Category: Politics Page 5 of 35

Presidential caucuses have been Connie’s specialty in Iowa as she followed the elections of 2004, 2008, 2012 and wrote the 2 books “Obama’s Odyssey: The 2008 Race for the White House.” She also continues to follow politics by avidly reading everything she can get her hands on, including “Rolling Stone,” “Mother Jones,” “Newsmax,” “Time,” etc.

Will the Real Ron DeSantis Please Stand Up

By Connie Wilson

On June 13, 2023

In Editorial, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics, Pop Culture

Excerpts from “Mother Jones” DeSantis Article

(“Laboratory of Autocracy” by Pema Levy)

The following are some quotes from the “Mother Jones” article by Pema Levy, the July and August (2023) issue. It is important to learn these things about the second most popular Republican nominee, especially since the leader of that pack is Donald J. Trump, who was arraigned on 37 felony charges today in Miami. (No, that is not a joke.)

“DeSantis has demonstrated a path to power based on circumventing the democratic process and preying on fear of minorities—a template that is already being adopted by GOP legislatures around the country. If DeSantis becomes president in 2 years, critics warn, his brand of authoritarianism could take hold from Washington, D.C. ‘If you’re uncomfortable with the book banning, imagine giving him the keys to the U.S. Department of Education. If you’re uncomfortable with the migrant flights dumping people in a deserted parking lot somewhere, imagine giving him the keys to Border Patrol and ICE. If you’re uncomfortable with the way he goes after voting rights, imagine the same conversation that Donald Trump was having with Georgia election officials, demanding they “find” votes he needed, but it’s Ron DeSantis on a call that’s not being recorded. DeSantis would finish what Trump started, which is wrecking our democracy.”

That was the closing statement of this article, but the evidence in the article demonstrates that “his governing style is the logical evolution of Trumpism, from a chaotic politics of reprisal to a calculated system of repression and power-grabbing.” Florida Watch’s Anders Croy says, “This really is what’s coming to the country. Florida, essentially, is a laboratory of authoritarianism right now.”

Early on, DeSantis won a fight to take over the power to dictate maps for voting, and dismantled 2 majority Black districts. He appeared at the Villages, the massive retirement community and Republican stronghold that covers 32 square miles of central Florida and touted his “Freedom First Budget.” He bragged about his cuts, his latest show of power. “While the governor’s office defends the cuts as fiscally responsible decisions, critics believe that DeSantis was making an example out of them for opposing his redistricting takeover.” As one observer (a Democrat who served in the state House until last November) said, “I’ve never seen a group of people so willing to give a governor a blank check.” The GOP super majority retroactively authorized DeSantis’ Fox-ready stunt of flying asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. They also gave DeSantis the power to appoint the board that would oversee municipal affairs at Disney World. This is all part of Disney’s escalating feud over DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Many have commented on DeSantis’ lack of charm. He is not a back slapper and does not seem comfortable trying to become one. Therefore, “the only way that he’s going to be able to move his agenda is through fear and intimidation.” The former agricultural commissioner who served alongside DeSantis in the Florida Cabinet said DeSantis never joined in when other fellow members bantered about their families or exchanged pleasantries. In 2019 when on a trade mission to Israel DeSantis always stood apart from the 3 other members and never rode in a vehicle with them. He wouldn’t engage in friendly chit chat in the elevator, either.

As the article describes, authoritarian personalities are not always charismatic. Putin is an example. Turkey’s Erdogan, likewise. As a New York University historian (author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present”) said, “People who come from the realm of bureaucracy don’t necessarily have to be charismatic because they want to be feared and not loved. Now, somebody like Trump needs to be loved as well as feared, but DeSantis just wants to be feared. His remoteness is actually a shield which helps him to be ruthless and dominant.”

