Category: Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology Page 1 of 19

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From Substack: This Will Hold

By Connie Wilson

On October 29, 2025

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

Breaking the American Spirit: Trump’s Recreational Depravity Has An Agenda

To Christian Nationalists, Even Hitler Was Forgiven

This Will Hold

Oct 29

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:

Watching in horror as a corrupt Supreme Court legitimized race as a factor to remove Black and Brown people from our streets.
Knowing that Democrats signed off on the Laken Riley Act with human rights violations baked in—now we question all politicians.
Trump canceling 94 million pounds of food aid to our food banks in the spring.
A looming SNAP halt that will hit over 40 million households, even as a $5 billion surplus sits unused—money we know will not be spent to feed families this Thanksgiving.
Rural schools hurting after DOE cuts, as vouchers go to the wealthy.
Food borne illnesses on the rise as RFK Jr. guts the agencies that protect the public—literally killing people.
The Medicaid cuts we know are coming as the wealthy continue to fiscally rape the working class.
Sexual assault protections rolled back—for women in the military, on college campuses, and in corporations that choose to embrace Trump and Hegseth’s pre–women’s rights mindset.
Military bases renamed after Confederate traitors, using random soldiers with matching names to stoke racial division.
Funding slashed for HBCUs and for health research programs serving Black women—a reminder that no matter the progress, it can always be snatched away. The boot will always be on the neck. There can never be trust. Ever.
Jackie Kennedy’s Rose Garden ripped out for a tacky patio to host criminals and pedophiles.
The East Wing of the people’s White House reduced to rubble for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom for a puny little man who can’t even dance.

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.

Important Message from Professor Emeritus Dr. James Greenberg

By Connie Wilson

On September 26, 2025

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

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

James Greenberg

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

LIKE RUSSIA

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

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

LEGAL SYSTEM TRUST

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

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

COMEY CASE

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

POLITICAL ECOLOGY

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

TRUMP ACCELERATES DECAY

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

ASSAULT ON THE JUDICIARY

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

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

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

McCARTHY ERA

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

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

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

Printers’ Row on Saturday & Sunday, 9/6 and 9/7/2025

By Connie Wilson

On September 8, 2025

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

Printers’ Row on 9/6, Saturday.

Today was the final day of Printers’ Row 2025.

It is the third largest outdoor book sales event in the United States. I’ve done Printers’ Row at least 5 times, always with limited success, because the expense to participate is substantial and most of the other vendors are offering books for as low as $5. If you bring the book you worked on for years to the table and try to charge the price listed on it, good luck to you.

Also, if you drive down and park, it costs a bundle. Buying something to eat while present for 8 hours in the streets of Chicago is also a fairly pricey proposition.

I think the cost to be present at the Illinois Association of Penwomen booth this year was $145 for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and $135 for the same 8 hours on Sunday, which would be a total of $280 to be present for 16 hours in the streets of Chicago for the two days. If you bought the 2 days, all day, the price was lowered to $250, I was told, when I asked to be reminded today. (Yikes!)

The other problem I have is that I find it extremely taxing to spend a full 8 hours in the streets of Chicago, outside. I am not a morning person. Getting set up by 10 a.m. is bad enough. What I used to do was split the 8 hours with a second writer, taking the 2 to 6 p.m. shift myself and letting the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift go to another writer who found the price tag for the full day rather high, as I do, and perhaps didn’t also want to spend 8 hours in the streets of Chicago (4 hours is about my limit). Cancer treatments from December of 2021 and on through 2023 definitely stopped me from participating those years. Last year (2024) I was still in Texas following our annual Family Fest over Labor Day. This year, we planned to exit Austin (Tx) in time to fly to Chicago on Thursday so I could participate on the following Saturday and Sunday. But it sounded like a lot; it is and it was.

My organization, which I have been a member of since 2002, routinely has a tented booth in a great location, but up until now they only allowed you to purchase an entire day, You could then split the 8 hour day with another interested writer—if you could find one. That is what I have done every other year I have participated.

