project 2025. Lacking both a clear mandate and an electorate explicitly supportive of Project 2025 means that the president is obligated to run that policy through the usual constitutional policy mills, respectful of the prerogatives of the legislature and the courts. That is not being done. A reliance on exceptional powers requires exceptional authorization. Normally a president may not mandate his own leadership.

Trump 1.0 & 2.0

By Connie Wilson

On May 2, 2025

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

I’ve been critical of the Trump presidency these last four years, and am still exhausted from the experience.

But to be fair, President Trump wasn’t that bad, other than when he incited an insurrection against the government,

Mismanaged a pandemic that killed over a million Americans,

Called neo-Nazis “very fine people,”

Separated children from their families,

Lost those children in the bureaucracy,

Tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church,

Tried to block all Muslims from entering the country,

Got impeached,

Got impeached again,

Had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history,

Pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden,

Fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia,

Bragged about firing the FBI director on TV,

Took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community,

Diverted military funding to build his wall,

Caused the longest government shutdown in US history,

Called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate,”

Lied over 30,000 times,

Banned transgender people from serving in the military,

Ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions,

Vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers,

Refused to release his tax returns,

Increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion,

Had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history,

Called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers,

Coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist,

Refused to concede the 2020 election,

Hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House,

Walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl,

Suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID,

Abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey,

Pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans,

Incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic,

Withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords,

Withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal,

Withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances,

Insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter,

Pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op,

Failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies,

Called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries,

Called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation,”

Claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere,

Forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader,

Believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,

Berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe,

Suggested the US should buy Greenland,

Colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices, after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges,

Repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people,”

Claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases,

Violated the emoluments clause,

Thought that Nambia was a country,

Told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public,

Called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p—y” for following the Constitution,

Nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet,

Nominated a corrupt head of the EPA,

Nominated a corrupt head of HHS,

Nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department,

Nominated a corrupt head of the USDA,

Praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies,

Refused to allow the presidential transition to begin,

Insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death,

Spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president,

Falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote,

Called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser,”

Falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year,

Considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions,

Mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID,

Locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones,

Used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus,”

Hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser,

Pardoned several of his shady associates,

Gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his bat shit crazy conspiracy theories,

Steve Bannon (Wikipedia photo).

Got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!),

Had a Secretary of State who called him a moron,

Forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history,

Botched the COVID vaccine rollout,

Tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him,

Charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties,

Constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate,

Claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear,

Called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas,”

Used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise,

Opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling,

Got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers,

Claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US,

Ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings,

Blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining,

Redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle,

Got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters,”

Threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution,

Botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico,

Threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them,

Pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes,

Thought that the Virgin islands had a President,

Drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane,

Allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing,

“The Christmas Cats Flee the Bee,” 6th book in the Christmas Cats series (www.TheXmasCats.com).

Rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos,

Pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID,

Rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers,

Held blatant campaign rallies at the White House,

Tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man,

Refused to attend his successors’ inauguration,

Nominated the worst Education Secretary in history,

Threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted,

Attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci,

Promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t),

Allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues,

Struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble,

Called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ,”

Threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders,

Went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic,

Claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,”

Seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution,

Demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director,

Praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles,

Completely gutted the Voice of America,

"The Christmas Cats Flee the Bee," sixth book in the Christmas Cats series (www.TheXmasCats.com).

Placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service,

Claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower,

Suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country,

Suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public,

Overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported,

Reduced the number of refugees the US accepts,

Insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames,

Gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address,

Named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties,

Eliminated the White House office of pandemic response,

Used soldiers as campaign props,

Fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him,

Demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade,

Hired a shit ton of white nationalists,

Politicized the civil service,

Did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government,

Falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts,

Claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won,

Insulted reporters of color,

Insulted women reporters, insulted women reporters of color,

Suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs,

“Bee Gone: A Political Parable”

Attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him,

Summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House, to pressure them to overturn the election,