A baseball player and fraternity brother at Yale recalls DeSantis as “so charmless.” After he graduated from Harvard Law School he served as a Navy attorney at Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. In 2008, back in Florida, he took an assignment as a federal prosecutor and ran for Congress in 2012. He spent 3 House terms as “a loner” and a “backbencher.” When the opportunity to run for Governor arose, he sucked up to Trump on Fox News for his primary endorsement.

Trump gets by mostly by saying stuff, not doing stuff. DJT talks much more than he throws punches. He throws more punches than he lands. Says this former colleague, “DeSantis can’t win that way. He has to do stuff. DeSantis has hollowed out state government, filling out key posts with loyalists, which is similar to DJT. The academic term is “autocratic capture.” During his first term in office, DeSantis installed 75% more donors in senior government roles than his predecessor Rick Scott had done in the same time span. These sorts of power grabs are “a cornerstone of authoritarianism” and certainly we saw it with Trump in office.

DeSantis in 2021

FROM WIKIPEDIA: DeSantis signed a 2013 “No Climate Tax Pledge” against any tax hikes to fight global warming.^[50] He voted in favor of H.R. 45, which would have repealed the Affordable Care Act in 2013.^[51] DeSantis introduced a bill in 2014 that would have required the Justice Department to report to Congress whenever any federal agency refrains from enforcing laws.^[52]^[53]^[54] In 2015, DeSantis was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, a group of congressional conservatives and libertarians.^[33]^[55]^[56]

DeSantis opposes gun control, and received an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association.^[57] He has said, “Very rarely do firearms restrictions affect criminals. They really only affect law-abiding citizens.”^[58]

DeSantis was a critic of Obama’s immigration policies, including deferred action legislation (DACA and DAPA), accusing Obama of failing to enforce immigration laws.^[59]^[60] In 2015 he co-sponsored Kate’s Law, which would have increased penalties for aliens who unlawfully reenter the U.S. after being removed.^[61] DeSantis encouraged Florida sheriffs to cooperate with the federal government on immigration-related issues.^[62]

In 2016, DeSantis introduced the Higher Education Reform and Opportunity Act, which would have allowed states to create their own accreditation systems. He said this legislation would also give students “access to federal loan money to put towards non-traditional educational opportunities, such as online learning courses, vocational schools, and apprenticeships in skilled trades”.^[63]

In 2016, DeSantis received a “0” rating from the Human Rights Campaign on LGBT-related legislation.^[64]^[65] Two years later, he told the Sun-Sentinel that he “doesn’t want any discrimination in Florida, I want people to be able to live their life, whether you’re gay or whether you’re religious.”^[66]

DeSantis proposed legislation that would have ended funding by November of that year for the Mueller investigation of President Trump.^[68] He said that the May 17, 2017, order that initiated the probe “didn’t identify a crime to be investigated” and was likely to start a fishing expedition.^[69]^[70]

DeSantis’ Books:

DeSantis released a book in February called “The Courage to be Free” in which he said: “American has entered a post-Constitutional order where federal agencies have become an all-powerful 4^th branch of government that must be “brought to heel” to restore democracy. This is, in effect, declaring war on our judicial system and our voting system. Says the author Levitsky, “In almost every autocracy, we find one of the first moves is to pack the state—whatever state agencies exist.”

DeSantis championed an Orwellian 2022 law known as the Individual Freedom Act, also referred to as HB 7. It restricted educators’ ability to teach concepts like critical race theory, structural racism, sex discrimination, white or male privilege and affirmative action. The law limits how private employers can discuss such issues. The law is generally referred to as the Stop WOKE Act. There is a threat in college classrooms that students might turn in their teachers. The law was passed by the Republican dominated House in 2021, intending to combat perceived discrimination against campus conservatives by authorizing students to secretly record professors in order to bring lawsuits or report them to school authorities. With that kind of Big Brother Is Watching mentality, it has become more difficult to attract top-notch talent to teach in Florida’s schools and colleges. Students are asked to fill out an annual Intellectual Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity survey as an oversight tool. “These efforts call to mind a surveillance state, where snitching is encouraged, the government keeps enemies lists, and free speech is censored.”