But the number of published writers from the Quad Cities who were ever interested in participating has bottomed out from zero to minus zero. I could never talk my friend David Dorris into participating in Chicago and he is now deceased. The entire event used to be held in June on the same day as Sean Leary’s birthday, so no dice there ever, despite several overtures to Sean.

Sometimes, I would find a Chicago writer—usually a total stranger—who wanted to split the 8 hours (and the fees) but driving 7 hours for meetings of the group has not been easy and my primary participation hs been selling my books at Printers’ Row. (Although I did serve as the official photographer at the national convention in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2019.)

So, this year, I bit and paid the freight for two days of sales, primarily for the collegiality and community of participating. Art & Sue Brauer always do a bang-up job of setting up the tent, (BIG THANKS to both of them). I tried setting up a table by myself one year, a year that it rained non-stop. That was totally miserable. Pam, my college roommmate, and I spent much of the time huddled inside the Dearborn Station, which was then a restaurant site, which I think may have closed.

There was one year that we had a mini-tornado and our booth nearly blew away! Doing the entire 8 hours in the sun if you did not have a tented canopy was also grim. It is necessary to have a canopied tent in case it rains (as it did my first year) or the weather is truly hot. Today was 66 degrees, cool in the shade, and there was a 25 to 30 mph wind. I took 2 coats. For most of the day, I wore both of the lightweight jackets.

I roused myself on Saturday to make it to the booth by 10 a.m. pulling my weighty books. I was there until 20 minutes before closing at 6 p.m.. I knew my BEE GONE book with Trump’s visage on the cover would draw attention, and it sure did! I started out with about 50 books and tonight I have 5 left. They were not a pricey purchase ($10); that was also a good thing.

I even sold a couple of sets of “Obama’s Odyssey: The 2008 Race to the White House” , one set to a woman about my age who had worked for the Obama campaign. We shared our feeling of optimism when the United States elected its first Black president and how much we miss him now. I hope she enjoys the books.

I knew that, with troops massing on the edge of Chicago, a book with BEE GONE and DJT’s face on it would be a hit, and it was. It is a unique book. The illustrations by Gary McCluskey are Top Notch. The sentiment on the streets of Chicago was definitely not pro Trump today or yesterday.

I have heard that, next year, the PTB may decide to sell the days in halves, which would be good news for someone who spent 2 years doctoring for cancer and turned eighty this summer. Eight hours in the streets of Chicago is still a tall order. I get tired (and bored) after 4 hours. I came home both days, took a hot bath, and had a lengthy nap. I did not have enough energy to go out to eat either day, but ate food we had picked up at the grocery store on Friday. I also hosted my nephew Chris and his son Owen, who wanted to go to a baseball game, so the condo got some real use this weekend.

I did better this year than in any previous year. My little BEE GONE book seems to have made an impression. Someone said to me that he thought the book had had “national attention.” Not that I know of, although I did my best to get it into the hands of Seth Meyer when he played Chicago for his TV special. I also negotiated with the Biden campaign, getting to the right people to have a conversation just prior to Joe Biden’s run against Trump. The campaign intended to use the e-book as a reward for Democratic donors, but the pandemic moved the needle to facemasks, instead.

I also traded a film review for the e-mail contacts of people working behind-the-scenes for some of the late-night talk shows that Trump is now doing his best to get canceled (Stephen Colbert, anyone?). When Trump won the election (over Hillary) neither Facebook nor Amazon allowed me to advertise the book unless I changed the cover, which I refused to do, so my small protest against Trump 1.0 has languished ever since. Maybe it will live to fight again?

I feel like I worked very hard today and yesterday, even though, today, I did not show up until 1 p.m. I closed down the entire open air festival at 6 p.m., one of the last to pack up my old kit bag and leave. I did not completely sell out all of my books, but I did have to scavenge books from my book shelf in the condo in order to have some to sell today.

Printers’ Row on Sunday, 9/7/2025.