Spent countless hours every day watching Fox News,

Refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas,

Hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer,

Tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him,

Acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney,

Attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault,

Held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present,

Didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media,

Stopped holding press briefings for months at a time,

“Ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power,

Led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform,

Claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers,

Tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course,

Suggested that the government nuke hurricanes,

Suggested that wind turbines cause cancer,

Said that he had a special aptitude for science,

Fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure,

Blurted out classified information to Russian officials,

Tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida,

Fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban,

Hired Stephen Miller,

Openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them,

Interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel,

Abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war,

Tried to get Russia back into the G7,

Held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden,

Seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive,

Lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated,

Falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t,

Shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies,

Still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan,

Still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks,”

Forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID,

Told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,”

Screwed up the Census wording,

Withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic,

Did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule: “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings,”

Allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act,

Seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican,

Stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win,

Constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president, (which presumably includes four that were assassinated, and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump),

Claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened,

Said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake,

Claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him,

Claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President,

Created a commission to whitewash American history,

Retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain,

Claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there,

Hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent “Bowling Green Massacre” as a reason to ban Muslims,

Had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others,

Bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties,

Apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House,

Stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians,

Falsely claimed Biden wanted to de-fund the police,

Said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about,

Tried to rescind protection from DREAMers,

Gave himself an A for his handling of the pandemic,

Tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax,

Said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states,

Deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented,

Claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln,

Touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile, which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile, or may not exist at all,

Retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile,

Forced through security clearances for his family,

Suggested that police officers should rough up suspects,

Suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs,

Tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender identification,

Suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher,

Nominated a climate change skeptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy,

Retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event,

Hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags,

Accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address,

Claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter,

because they were “spending too much time” on Russia,

Mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault,

Obsessed over low-flow toilets,

Ordered the re-release of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release,

Called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek),

Hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech,

Took advice from the MyPillow guy,

Claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists,

Said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure,

Never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign,

Falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent, though he, (himself), votes by mail.

Announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest,

Insulted the leader of Canada,

Insulted the leader of France,

Insulted the leader of Britain,

Insulted the leader of Germany,

Insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!),

Falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues,

Blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually,

Continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders,

Said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked,

Left a NATO summit early in a huff,

Stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that,

Called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary,

Refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise,

and a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment.

But other than that. . .

He was a great President

(by Alan Scott Helgeson)

The Goodbye Line: Say Hello!

By Connie Wilson

On May 1, 2025

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

The Goodbye Line

BACK STORY

Many years ago, when I was pondering writing a novel (before I actually wrote four of them) I had a “Eureka!” moment where I thought of what would be the perfect plot device. My nascent novel would feature a pay phone booth. It would follow the different people who used this pay phone booth. It seemed like a good idea at the time, although I never followed through with actually sitting down and thinking up a plot that would involve these fictional protagonists.

That book idea has died a grisly death. So have pay phone booths. A recent statistic informed me that just ten years ago each state had about 27,000 pay phones. Fast forward to 2025. The California Utilities Commission reported that as of March there are only 2,525 active pay phone units in California. Four hundred and eighty-four of these pay phones were located in Los Angeles County. In Los Angeles there are only 149 remaining pay phones. Out of those 149 pay phones in Los Angeles, only 20 were operative.

Pay phones have given way to cell phones and my novel idea has died with the changing times. But never fear. A couple of clever artists, Alexis Wood and Adam Trunell, came up with an idea far more creative than my novel idea: the Goodbye Line.

THE GOODBYE LINE

The pair—who are a romantic duo as well as a professional team (Wood is a documentary filmmaker)—have placed stickers on the phones that say, “Yes, this pay phone works” and have invited random individuals to use the phone free and leave a message. Their pitch: “Some day these will be gone, like me, you, and everyone else.” The message went on to invite passers-by to leave their (free) message “before it’s too late. Saying goodbye is such a part of life. It’s all us coming and going, coming and going. We all share that. And it makes it less lonely, less scary. Not that it makes it easier.”

Trunell, 46, and Wood, 37, emphasize that the Goodbye Line was not rooted in any sort of personal loss. But the calls have reduced Wood to tears, at times, and left the pair pondering how to intervene if the caller seems to be saying goodbye to life. One call, coming in from the Hollywood corner of Yucca Avenue and Wilcox Street, read: “Goodbye, Donny. You were my love from 2017 to a few years ago. But you died last year, and I didn’t know for a long time. It makes me very sad.”

