Category: Of Local (Quad Cities’) Interest Page 2 of 60

The category is self-explanatory, but it would include new or old businesses, political elections, trends, restaurants in town, entertainment in town, etc.

“11:11” Screens at Holly Shorts Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On July 30, 2025

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

Jasmine (Mahaela Park) and Noori (Tara Raani) in “11:11.”

Mahnoor Euceph wrote and directed the short (15:27 mins.) “11:11”that will screen at the HollyShorts Festival from August 7^th to the 17^th in Hollywood, California. [Among those listed as Executive Producer for the film was Cate Blanchett].

The short follows a 9^th grade Pakistani Muslim girl Noori as she moves to Palos Verdes, California in 2009 and attempts to assimilate into the culture of her new homeland and her new school (Palos Verdes High School). Noori didn’t even realize that she had brown skin until 3^rd grade, but that fact is driven home to her in America by the locals. Like every teenager, Noor wants to fit in and she wants to be popular, as she was back in Pakistan. That universal urge is what is ably dissected in this 15 minute short.

HIGH SCHOOL CLIQUES

The short opens with Noori describing the various cliques that exist in the school. She has categorized them as The Culture Vultures, who are obsessed with all things Bollywood; the Future Overreaching Billionaires, or FOBs; the Halal Harami, who spend their time sinning and praying for forgiveness; the Coconuts, who hate brown food and love indie rock; and the Race Traitors, who spend their time making fun of their own kind, only speaking of their race to diss those like themselves.

Jeff Benesh (Caiden Falstrup-finny).

As we learn during an Art History class—Jeff Benesh is the BMOC, who only dates white girls and apparently doesn’t even seem to know that Noori is alive (as kids say in the U.S.). But Noori has had a crush on Jeff. Noori’s best friend Jasmine (Mahaela Park) shares with Noori that Jeff likes someone in their Art History class. Jasmine prints out a note asking Jeff if that person in the class that he likes is Noori. When Jeff reads the note, he gives it back to Noori, saying, “You’re not my type.”

Cold, heartless, but very real.

“FREAKY FRIDAY” SPIN-OFF

Noori (Tara Raani) and her blonde alter ego (Taylor Geare) during the Freaky Friday-like switch,

Noori and her blonde version (Taylor Geare) as the “change” after the wish takes place.

At this point, the film becomes derivative of “Freaky Friday” (and the soon-to-be released “Freakier Friday”) where, by wishing she looked more like Jeff’s type, Noori actually finds that her skin has lightened and her hair has turned blonde. The actress portraying Jeff’s blonde type is played by Taylor Geare, who gives her name as “Rooni,” when asked her name at Jeff’s house pool party. Noori’s reaction upon realizing in the rest room mirror that she is several shades whiter, “I wanted him to like me for me. I didn’t want to get Michael Jackson-ed!”

BRIGHT SPOT #1

The script provided some good moments. Well done! I enjoyed this line: “I’m not really afraid of trouble, because then it would give me something to write about on my college apps.”

BRIGHT SPOT #2

Enjoyed the music, most of it played by a group called Tetherball. The songs “Buoy” and “Twisting in the Sky” were written by Bernie Bridges, Julian Bridges, Miller Kitsner and Irfan Zaidi and the Supervising Sound Editor and Recording Mixer was Nathan Ruyle. Lara Hall’s costume designs (especially the outfits at the pool party), along with the production design (Sara Millan), Editing (Julian Bridges) and Cinematography (Director of Photography Lee Muller) were all excellent.

The 2009 time frame is pinned down well by the reference to Michael Jackson as the biggest star on the planet, a mention of Barack Obama as Noori’s idol, and by the fact that the online activity is away from MySpace (and onto Facebook.) The current events references depicting what is going on in 2009 are right on target, as are the outfits and the music. Only the “Freaky Friday” switcheroo was derivative, but it served the plot’s look at prejudice towards those with darker skins in America and does so with well-crafted lines like the heartthrob’s dismissal of Noori as having “a big nose and small titties.”

Jeff and Noori at Jeff Benesh’s pool party.