Did I make any money? Well, I used the Square successfully, which, in itself, was a Small Miracle. It showed about $200 of sales, which, obviously, would not be “a killing” if I paid $250 to be present. There were other cash sales. I spent zero dollars on parking, as my spouse kindly consented to drop me off and pick me up, and, as per usual, I packed a sandwich, some pop, and an apple for an economical lunch.

Selling books in the streets of Chicago is interesting, however. I met some lovely folks who applauded my continuing efforts to underscore the need to oppose DJT and I sold quite a few of the actual children’s book that inspired BEE GONE, which was intended for my granddaughters, initially, via Ingram Spark Publishing, the sixth in “The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats” series.

Check out the other five books in the six-book series at www.ConnieCWilson.com.

Kyle Langford Poses Outside Auschwitz in GOP Run for California Governor

By Connie Wilson

On August 13, 2025

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

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

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

By Connie Wilson

On August 8, 2025

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

By William Falk, Editor, “The Week”

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

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

Attorney General Pam Bondi.

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

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

FBI Director Kash Patel.

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

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

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

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

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

And so it goes.

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

Emil Bova: Another DJT Tool to Take Over

By Connie Wilson

On July 29, 2025

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

Emil Bova,

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

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

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

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

Jeffrey Toobin

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

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

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

By Connie Wilson

On July 26, 2025

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

Francis Ford Coppola in Chicago

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More random topics to follow in further posts.

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

Let the games continue!

The Experts Weigh In On Stephen Colbert’s Firing

By Connie Wilson

On July 20, 2025

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

Stephen Colbert.

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

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

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

Merrill Markoe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FBI Told to Erase All Mention of Trump in Epstein Documents

By Connie Wilson

On July 18, 2025

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

Donald J. Trump & Ghislaine Maxwell.

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

And it gets so much worse…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Durbin concluded by asked for answers by August 1st.

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

The American people deserve the truth.

FBI Agent Says FBI Is Being Destroyed From Within

By Connie Wilson

On July 18, 2025

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

David Frum (“The Atlantic”)

From David Frum’s podcast entitled “The Wrecking of the FBI,” sub-titled “How President Donald Trump is destroying U.S. counter-intelligence from the inside, published in “The Atlantic” on July 16th comes a disturbing picture of the FBI in Trump 2.0. The interview lasted an hour (and can potentially be heard in its entirety on YouTube.) This is only a small segment, with editorial comments.

Frum was a speechwriter for George H Bush who coined the term “axis of evil” and a stalwart in the neo-Conservative movement from Reagan through McCain. In 2016, Frum announced that he was voting for Hillary Clinton and subsequently became one of the founding members of the No Labels movement and a Never Trumper. He is now an Editor at “The Atlantic” and also has a podcast.

Summarized below are some snippets from the interview with former FBI counter-intelligence officer Peter Strzok. As someone who has actually been inside the FBI offices in New York City (as part of a Book Expo America presentation for writers of crime fiction), the entire interview is informative and absolutely terrifying in its implications. It makes me even more convinced that those born when I was born (Baby Boomers) have gotten the best this country has to offer, whether that means weather, salaries, progress towards equality for all, leadership, or, as in this interview, a competent FBI protecting United States citizens.

The interview led off by admitting that the FBI of the past had some notable excesses, especially under J. Edgar Hoover, as when he pursued Martin Luther King or during the McCarthy Era hearings of the 50s. However, in the 70s, safeguards were put in place, which Frum enumerates. Whether any of those guidelines and rule changes are being adhered to by the current Trump 2.0 group, which seems to feel that no set of rules (including the Constitution) applies to them, is a relevant question. And one that the interview answers with a negative slant. These appointees who are spectacularly ill-suited for their job(s) need to be relieved of their positions, whether as Secretary of Defense or as the non-medical person causing measles to come back with a vengeance. (And there are many more…too many to list them all. In fact, during the interview, Strzok did discuss the “play acting” that people like Kristi Noem seem intent on displaying, dressing up in outfits and sharing all with social media—even if what is shared is inaccurate or an outright lie,)

You won’t sleep well at night if you listen to the entire interview…and this is only about 10% of the interview’s content.