Another caller voiced an emotional goodbye to her mother, who died when he was a teenager, saying, “You thought that I might kind of squander my education,” said the caller, recalling that their last conversation had been an argument about his grades. “I love you, and I miss you, and this has been a long overdue goodbye.” And he hung up.

ALEXIS WOOD & ADAM TRUNELL

The callers have the opportunity to state that they want their words kept private. Otherwise, Trunell and Wood transcribe the conversations and post them on Instagram and social media. Trunell says, “You kind of just walk into this and realize how all this feels. It just sort of happens. The reward is unexpected connections, and reminders of your own humanity. I’m worried about my folks dying, but I don’t think how it’s going to change me. This just feels like a very human project. It takes you out of whatever b.s. is going on.”

One particular phone booth, set along the Chaney Trail, produced calls from people (hikers) saying good-bye to their previously unfit selves and opening the door to their new svelte selves. There are, of course, some drunken calls. And, occasionally, there are disturbing calls, like the one that Wood describes: “It sounded like a kid, and it was a super brief message, and you don’t know if it’s serious or not.”

When asked what caused the two to start the Goodbye Line, Trunell said, “Initially, I wanted to hear people’s voices. I wanted a place where we would get to hear people saying things.”

A PERSONAL APPEAL

Call me. (Isn’t that a song?)

Me, too.

I recently wrote to my best friend (whom I had called, but not reached) and declared, “I NEED A PHONE FRIEND.” I grew up in the era of land lines. I like nothing better than a discussion about current events, politics, movies, or, really, anything. In today’s society (as a former phone friend informed me) all the ‘cool kids’ text. You are considered an oddity, a fossil, a freak if you’d like to actually TALK to someone.

And, of course, I don’t mean sharing health hurdles, but conversation with like-minded individuals who, ideally, share 50% of the duty of carrying the conversation on to a level that we both enjoy. One potential phone friend, my sister, never leaves her house, doesn’t own a car, and currently doesn’t have a driver’s license. She was perfect because she literally never goes anywhere. When you phone others, they are at work, or out shopping, or otherwise engaged (making dinner, reading, watching TV, etc.). Some of them have let me know that they just don’t have the time or inclination to be my “phone friend.” If I didn’t “get” that when it was articulated more than once, some have rattled frying pans or clinked glasses or otherwise let me know that I am bothering them and they are much too busy to be my phone friend.

That is sad, for me. And it is sad for humanity, because, as Adam Trunell said, I, too, wanted to hear people’s voices and other people’s opinions—probably why I went into journalism in the first place in 1963.

If you would like to be my “phone friend” and have time for a conversation on any topic of your choosing, send me a note (via e-mail) and let’s have at it. (I’m not close enough to California to find a pay phone and make a call and, besides, that would be a one-way encounter, which is not my intention.

My only sibling, I had to cross off my dance card. Perfect in so many ways (see above). But she interrupted repeatedly AND within five seconds.

I asked, politely, that she let me finish one short sentence. One of our first cousins had just died, unexpectedly. I had called to share this news. Despite asking politely that she not interrupt for five seconds to let me get that message out, it didn’t help. She said, instead, “If I don’t say what I’m thinking immediately when I’m thinking it, I won’t remember it later.” O…….K……

I gave up on her as a phone friend, a loss because she is, after all, my only sibling and, secondly, how many people do you know who never leave their house at all? (That would be none, for me). I finally had to point out that phones do work “both ways.” I moved on down the road. We haven’t spoken in months.

So, with the loss of the sole phone friend with plenty of time to talk, I am open to new phone friends, and I want to put that out there for anyone reading this who knows me. How would you reach me? Write me at Einnoc9876@gmail.com and we’ll figure it out.

And let me end this piece on the death of land lines (which work so much better without recharging) and pay phones with the words of Todd Martens, who wrote about the Goodbye Line in the Los Angeles Times. It’s a fascinating article and one that ends with this well-written paragraph: “An underlying thesis of the Goodbye Line: Its existence is a reminder of life’s impermanence. As much as it encourages us to say goodbye, it’s also a nudge to never stop picking up the phone to say hello.”

National Labor Relations Board Computer Data in Russia’s Hands

By Connie Wilson

On April 24, 2025

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

“A whistleblower told Congress and CNN that DOGE staffers secretly used Starlink (Musk’s satellite network) to export vast amounts of sensitive worker, union and employer data from the records of the National Labor Relations Board. Russian hackers then logged onto the NLRB’s computers, USING THE RIGHT PASSWORDS, the whistleblower said.”