All of the teenagers depicted came off as real and genuine, and Noori’s rejection of Jeff “You know what, Jeff, you’re not my type” and her ultimate rejection of becoming a “Race Traitor” is a great message for this 15 minute film.

The film was chosen by a committee that included Greta Gerwig and Lilly Wachowski — in partnership with Netflix, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, and Dirty Films. Mahnoor Euceph is an award-winning writer and director from Los Angeles She holds a BA in Design/Media Arts from UCLA and an MFA in Film & TV Production from USC .

CONCLUSION

A top-notch short that takes a look at prejudice in modern-day high school America and combines that serious topic with the difficulties any student in a new school experiences trying to “fit in” and be considered cool. Mahnoor Euceph is a promising up-and-coming Pakistani filmmaker.

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.”

Stephen Colbert Is Canceled By CBS

By Connie Wilson

On July 17, 2025

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

Stephen Colbert.

At 7 p.m. (CDT) on Thursday (7/17) comes the news that Stephen Colbert’s Late Night Show has been canceled. He has until May before we will have to do without Colbert’s brand of intelligent humor and his insightful interviews of informed celebrities.

Lately, Colbert himself had made jokes about the possibility that his show, which was top-rated, might be yanked from the air waves. The connection that everyone is making is the current attempt by Paramount (Shari Redstone) to sell CBS to Sky Dance and Larry Ellison. Recently, “Sixty Minutes” forked over $16 million for a non-offense, which had to do with airing an interview with Kamala Harris that DJT did not like.

Trump had accused the network of editing in an improper way, which nearly all experts say was not the case. It caused the long-time Director of “Sixty Minutes” to resign and the network—which needs approval from the FCC to sell to Sky Dance—paid $16 million to Trump’s future presidential library.

It was reported by PBS this way: “In a case seen as a challenge to American free-speech principles, Paramount has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump over the editing of CBS’ ” 60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in October.

Paramount, which owns CBS, said the money will go to Trump’s future presidential library, not to the Republican president himself. It said the settlement did not involve an apology.

Trump’s lawyer said Trump had suffered “mental anguish” over the editing of the interview by CBS News, while Paramount and CBS rejected his contention that it was edited to enhance how Harris, the Democratic nominee for president in 2024, sounded. They had called Trump’s case “completely without merit.”

NBC explained the news this way: “CBS’ parent company, Paramount, is in the midst of an $8 billion merger with Hollywood studio Skydance. But the deal has been delayed for months as talks with lawyers for President Donald Trump dragged on after he filed a lawsuit over an interview the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” aired with Vice President Kamala Harris last year.

Paramount agreed in principle on July 2 to settle the suit by paying $16 million to Trump’s future presidential library. However, Paramount Global said at the time, “this lawsuit is completely separate from and unrelated to the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process.” Trump’s FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, is investigating the deal.

Colbert recently criticized the settlement on “The Late Show,” calling it “a big fat bribe.”

And now Stephen Colbert—arguably the best at skewering Donald J. Trump—has been let go for “financial reasons” at a time when his show was #1 in the late-night ratings.

This is what can happen in the United States of America when a dictator takes over the levers of power. Free speech is under attack and Colbert is the highest-profile victim, but almost certainly not the last. This is a move right out of Putin’s playbook.

Trump 2.0 Fires James Comey’s Daughter

By Connie Wilson

On July 16, 2025

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

Senior Investigator Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey.

MAURENE COMEY ON DOJ FIRING: “Instead of fear, let this moment fuel the fire, a fire of righteous indignation at abuses of power, of commitment to seek justice for victims, of dedication to truth above all else.”

BREAKING: A new development has surfaced in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, as the Trump administration fires Maurene Comey from her job at the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office (formerly the Southern District of New York. ) Senior Investigator Maurene Comey prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Politico reports that “two people familiar with the matter” revealed that Comey was fired on Wednesday. She is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. In recent days, Trump has been trying to pin the Epstein files on Mr. Comey as well as Barack Obama and former President Joe Biden, although Epstein’s arrest and prosecution took place when DJT was President. Epstein had claimed that he was Donald J. Trump’s “best friend” for a period of at least fifteen years.