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok.

Strzok: “All of those people you see having these different sorts of formal and informal pressure placed upon them to move them out of the way, either by resignation, retirement, firing whatever the case may be,” said Peter Strzok, former FBI counter-intelligence officer, currently involved in two lawsuits against the Department of Justice for unfair firing (much like the daughter of James Comey, Maurene Comey).

Strzok was interviewed by David Frum, the 65-year-old Editor of the “Atlantic” on July 16th on his podcast, and the news from behind-the-scenes on the current state of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is not encouraging. Strzok sketched an agency that has lost its experts and is promoting totally unqualified people into top positions, people who Strzok says are unqualified, lazy and have no idea what they are doing.

David Frum: This question from Frum made me laugh (and then it made me cry): “The special genius of Kash Patel is he just doesn’t care. He has no regard for the FBI as an institution. No, I mean, if we say there’s a special Nobel Prize for Bobby Kennedy Jr. as maybe the worst Cabinet secretary, not just of this administration but of all time, the most inappropriate, the most “who shouldn’t have the job,” Kash Patel may not quite match a pro-polio secretary of Health and Human Services, but he’s an honorable mention, right?” (And let’s not forget Patel’s truly Crazy Eyes!) Trying to pick the most tragically unqualified among the Trump appointees is difficult, since 90% are so inept. (I had a few moments where I thought Marco Rubio might acquit himself with honor, but those moments passed.) We are now a kakistocracy.

Strzok responded: “And it’s not only malevolence and lack of care; it’s also lack of competence.” He went on to say, “Clearly Donald Trump is the motivating force and at the FBI, it’s Kash Patel and to a certain extent Dan Bongino who are motive force, but there are people around them who are taking care of the particulars or informing them of the particulars to be acted on. But for Kash, it’s not just a lack of caring; it’s an utter lack of knowledge.”

Oh, good. A Know-Nothing is calling the shots at the FBI.

How does that stack up with the mission to keep our country safe that the FBI faces?

Strzok: “There are not enough FBI agents and analysts and investigators to counter all the threats of terrorism, counterintelligence, white-collar crime, public corruption, gangs—all of it. You name it, there’s not enough. So it is very much, one, you’re having to prioritize which threats you do work, and it is essentially very much a zero-sum game. If you take people off of one topic, you’re putting them on another, but you’re losing somewhere else…Look—if we move these people to work immigration, you’ve got to understand we’re going to not be working on this or not be working on that, and your exposure and your threat in those areas, your call at the end of the day, but if you do this, this is the cost that you’re gonna have to pay in the way that trickles out down the line.”

Oh. Great, (she said sarcastically.) So, with Iran mad as a wet hen about our bombing of their nuclear facilities, the FBI is not fully staffed and not totally on alert for terrorist actions aimed at U.S. cities and U.S. citizens?

Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic book cover by David Frum

Frum soldiered on, asking the question we should all be asking about all of the agencies that DOGE and DJT have attacked and attempted to destroy. “What is the state of our counterintelligence facilities? There are a lot of reports that suggest there have been important resignations, that there are less qualified people running counter-terrorism. How does that look to you?”

Strzok: “Well, I think there is very much a greater vulnerability than there was prior to Kash Patel showing up…The people who arrive, traditionally, at the senior level of the organizations have gone through a variety of assignments, both in the field as an investigator, as well as at headquarters doing a variety of things to gain expertise, to run larger programs, to interact with the inter-agency community and to understand, say, you’re a counter-terrorism agent.”

As you can imagine, this former counter-intelligence agent thinks the current crop of agents is woefully under-prepared and, on top of that, they may be lazy. (That rumor has actually gained credence with Bongino, the former podcaster, complaining about how “hard” the job is.)