Where does your mind go when you read this?

Do you wonder, as I did, “Gee. How did the Russian hackers KNOW THE PASSWORDS?”

Or do you say “Well, DJT is definitely in the tank for Putin. Everything he has done—nearly all of it very detrimental to our country in so many different ways—is something that Russian media is crowing about on their official television channel. ”

I could go on at great length about the damage to our country that has been visited upon us to date, but I don’t need to explain this to anyone with a functioning brain and the ability to “connect the dots.”

Think about the above and be afraid. Be very afraid.

And while I am pondering the horrors of being stuck in a kakistocracy (look it up), if you have, so far, been giving Donald J. Trump the benefit of MANY doubts and honestly do believe that he is acting in our country’s best interests and is treating the Presidency of the United States the way it should be treated—well, then you’re not really paying attention, so move long,.

Nothing to see here if you’ve drunk the Kool Aid.

“The Beguiling” Screens at SXSW on March 9, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On March 9, 2025

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

A United States Premiere of “The Beguiling,” a 15 and ½ minute short about native American Indians, premieres at SXSW Film and TV Festival Sunday, March 9, at the Rollins Theater at the Long Center. The shorts start at 9:45 and run until 11:30 p.m. A second showing will be held at the Alamo on South Lamar on March 13^th, Alamo Theater #9, 10:15 p.m. until 12:06 a.m. (Midnight Shorts Category).

The film, written and directed by Ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby, explores the romance between two young native Americans, portrayed by Benairin Kane as Billy and Kim Savarino as Riley. As the plot summary put it, “Deceit turns their romantic evening into a darkly comedic nightmare.”

Reviewer Alex Heeney (“Seventh Row”) said: “This horror-inflected film addresses some hard-to-discuss-without-stepping-in-it issues. Wait for the fantastic needle drop, which offers a lot to unpack..”

Attempting to address some of the plot points, without stepping in it, here is my unpacking.

SYNOPSIS

The plot summary might more accurately have described this short as being an investigation into the phenomenon of “Pretendians” or “self-Indigenizers,” people who are not of Indian ancestry misrepresenting themselves as Indian. If you don’t remember Senator Elizabeth Warren’s claims to have some native American ancestry, those remarks caused her to be belittled at Trump’s March 4^th Address to Congress (DJT’s “Pocahontas” jab. (Leave it to Donald J. Trump to attack a respected female United States Senator with what he apparently intended to be a racist jab.) That makes “The Beguiling” an even more timely topic.

PRETENDIANS

A New Yorker article by Jay Caspian Kang laid out the case of a Professor at Berkeley, Elizabeth Hoover, who rose quickly through academia based on her claimed Indian heritage. One observer, who described the woman as showing up at every faculty meeting to spend the entire meeting beading said, “It looked like an entire Etsy store had exploded on her.” So, “Pretendians” or “self-Indigenizers” are a fact of life if you are of native American Indian ancestry.

Hoover (one of many, it should be noted) ultimately released a “Letter of Apology and Accountability” for the “broken trust” that she had caused. She maintained that her deception was in no way intentional. She insisted that posing as native American was simply what she had been told about her heritage as a young child, ancestry which she had accepted without questioning it or investigating it more fully. Hoover’s public apology labeled “Identity Crisis” was released on March 4, 2024.

Therefore, the background for this 15-minute short has its roots in recent history. In the pre-Trump days, when diversity and inclusion mattered, sometimes it was advantageous (especially in academia) if a white person had Indian blood.

DENOUEMENT

“The Beguiling” at SXSW. (Photo by Shaandiin Tome)

In the lead-up to an emerging romantic tryst between Riley (Kim Savarino) and Billy (Benairin Kane) in “The Beguiling,” Riley bites Billy a bit too aggressively in the neck. Billy goes in search of a bandaid. What he finds while searching for a bandaid in Riley’s bathroom medicine drawer and cabinet makes him suspicious about Riley’s authenticity.

Is Riley trying to convince Billy she is “a real Indian” when she’s not? If so, why?

You’ll have to journey to the Midnight Shorts at SXSW for those answers.

COMEDY OR DRAMA?