It’s still unclear why Comey was fired; no explanation was given. She worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office for close to a decade. Her official title was senior trial counsel. Recently she helped to prosecute Sean “Diddy” Combs.It’s possible that the firing is a result of Trump’s well-documented animosity towards her father, but it could also be tied to her prosecutions of Epstein and Maxwell.

EPSTEIN

The Epstein issue has proven devastating for Trump in recent weeks. The past two days alone have seen him launching attacks on his own supporters, calling them “stupid” and “foolish” for demanding transparency on Epstein. The obvious explanation that Donald J. Trump is implicated in the files seems to be slowly dawning on Trumpland (although they prefer to mention Bill Clinton as guilty of sexual misdeeds on Epstein’s island.)

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2005.

Ghislaine Maxwell was said to have been approached to reveal Trump’s involvement in the underage sexual abuse ongoing on Epstein’s island. In the new book “2024” it was reported that she said she would do so only if she were also free to implicate Clinton as well. Supposedly Trump considered pardoning Maxwell after her conviction and her sentencing to 20 years in prison.

Despite all of the signs that point to Trump’s involvement, Trump’s followers have chosen to believe his protestations of innocence, despite sworn testimony from former underage Epstein victims that they were raped by Donald J. Trump. (The most vocal 13-year-old victim, Virginia Gioffre, committed suicide in Neergabby, Australia at the age of 41 earlier this year.) Trump was found guilty of sexually violating E. Jean Carroll in the nineties within a Bergdorf Goodman Department store. She was awarded $5 million after a jury trial.

Donald J. Trump, Melania Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Donald J. Trump; Melania Trump , Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell,

The more Trump talks about the Epstein issue, the guiltier he seems. Each new headline pours more gasoline onto Elon Musk’s recent “X” allegation that Trump himself is implicated in the files.

It’s still unclear whether Comey was fired by interim U.S. attorney Jay Clayton, or if the termination came from higher up at the Justice Department — possibly from Attorney General Pam Bondi or DJT.

The firing of Maurene Comey has hit the Internet with a big bang. It seems quite vengeful towards James Comey, from one perspective, but, when you reflect on how her father’s pronouncement about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, publicized in the pivotal days just before the presidential election of 2016, aided the GOP, Trump should be thanking James Comey. The former FBI Director’s grandstanding pronouncement about Hillary’s e-mails, released on the very eve of the presidential election, was one of the key moments that helped DJT seize the presidency and was considered very bad form for FBI directors through the years, as they were to avoid publicity and politicizing such matters (unlike the case now in Trump 2.0 when every agency is subject to politicization. Most recently, the demolition of the Department of Education and attempts to make FEMA accountable only to the White House, so that states suffering natural disasters of the future are awarded funding only if Donald J. Trump feels like rewarding their loyalty.)

Donald J. Trump & Ghislaine Maxwell.

Yet Donald J. Trump has a gigantic appetite for revenge. His firing of former FBI Director Comey in 2017 might be blamed on Trump’s thirst for vengeance. Trump may have been seeking retribution for James Comey’s role in the probe of links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, as well as a recent Instagram post by James Comey that Trump allies saw as threatening to Trump. (Seashells on the beach, no less.) Then again, Maurene Comey, an FBI investigator for a decade, had key roles in investigating both Jeffrey Epstein and Sean “Diddy” Combs. Maurene Comey’s supportive co-workers escorted the Senior Investigator to her car after the sudden and unexplained firing.

The very brazenness of the act shows the true colors of Trump 2.0. Whatever lawless act DJT greenlights is ignored by his cult followers and, lately, by the Supreme Court of the United States (with the exception of Sonia Sotomayer, anyway, who called out a recent ruling in a strongly worded dissent.)

At the same time that the firing was becoming publicized, CNN had coverage of the $800,000 in food aid the United States is going to destroy (at an additional cost to taxpayers of $100,000), which is sitting in warehouses right now, ready to be distributed to starving children worldwide. DJT has nixed the distribution of the aid and destroyed USAID. CNN reported that a child dies every 15 seconds from malnutrition. Many more deaths are sure to occur because of Trump’s vengeful nature and the destruction of a program that gave the United States much good will internationally, while being a very small percentage of our budget ( the cost was primarily for distribution of the donated food and medicine).