Strzok: “I don’t want to turn this into a gripe session about the senior management of the FBI—Dan Bongino goes on Fox News and he acts astonished that everything we face is a 10 out 10, like the nines out 10, we don’t even hear about. And says ‘I barely get home to see my wife and it’s like we’re divorced.’ Dude, what the hell do you think has been going on for the past 20, 30, 40 years by all the people at the FBI and you’ve been on the job for five minutes and you’re complaining?” (Italics Frum’s).

Strzok: “Yeah, and I think they’re fundamentally lazy, and I’m talking about Kash Patel and Dan Bongino. I think Kash Patel has spent the entirety of his life cozying up to political figures that he could hitch his wagon to, whether it’s Devin Nunes and then Donald Trump and otherwise selling God knows what on various podcasts, whether it’s, you know, things that are not of substantive value.”

Buttressing the basic argument that the current crop of agents may not be the most qualified or experienced is this further Strzok quote: “And so by the time it gets to the point where you’re on that senior staff advising the director and deputy director what to do, you’ve had probably 20 years of various experience learning this and doing this. Well, when you come in with purges, and you’re Patel and Bongino and trying to get rid of everybody so you can bring in (loyalist) people…The deputy director of the FBI traditionally has always been an agent—Dan Bongino is the first in memory who isn’t—who has a deep understanding of how the bureau works and an accomplished track record within that organization.”

BEE GONE book by Connie Wilson

So, who’s minding the FBI store?

Strzok: “We are supporting in many ways Israeli efforts against Iran—that when it comes to a potential Iranian response, whether that’s through proxies, whether they have sleeper personnel here, whether they have visitors capable of coming into the United States, whether they have established capabilities out of the Iranian intersection or the mission to the UN. The people who know that, the people who are on the street who have that knowledge, one, at a senior level may be gone; two, at a street level, may have gotten pulled to go work elsewhere (and declined a reposting to Alabama, in Frum’s example).”

The expertise drain, either through re-settlement as a form of firing, or by actual firing of qualified agents (see the Maureen Comey story this week) is hurting the FBI.

Strzok: “Part of what you do is, there’s a continuum of that sort of lesson as a baby investigator, as a probationary agent learning to understand what things are worth doing and what things are kind of spinning your wheels.”

But things are improving, right? We don’t have to lose sleep at night about the FBI being completely ineffectual?

Strzok: “And the problem is: If you don’t have that expertise, you are going to tend to flail. And if you’ve gotten rid of all the other people who can act as sort of wise consiglieres to tell you, Look, boss—it sounds bad, but this really is probably not what we should be focusing on. Let whoever run this out. Here are the things that you really need to focus on. Those people, those voices don’t exist anymore. And there’s only so much you can do to reach down and pluck somebody up—again, there are a lot of really great agents and analysts, but they just, they don’t have that benefit. You can’t suddenly bestow on somebody an extra five years of senior experience. You can’t do that.”

scales of justice

“All of those things are going on. And so when you say we’re going to take 30 percent of our workforce and move it over to rounding up immigrants, not even violent immigrants—we’re just going to round up immigrants so we can get our numbers up—those people come, not entirely, but one of the places they come from are all those folks who are doing it. So not only do you have,,, a brain drain, particularly at a senior level of people who are getting forced out because a lot of them, by the way, senior counterintelligence people happen to be involved with the investigation of Donald Trump allegedly maintaining illegally classified documents at his place at Mar-a-Lago but you have any number of people who were in some way, shape, or form looking at combating foreign influence in our elections.”

“And so whether it was 2016, whether it was things like the Hunter Biden laptop, perhaps it was whether or not the Chinese were or weren’t trying to influence our election, the people who had the expertise and knowledge to do that are getting forced out. Units are getting disbanded. In the case of foreign influence, there’s an entire task force that was disbanded with a corresponding set of folks at DOJ reportedly that were all reassigned somewhere else. And so you’ve got both expertise loss, and on the ground you’ve got investigative-manpower loss. And so those things, there’s no question in my mind that we are more vulnerable than we were.”