DeSantis orchestrated a take-over of New College, a small Florida liberal arts school. He installed culture war provocateur Chris Rufo on its board. Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska ended up in charge of the University of Florida without any disclosure of the process. A secret search continues at New College for a new president and DeSantis’ handpicked board fired its president, naming the Governor’s former Commissioner of Education as its interim leader. A quote: “They want the hiring process to be about who politically toes the governors’ line.”

As the article says, “DeSantis’ attack on academic freedom has already taken a toll. Despite years of growth in the center’s graduate program, Morse says, this fall enrollment will go down by more than half, as many admitted students declined offers, usually citing Florida’s political climate. And departments without enough enrollment get closed. As long as they just scare people away and make Florida a hostile area for this kind of work, that can achieve the same goal as an outright ban. The onslaught of rules, surveillance, lawsuits, lists, and bans has created an atmosphere of chaos and fear on Florida campuses.

Trump was known for whipping up political mayhem, but on a day-to-day basis he seemed to largely unleash it on his inner circle. DeSantis, by contrast, strategically deploys chaos to advance his political priorities.

In November, Judge Mark Walker blocked the Stop WOKE Act in higher education, writing that “one of the 8 prohibited concepts is mired in obscurity, bordering on the unintelligible and features a rarely seen triple negative, resulting in a cacophony of confusion.”

University of Law Professor Mary Anne Franks says, “DeSantis, we need to remember, is a product of Harvard Law School. His attempts to punish Disney, for instance, his attempts to restrict what private employers are doing—he knows that that violates the First Amendment. What he is trying to figure out is, can he remake the law? Can the new far-right conservative movement, which seems to be a kind of might-makes-right movement, can he put that into effect?”

People are now refusing to communicate in certain ways. The House speaker requested that e-mails be turned over. “By starting with the list-making and searching people’s e-mails, now, people are on edge. Graduates have contacted the program asking to be removed from alumni lists. Everyone is starting to see the possibility for increased surveillance.” Said one Florida department chair, “A few people have come out to me, some of them department chairs, who said, ‘We’re not getting candidates for our searches.’” As the article concludes, “DeSantis is willing to burn this entire system in the fire of his own political ambition. But the mess he’s creating with these attacks on public ed, both K-12 and higher ed, are going to significantly and deeply harm Florida for decades.”

After Disney came out against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the governor responded, “There is a new sheriff in town and accountability will be the order of the day.” Disney felt that it was “left with no choice but to sue over DeSantis’ targeted campaign of government retaliation.” (Disney World was hosting its first Pride night in June.) “DeSantis’ willingness to bend the power of government to punish Disney for having an opinion always meant that he would be willing to do that to individuals and small businesses, too.” DeSantis has been at the vanguard of the nationwide assault on transgender people and has gone after small businesses that host drag shows.

A University of Michigan sociologist who studies corporate political behavior describes what is happening because of DeSantis as “an existential crisis regarding the future of American democracy.”

DeSantis staged an attack on the voting rights of people with felony convictions. The law had changed 5 years ago to allow most felons who had paid their debt to society to vote, but DeSantis, after taking office, immediately set out to undermine the amendment. The system is impossible to navigate, but DeSantis said that the new voters must first pay all of their legal fines, fees and restitution, but did not make it possible for its citizens to find out if they have any such debts. Ex-felons who were trying to vote were arrested, including Nathan Hart. They had served their time and believed their voting rights had been restored. People convicted of murder or sex felonies were not allowed to vote.

Quote from the article: “He likes to call us the Free State of Florida, but that freedom only applies to people that look like him and that think like him. And if you don’t, then this state is not free at all.”

“After Democrats surpassed Republicans in voting by mail during the 2020 election, DeSantis signed a law that made postal ballots harder to obtain, limited drop boxes, restricted third-party registration efforts, and banned providing food and water to waiting voters. Signing up to vote by mail now requires more forms of identification, and the request must be renewed every two years. The March municipal elections in Broward County fell by half from 2021 and the drop-off is predicted to drop off in 2024.