Erica Orden at “Politico” wrote, “The firing is the latest episode to rock the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, formally known as the Southern District of New York. Earlier this year, the acting U.S. attorney

and several other prosecutors resigned in protest after the DOJ ordered the office to abandon the corruption prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.”

Department of Education Is Latest on the DJT Chopping Block

By Connie Wilson

On July 16, 2025

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

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer

“As Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated in her dissent to the decision that allows DJT to destroy the Department of Education, ‘When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it.’ Right now, the law is whatever Trump says it is.”

So wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in dissenting from the Supreme Court giving Donald J. Trump the green light to destroy the Department of Education.

Supposedly, a President cannot unilaterally abolish a federal agency that was created by an act of Congress. Except that Trump says that whatever he says goes, and the Court’s conservative super-majority has agreed. I’m sure we all remember the Access Hollywood tape, where DJT said, “When you’re a star, they let you do whatever you want.”

The demolition of the Department of Education will be a cruel act of sabotage towards not only vital educational research and financial aid for education, but, also, will further undermine the rights of low-income students and students with disabilities. Trump has never been known for his compassion for the weak. His attitude towards the frail and sick and disabled can be compared to that of ancient Sparta, where those with disabilities were thrown on the rocks to die a cruel death.

blind justice statue

Medicaid will no longer be able to help the poor in America. Trying to use it for health care will be death by 1,000 paper cuts. And now the Department of Education, long a target of the Trump MAGA hordes, is in the cross hairs.

This is not the United States of America I grew up in, and it is not the nation I love. We need to stop this man and the monsters and incompetents within his administration before they ruin us forever.

“Jurassic World: Rebirth”: Is the Series Over?

By Connie Wilson

On July 14, 2025

In Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews, Scary stories

Orlando Bloom

I tried very hard to go into “Jurassic World: Rebirth” without reading any of the reviews beforehand. Therefore, when I saw Rupert Friend onscreen, at first I thought it was Orlando Bloom. As I discovered during the “check on that” phase of the festivities, the “bad guy” was actually Rupert Friend (pictured below). Given the fact that Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry just broke up after years (and a child) together, leading her to some teary moments onstage, [and , after that news came out, there were reports that Bloom was miffed that his flirtation with Sydney Sweeney while at Jeff Bezos over-the-top Venice wedding was nipped in the bud by none other than Tom Brady acing him out]—well, Orlando could have been the PERFECT “bad guy” for this film, And we’d hardly notice the switch. But Rupert Friend got the bad guy role and more-or-less delivers as Martin Krebs. You just know that Krebs-y will eventually be eaten by dinosaurs, since he is “the bad guy” and must pay the price (even if, IRL, that doesn’t seem to be happening recently.) You can figure out which of the others of the supporting cast is likely to be eaten pretty quickly, as well.

I was shocked to see the female character deemed most expendable busily arranging things on the beach and paying NO attention to the gigantic dinosaur menacing her from the nearby water. I mean—-take a look around, girl!

Rupert Friend

With the characters Zora Bennett, Henry Loomis, and Duncan Kincaid, it seems like Jurassic World Rebirth is trying to recreate the iconic trio from the original “Jurassic Park.” It didn’t work. We just don’t learn enough about the many characters to relate to or care much about any of them, which isn’t surprising given how many characters the plot involves.

I’m guilty of trying to make readers care about too many characters at once. It doesn’t work well. However, with the accomplished writer of the original “Jurassic Park,” David Koepp at the helm, it was surprising that he fell into this amateur trap. Critics described the characters as boring, one-dimensional and lifeless—which, come to think of it, could be a common complaint of a lot of the summer’s big studio releases.

DINOSAURS ONSCREEN

There are definitely a lot of dinosaurs in Jurassic World Rebirth. However, many critics agree that the real dinosaurs, such as the T-rex, the mosasaurus, and the spinosaurus’, are scarier and more fun to watch than the hybrid dinosaurs. This suggests that the franchise needs to finally abandon the idea of hybrid dinosaurs. They may have worn out their welcome.