The young lovers’ romantic tryst veered a bit off the romance trail and into thriller, drama and comic territory, merging all three. For me, with my sympathies heavily on the side of the Anishimabemowin natives, the short was another sobering moment in considering the injustices of early West settlement and colonization in this country. I’ve toured the Holocaust Museum in Skokie, Illinois. Nothing funny there on that Museum’s lower level, which is devoted to Indian interment camps in Canada where indigenous Indian youth were imprisoned and mistreated.

The still-emerging details make instances of whites mistreating American (or Canadian) Indians in more modern times a hard sell for humor, for me. Don’t get me started on the rest of history! I used to teach at Black Hawk Junior College. Looking back on our historical treatment of Indian tribes just makes me mad, much like the DJT speech remark on March 4^th, 2025 makes me both mad and sad. In other words, to me, it’s not “funny;” it’s just a continuing injustice that should be stopped and redressed. Historically, I’m with Marlon Brando on this (despite the unfortunate Sacheen Littlefeather Pretender incident at the 1973 Oscars.)

CONCLUSION

Writer/Director Ishkwaahe-shane-mcsauby of “The Beguiling” short at SXSW. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole).

The heavy-duty emphasis on native Indian history on “date night” (Which camp: Carlisle or Haskell? Genocide. Colonization. Wild rice /manoomin) made me wonder about Billy’s taste in women. Flirtation has definitely changed. In today’s America, I’m told, there are Big Discussions about party affiliation before a girl even accepts that date with the cute guy hitting on her. An interesting peek into how divided things have become in the United States of America. And it seems to be getting much, much worse. Hmmmm…I wonder what we can all do about that, as voters?

The synopsis asserted that the piece was “darkly comedic.” For me, the film leaned more heavily to the former (“Dark”) than the latter (“Comedic”). If anyone doubts the timeliness of the underlying debate about authenticity and the issue of dubious claims of native American Indian heritage, we need only direct them to rewatch the supposed Leader of the Free World (is he still?) baiting a female United States Senator Elizabeth Warren on live television (March 4^th, 2025), with a snide remark (“Pocahontas”) during a live Address to Congress. That was just a few short days ago. I’m still upset about it (so was Jimmy Kimmel on his March 5th monologue).

Let’s keep fighting for diversity and inclusion and fair and civilized treatment for all. This short has exposed one small example of exploitation of a minority amidst the cultural mosaic that is the United States of America. Let’s hope that by highlighting such injustices, they can be eradicated. “The Beguiling” calls this particular version of inequality out for what it is: wrong now, then, and forever. A good effort in the fight to restore dignity and equality for everyone by making the public more aware.

Justin Trudeau Addresses Tariffs on Canada on March 4, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On March 4, 2025

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

Canadian Primer Minister Justin Trudeau.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unleashed a historic speech scorching Donald Trump’s idiocy over his disastrous new tariffs: “This is a very dumb thing to do.”

“The United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time, they’re talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying murderous dictator,” began Trudeau.

“Make that make sense.”

Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico took effect today and the markets are in free fall. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has already plummeted 662 points after plunging 650 points on Monday. The S&P 500 lost 1.3% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.9%

The gullible fools who thought that Trump would be “good for the economy” have had the rug pulled out from under them in record time.

“Canadians are reasonable and we are polite,” Trudeau continued. “But we will not back down from a fight, not when our country and the well-being of everyone in it is at stake. At the moment, the U.S. tariffs came into effect in the early hours of this morning and so did the Canadian response.”

“Canada will be implementing 25% tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods starting with tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods immediately and tariffs on the remaining $125 billion of American products in twenty-one days time,” said Trudeau. “Our tariffs will remain in place until the U.S. tariffs are withdrawn and not a moment sooner.”

“And should these tariffs not cease, we are in active and ongoing discussions with provinces and territories to pursue several non-tariff measures, measures which will demonstrate that there are no winners in a trade war,” he threatened.

“Now just like I did a month ago, I want to speak first directly to the American people. We don’t want this,” said Trudeau. “We want to work with you as a friend and ally and we don’t want to see you hurt either.”

BEE GONE

“But your government has chosen to do this to you,” he stated bluntly. “As of this morning, markets are down and inflation is set to rise dramatically all across your country.”

“Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk at the thousands of workplaces that succeed because of materials from Canada or because of consumers in Canada or both,” he went on.

“They’ve chosen to raise costs for American consumers on everyday essential items like groceries and gas, on major purchases like cars and homes, and everything in between,” he continued.