In conclusion, when I sold my businesses in 2003, my husband asked why I didn’t buy a second vacation home in Florida, rather than investing in a condo in downtown Chicago. I explained that my son and grand daughters and daughter-in-law lived in Chicago, whereas I know no one in Florida. “I would have to buy a ticket to fly to Florida, but I can hop in the car and be in Chicago in 3 hours, so why would I want to buy a place in Florida?” I also would add, “The only way I’d purchase a place in Florida is if I wanted to travel back in time.”

Tucker Carlson Out at Fox: Memories of His Bow-Tie Days

By Connie Wilson

On April 25, 2023

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

Tucker’s last segment on Fox was about eating bugs. And then he said he’d be back on Monday (another lie). I had the misfortune to see Tucker “live” in 2008 when he was one of the speakers at the Libertarian convention in Minneapolis (MN), held at the very same time as the GOP convention in St. Paul. He was still in his bow tie phase and looked and acted like a total doofus, but the entire convention ($17 for entry; I was press) was a surreal experience. Alongside Tucker onstage were Ron Paul (Sr.), former Governor of Minnesota Jessie Ventura and Barry Goldwater, Jr., who was the spitting image of his father. It was a totally weird experience, which I will explore in greater depth on my WeeklyWilson blog, because I still marvel that I was there at all.

I had no intention of attending the Libertarian convention, which was dubbed something like “Rally for the Republic.” The entire reason for my presence can be summed up by one name: Phil Bennett.

Who is Phil Bennett, I hear you say. Well, at the time, I had paid Phil to come to my humble abode and teach me how to post using a WordPress blog and this was truly not my forte then or now. Phil had to come back three times to “fix” various problems I had, including placement of my pictures, and, at one point, he became so exasperated that—knowing I would be going to Minneapolis to cover the GOP convention in St. Paul—-he requested (demanded?) that I attend the Libertarian rally, which he knew was being held across town in Minneapolis at the same time. Phil had the power, as I knew I’d be calling on hm, sooner or later, and I wanted to be blogging more expertly from that point (2007) on.

So, I applied for and got Press Credentials for the Ron Paul Rally for the Republic Libertarian Convention and, oh, my! It was definitely an out-of-body experience.

Ron Paul, Sr., was then the presidential candidate and hopeful of the Libertarians (about whom I knew next to nothing) and he stood, center stage, while a hastily hung banner behind him fell to the floor. He had an aide standing directly behind him, a slightly portly fellow in a suit, who was glued to his cell phone the entire time the boss was talking. He was visible throughout Senator Paul’s speech, but acted as though he was texting his girlfriend back home.

Inside the Democratic National Convention of 2008 (Pepsi Center) in Denver, Colorado.

Onstage with Tucker and his bow tie, as noted above, was Jesse Ventura, the former Governor of Minnesota and co-star of “Predator,” who claimed that he was going to run for president in 2012. As we now know, that didn’t happen, and neither did the legalization of hemp, which seemed to be the chief plank in the Libertarian platform.

I was immediately led down front to the press box, where I found myself surrounded by a bevy of men who spoke English with a definite German accent and were trying to explain to me the basic tenets of Libertarianism. I also noticed a well-dressed young man wearing a badge to the real Republican convention, then going on across town in St. Paul. I finally asked him, “Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be across town at the Republican convention?” His response? “This is where the real action is.”

I still remember how much Barry Goldwater, Jr., looked like his father, the Arizona Senator. And, since I remembered Barry’s run for the roses and the slogan, “In your heart you know he’s right—far right,” seeing the young doppelganger onstage was a surreal experience, as was the entire convention.

During the breaks in the speeches the group of attendees, who closely resembled the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys we saw storming the Capitol on January 6^th, would assemble in the bar and hold forth on a variety of topics, none of them concepts with which I could identity at all.