Cinematography (John Mathieson) and visual effects, while good, do not eclipse this 7^th-in-the-series follow-up to the 1993 film, which seems odd since the first Steven Spielberg film is thirty-two years old. Music by Alexandre Desplat was fine, but not as impressive as Hans Zimmer’s in “F-1.”

THEN AND NOW

I went into the film without reading any other critics’ reviews. I loved the original Steven Spielberg film (who didn’t?) and hoped this sequel would be just as good as the original film. As is almost always the case, the sequel is not as good, despite the presence of a bona fide Academy Award winner (Mahershala Ali) in a key role as Duncan Kincaid and the usually excellent Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett. Other major characters are the already mentioned Rupert Friend as the bad guy and Jonathan Bailey, fresh off “Wicked,” as the good-guy nerdy dinosaur expert. [Bailey and Mahershala Ali carried off the acting honors, for me.]

I did find the near-misses with the dinosaurs exciting, but the cute little hammerhead creature just made me wonder if, because Bella (the young girl character who ultimately saves them all, of course) had touched the creature, the baby hammerheaded dinosaur would later be rejected by its own kind (which is what would normally happen in the wild.) I did not find the baby dino to be “cute,” but, then, I don’t find creatures that could kill me “cute” most of the time.

SCREENPLAY ISSUES

I was struck by the fact that screenwriter David Koepp, who did the screenplay for the original “Jurassic Park” as well as the “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” seems to have run out of steam. He is a well-known and well-respected scribe, also responsible for “Mission Impossible,” “Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “Spider Man” by Sam Raimi. Having just seen “F-1,” I heard the same exact scripted nugget in “Jurassic World: Rebirth” that was just used in “F-1.”

In “F-1”, screenwriters Ehren Kruger and Joseph Kosinski gave Brad Pitt this line to deliver to his co-star, the young race car driver Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris): “Don’t be shitty to yourself. There are plenty of people out there who will do that for you.” In “Jurassic Park: Rebirth” David Koepp inserts this line: “Other people may talk shit about us, but we don’t have to do the job for them. Otherwise, it comes true.”

GMTA?

Scarlett Johannsson

Is this a case of Great Minds Thinking Alike, or is there a shortage of true originality and creativity going on in these two recent big studio releases? The latest “Jurassic World” is currently raking in $530 million worldwide (on a budget of $180 million) so critics be damned. The critics didn’t praise “F-1” for originality, either. Sign of the times. The studios will still laugh all the way to the bank. But I’m looking for originality and creativity, not a script or a concept created by a committee and judged to be acceptable to the masses (i.e., no controversial deep thoughts articulated.)

Since I have a life-long habit of scribbling down the memorable lines from the films I’m reviewing (since 1970), here are a few more gems from “Jurassic World: Rebirth.:” They (the dinosaurs) may be through with us, but we’re not through with them.” (This one might turn out to be wrong; maybe audiences ARE through with them.) Another possibly prophetic gem was, “Nobody cares about these animals any more.”

Or we have the pithy exchange, “What do we do now?”

Followed by “Try not to die.”

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Many reviewers have pointed out the folly of having two sets of characters who ultimately merge. The first set, of course, was the family of Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo). The protective father, his older daughter Teresa (Luna Blaise), her ne’er-do-well boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono), and her younger sister Isabella (Audrina Mirande). Their boat is rammed by a giant sea creature. They are then rescued from their sinking boat by the rig being piloted by Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali).

After the family group is separated from the group of scientists, all of the remaining characters (8? 10?) ultimately end up on the beach for the finale, which, hopefully, will involve a helicopter rescue.

CONCLUSION

Pacing issues, weak script, CGI we’ve seen before, too many characters to follow—there are still some thrilling moments, especially the rappelling down the cliff segment and the finale. It wasn’t the worst movie of the summer, but it wasn’t the best, either. Enjoy the close calls and re-watch the original for the fresh spirit of Michael Crichton’s original creative tale.