“They’ve chosen to harm American national security, impeding access to the abundant critical minerals, energy, building materials, and fertilizers that we have and that the United States needs to grow and prosper,” he explained.

“They’ve chosen to launch a trade war that will first and foremost harm American families. They’ve chosen to sabotage their own agenda that was supposed to usher in a new ‘Golden Age’ for the United States,” said Trudeau, taking a direct shot at MAGA’s latest inane rhetoric.

“And they’ve chosen to undermine the incredible work that we’ve done together to tackle the scourge that is fentanyl, a drug that must be wiped from the face of the Earth,” he added. “So on that point, let me be crystal clear. There is absolutely no justification or need whatsoever for these tariffs today.”

Trudeau then shifted gears to go after Donald Trump directly, the clueless mastermind behind this entire disaster—

“Now I want to speak directly to one specific American: Donald. In the over eight years you and I have worked together, we’ve done big things,” said Trudeau, appealing to Trump’s ego.

“We signed a historic deal that has created record jobs and growth in both of our countries. We’ve done big things together on the world stage as Canada and the U.S. have done together for decades, for generations,” he continued. “And now we should be working together to ensure even greater prosperity for North Americans in a very uncertain and challenging world.”

“Now, it’s not in my habit to agree with The Wall Street Journal but Donald, they point out that even though you’re a very smart guy this is a very dumb thing to do. We two friends fighting is exactly what our opponents around the world want to see,” said Trudeau.

“And now to my fellow Canadians: I won’t sugarcoat it. This is going to be tough even though we’re all going to pull together because that’s what we do,” he added. “We will use every tool at our disposal so Canadian workers and businesses can weather this storm.”

(*A last-minute exchange on Trump’s Truth Social Network suggests that Trump might now use this 25% tariff, scheduled to go into effect on March 5th, as a bullying tactic against Canada, much as he used the threat of discontinuing Ukrainian military aid to extract a promise from that war-torn country to hand over precious minerals to the U.S.

CNN called Trump’s threats “a game of economic chicken.”

Trump sees everything in terms of money and power and will use any means to seize and hold both, even if it means abandoning moral principles our country has espoused for many

generations, such as USAID. To put it in simpler terms, DJT finds the far-right groups easier to manipulate, since they will blindly follow a figurehead without thinking through that Talking Head’s positions to determine if they are really advantageous to them, personally. DJT and Elon Musk are overthrowing the traditional values of free speech (and, soon, free elections) because a “free” election might throw them out of power. And, as mentioned, DJT is all about seizing and maintaining their power and wealth. There is no morality to thinking this way, but, then, we’re talking about a man not known for his morality or his compassion or his concern for anyone but Donald J. Trump.

We are talking about a man who is squandering our (former) position as the Leader of the Free World. The message to the world is that the U.S. cannot be counted on. This is not about DJT. This is about the American people and DJT is not keeping the American people (and America) safe on any level.)

A.I. Analyzes the 2/28/2025 Meeting Between Trump & Zelenskyy

By Connie Wilson

On March 2, 2025

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

An intriguing analysis has been circulating online regarding the psychological aspects of Zelensky’s meeting with Trump and Vance, conducted using ChatGPT.

From this analysis, it becomes evident that we have witnessed a true masterclass in gaslighting, manipulation, and coercion on the part of Trump and his entourage.

Let’s break down the key points:

1. Blaming the victim for their own situation

Trump explicitly tells Zelensky: “You have allowed yourself to be in a very bad position.” This is classic abuser rhetoric—blaming the victim for their suffering. The implication is that Ukraine itself is responsible for being occupied by Russia and for the deaths of its people.

2. Pressure and coercion into ‘gratitude’

Vance demands that Zelensky say “thank you.” This is an extremely toxic tactic—forcing the victim to express gratitude for the help they desperately need, only to later accuse them of ingratitude if they attempt to assert their rights. (Zelenskyy had actually expressed gratitude to the U.S. at least 33 times.)

3. Manipulating the concept of ‘peace’

Trump claims that Zelensky is “not ready for peace.” However, what he actually means is Ukraine’s capitulation. This is a classic manipulation technique—substituting the idea of a just peace with the notion of surrender.

4. Refusing to acknowledge the reality of war

Trump repeatedly insists that Zelensky has “no cards to play” and that “without us, you have nothing.” This is yet another abusive tactic—undermining the victim’s efforts by asserting that they are powerless without the mercy of their ‘saviour.’