It was truly a remarkable memory of my 2008 cross-country coverage of th: e presidential season, which began in Iowa, included Florida (Rudy Giuiliani’s “run” or “trot”), involved entrance to both the DNC and the RNC conventions in Denver and St. Paul, and also involved the Belmont Town Hall meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

For a more up-close-and-personal view of that adventure, which earned me the title Yahoo Content Producer of the Year for Politics, I recommend “Obama’s Odyssey”, volumes I and II, both available on Amazon and both exceedingly readable.

If I can find pictures from that campaign experience of 15 years ago, I’ll include them with this article on my still-in-existence blog, but, otherwise, it’s strictly going to be pictures of Tucker Carlson.

Texas Attorney General Paxton Racks Up $3.3 Million Settlement Bill & Wants Taxpayers to Pay

By Connie Wilson

On February 19, 2023

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

[This editorial from the “Austin American-Statesman” is in reference to the $3.3 million settlement that Texas taxpayers are supposed to pick up the tab for. It ran on Wednesday, February 15^th.]

Image result for image of attorney general ken paxton texas

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton

After agreeing last week to settle a whistleblowers’ lawsuit against him that will likely cost Texas taxpayers $3.3 million, ethically compromised Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday tried to falsely spin it as a win—for taxpayers.

“I have chosen this path to save taxpayer dollars and ensure my third term as Attorney General is unburdened by unnecessary distractions,” Paxton said in a statement.

Even for a public official as shameless as Paxton, this absurdist political spin is breathtaking. The fact is that Paxton’s firing of 8 whistleblowers who credibly accused him of bribery and abuse of office is almost certain to cost Texas taxpayers millions, just as it has cost the Texas attorney general’s office reputational damage that can only be repaired when Paxton, re-elected to a third 4-year term in November, is no longer in office.

Settlement Agreement Raises Questions About Use of Tax Dollars

The mediated tentative settlement agreement requires a $3.3 million settlement payment to 4 of the whistleblowers and an apology from Paxton to the plaintiffs, but not an admission of wrongdoing. The agreement raises serious questions about the propriety of asking Texas taxpayers to pay the settlement on Paxton’s behalf. The agreement is contingent on “necessary approvals for funding,” which means the Texas legislature may have to consider a funding request.

It’s certainly convenient for Paxton to ask taxpayers and Texas lawmakers to clean up the mess he made while professing he’s doing it “to save taxpayer dollars, but lawmakers must not let him off the hook easily, and should investigate whether the payment is an appropriate use of tax dollars.

Paxton has argued that Texas law allows for the expenditure of tax money to defend against multiple lawsuits filed against him during his tenure as attorney general. But Andrew Cates, who wrote a book called “Texas Ethics Law” said that doesn’t make it right, especially when the issue is a multi-million dollar settlement stemming from the firing of whistleblowers.

Cates said, “This is one of those just because you can doesn’t mean you should situations. I, personally, believe it would be more appropriate for him to take it out of his campaign fund.” Cates pointed to a Texas statute that allows campaign donations to pay the legal bills of a candidate or office-holder.

The whistleblower saga began in 2020 when 8 attorneys in the attorney general’s office—all of them appointed to their positions by Paxton—either resigned or were fired after telling federal investigators that they were concerned that Paxton was using the power of his office to help Austin investor Nate Paul, whose home and offices were searched by federal investigators in 2019. They accused Paxton of illegally using his office to help Paul, in exchange for benefits that included a $25,000 donation to his re-election campaign, remodeling Paxton’s home, and giving Paul’s alleged mistress a job. Overriding a decision by his agency’s Charitable Trusts division, Paxton also directed his office to intervene in a lawsuit against Paul lodged by The Mitte Foundation.