5. Devaluing the victims of war

“If you get a ceasefire, you must accept it so that bullets stop flying and your people stop dying,” Trump says. Yet, he ignores the fact that a ceasefire without guarantees is merely an opportunity for Russia to regroup and strike again.

6. Dominance tactics

Trump constantly interrupts Zelensky, cutting him off: “No, no, you’ve already said enough,” and “You’re not in a position to dictate to us.” This is deliberate psychological pressure designed to establish a hierarchy in which Zelenskyy is the subordinate.

7. Forcing capitulation under the guise of ‘diplomacy’

Vance asserts that “the path to peace lies through diplomacy.” This is a classic strategy where the aggressor is given the opportunity to continue their aggression unchallenged.

8. Projection and distortion of reality

Trump declares: “You are playing with the lives of millions of people.” Yet, in reality, it is he who is doing exactly that—shifting responsibility onto Zelenskyy.

9. Creating the illusion that Ukraine ‘owes’ the US

Yes, the US is assisting Ukraine, but presenting this aid as “you must obey, or you will receive nothing” is not a partnership—it is financial and military coercion. It was similar coercion during a phone call between the two men (DJT asking Zelenskyy to investigate the Bidens) that led to Trump’s first impeachment. A notoriously thin-skinned man, he has not forgotten this snub and the set-up on 2/28 reflected that.

10. Undermining Ukraine’s resistance

Trump states that “if it weren’t for our weapons, this war would have ended in two weeks.” This is an attempt to erase Ukraine’s achievements and portray its efforts as entirely dependent on US support.

Conclusion

Trump and his team employed the full spectrum of abusive tactics: gaslighting, victim-blaming, coercion into gratitude, and manipulation of the concepts of peace and diplomacy. This was not a negotiation—it was an attempt to force Zelenskyy into accepting terms beneficial to Russia but potentially fatal for Ukraine. (Who negotiates peace without inviting both warring parties to the table?) No less a GOP voice than former Security Advisor and Ambassador Susan Rice immediately called out the embarrassing display for what it was: a set-up intended to “get even” with Zelenskyy for not submitting to DJT’s wishes at every turn and a backing of his favorite strongman, Putin.

All of what has been happening makes perfect sense if we remember that Russia has been “stroking” Trump in an attempt to convert him to a Russian asset for years. It seems to have worked better than Vladimir Putin could have imagined. Now the oligarchs will divide up the wealth and go about their business, completely ignoring the average citizen, for whom Trump seems to have absolute contempt, since he lied to all of us repeatedly. (How do you feel about your grocery bills now that eggs and beef are more valuable than some precious gems?)

I have some small hope that all of the destruction we have seen being inflicted on all institutions can be reversed, but it will take years. This is one of the few times that I honestly am grateful that I am not going to be around for decades to see all the hard work that it is going to take to UNdo the damage Trump is doing. I came in on JFK, campaigning for him as a high school girl (not old enough to vote). Now I will probably go out on Trump and his band of corrupt cronies. I’ll be bringing out my hopeful feelings of 2008 (expressed in my 2 volumes “Obama’s Odyssey: The 2008 Race for the White House”) when we elected a decent, intelligent, compassionate man President. And now we have Trump. From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Feb. 28, 2025: Democracy in Peril

By Connie Wilson

On February 28, 2025

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

There are moments in history where you can feel the tectonic plates of power shifting under your feet, the precise seconds when empires declare themselves rotten and ready to collapse. February 28, 2025, was one of those moments—a grotesque display of unchecked narcissism, geopolitical idiocy, and the full-throttle transformation of American foreign policy into a Mafia shakedown.

Donald Trump, the world’s loudest and dumbest charlatan, decided to hold a public execution of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not with bullets, but with bullying. This was not diplomacy. This was not strategy. This was the kind of goonish humiliation typically reserved for reality television, except now the stakes were measured in millions of lives and the looming specter of World War III.

“YOU’RE GAMBLING WITH WORLD WAR III”

Trump—flanked by his yes-man JD Vance and an eerily silent Marco Rubio—welcomed Zelenskyy to the Oval Office only to berate, belittle, and ultimately dismiss him like a waiter who forgot to refill his Diet Coke. The Ukrainian president had made the grave mistake of advocating for his people, for his country, for his soldiers dying daily on the front lines against Russian invaders. But in Trump’s world, there is no room for dignity or resistance—only total submission to the Don.

“You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump barked at Zelenskyy, acting like a discount Tony Soprano shaking down a local shopkeeper. “You either make a deal, or we are out.” The message was crystal clear: Surrender to Putin, or America lets you rot.

When Zelenskyy pushed back—trying to explain, like a rational human being, that diplomacy requires more than rolling over and exposing your belly to a psychotic autocrat like Vladimir Putin—Vance chimed in, whining that it was “disrespectful” to discuss such things in front of the American media. Disrespectful! As if the real problem here was the optics, not the grotesque moral betrayal unfolding in real time. One might ask if J.D. was, indeed, brought in on purpose to “poke the bear.” Susan Rice, “W’s” Ambassador and advisor, certainly felt that Zelinskyy was set up.

TRUMP’S FIXATION WITH GRATITUDE: A MOB BOSS DEMANDING TRIBUTE

“Have you ever said thank you once?” Vance sneered at Zelenskyy, echoing his master’s worldview that all human interactions are transactional (By actual count, Zelenskyy has thanked the United States publicly at least 33 times.)

“You have to be thankful,” Trump added, “you don’t have the cards. You’re buried there.” (Zelenskyy responded, sotto voce, “I’m not playing cards.”)

This is what American diplomacy has become: an extortion racket.

Forget alliances, forget history, forget standing up to despots—Trump views everything through the lens of a cheap con artist running a rigged casino. Ukraine, in his mind, is a desperate gambler, and Trump is the pit boss deciding whether to extend another round of credit.

If Zelenskyy had gotten on his knees and kissed Trump’s golden slippers, maybe he’d have left with something. But instead, he left with nothing, because he had the audacity to act like the elected leader of a sovereign nation, rather than a groveling servant.

THE CANCELED PRESS CONFERENCE: WHEN THE HUMILIATION IS TOO MUCH TO SPIN

After the carnage, Trump did what he always does: He took to Truth Social to declare victory.

“I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace,” he wrote, as if the real issue is Ukraine’s unwillingness to surrender, rather than Russia’s ongoing campaign of war crimes and territorial theft.

The joint press conference was canceled—which in diplomatic terms is the equivalent of overturning the table and storming out of the restaurant. Zelenskyy was seen leaving the White House, no deal signed, no support secured. Just the bitter taste of betrayal in his mouth.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian ambassador literally face-palmed in the middle of the meeting. She couldn’t even hide her disgust. This was the international equivalent of watching your boss drunkenly scream at a client in a meeting while you rub your temples and quietly plan your resignation.

TRUMP’S ‘PEACE’ PLAN IS A SURRENDER PLAN

This is all part of a deliberate pivot in American foreign policy. Trump has always sided with Russia, whether it’s calling Putin “a very smart guy,” ignoring his war crimes, or pretending Ukraine started the war. Now, his administration is pushing a so-called “peace plan” that amounts to a glorified land grab for Moscow.

The Wall Street Journal has already reported that Trump’s advisers are split on how exactly to force Ukraine to submit. Some want a “frozen conflict”—which translates to “Russia keeps what it stole”—while others are pushing for a formal deal that outright cedes Ukrainian land and resources to Putin. Either way, the outcome is the same: Ukraine loses, Russia wins, and Trump gets to preen about his ‘deal-making.’

THE DEATH OF AMERICA’S WORD

The entire world saw this Oval Office debacle. If you’re an ally of the United States, you just learned a very clear lesson: You cannot trust America under Donald Trump. Your security, your sovereignty, and your survival are all secondary to whether Trump personally feels flattered. If you are not groveling at his feet, you’re expendable. And this very small man will always seek to “get even” with those he believes, rightly or wrongly, have not sided with him. Trump is still mad at Zelenskyy for failing to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden when asked during the 2020 election. Just as he is still honked off over his loss of a Trump hotel to a Marriott in the Panama Canal Zone.

Meanwhile, Putin is watching. And he’s grinning. Because now he knows that Trump will do his dirty work for him. All that stroking of DJT and the money spent on his elections has provided a Russian asset who would sell his soul for money. Now, it is U.S. citizenships for wealthy Russian oligarchs that he is planning on peddling next.

Zelenskyy was just the first ally to be fed to the wolves. He won’t be the last.

Welcome to America, 2025. This is what losing everything looks like.