Paxton’s Legal Bills Are Adding Up

The allegations against Paxton are sadly unsurprising when considering his time in office. For 7 years he has been under federal indictment for securities fraud and the State Bar of Texas has sued to sanction him for his shameful role in trying to overturn the legitimate presidential election of 2020. Nor should Texans be surprised that, once again, Paxton is asking for a handout to help him pay for his legal fees. So far, according to the Dallas Morning News, Paxton has run up half a million dollars in legal fees. Instead of relying on state attorneys, Paxton hired outside attorneys, one of whom charged $540 an hour, paid by taxpayers.

After years of questionable behavior that has been rewarded by election to a third term, we’d be naïve to expect Paxton to become a paragon of virtue at this late stage of his career. …Texas needs an attorney general who is looking out for their best interests, not just his own

“Pray for Our Sinners” at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival Has United States Premiere

By Connie Wilson

On October 19, 2022

In Editorial, Movies, News, Politics, Pop Culture, Reviews

“Pray for Our Sinners,” a documentary written and directed by Sinead O’Shea with music by George Brennan had its United States Premiere at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival. The 1 hour and 21 minute film documents the abuse of women and children in Ireland in decades past, perpetrated with the approval of the Catholic church.

The abuse took place in Ireland for literally decades until at least the 1980s.

Sinead O’Shea focused on her own home town of Navan in central Ireland and interviewed women who, as young teenagers, were sent away to mother and baby homes and forced to give up their babies. She interviewed female victims who had suffered this fate when just teenagers, and also spoke with now adult victims of brutality in the schools, suffered as children. Much of her conversation was with Dr. Mary Randle, who, along with her doctor husband, fought against the injustices. One of the topics was the local parish priest of those years, Father Andy Farrell. (It seems that Father Farrell discovered malfeasance in church finances and was spirited out of his post when he reported it.)

In 1921 Ireland earned its independence from England, but by 1937 the Catholic Church had managed to incorporate its beliefs into Irish law. In a country where 91% were church-goers, 6% said they attended occasionally, and only 3% said they never attended church, Ireland had more people institutionalized than any other civilized country. A citizen could be sent to an institution for all manner of misbehavior, as viewed by the church. For instance, if you talked about your feelings you could be declared “hysterical” and put away.

God was everywhere. That was the point. Few women worked. There was a law forbidding women from working after marriage. Women were to be submissive and produce children. However, unwed mothers were shamed into submission and forced to go to mother and baby homes, where the nuns who ran them made it their mission to “punish” the pregnant girls. There were at least 21,000 illegal adoptions from these homes during the era. According to a 2021 study, 9,000 babies and their mothers died in the homes.

Pregnant girls were treated like criminals. Even during delivery, they would be chastised for their bad behavior in becoming pregnant in the first place. Contraception was not available if the doctor did not want the woman to have access; divorce was forbidden. As one former resident of one of the homes said, “Your mail would be read. You were made to wash floors, even when 9 months pregnant. There was no breastfeeding. They wanted to do something to hurt you.”

Writer/Director Sinead O’Shea.

If women were mistreated, children were also targeted. The Catholic church ran the schools. Corporal punishment was the norm in towns across Ireland. Into this sea of misery a husband and wife doctor team in Navan, Mary and Patrick (“Paddy”) Randle, chose to speak out when others were too cowed to do so.

A 10-year-old boy. Norman, was beaten with a leather hose with metal inserts because he was left-handed. When Paddy Randle found out, he spoke up and demanded that such abuse cease. Twenty children who were brave enough to speak out were gathered. Since the local paper would not tell their story, the “News of the World” in London interviewed the children and ran a story on Sunday, May 4, 1969, under the title “Children Under the Lash.”

When the local priests in Navon learned that the paper was going to run the story, the newspaper was seized as it was entering the city. Norman was kicked out of school by the church authorities at the age of 9 and, even today, he has no papers to document his life in Ireland. He is like a ghost without a country in “Europe’s last theocracy.”

As Dr. Mary Randle described her efforts and those of her now-deceased husband to help the struggling women and children of their small Irish town. She said, “It was like a whole empire designated to punish girls and children.It’s just, yet again, a diminishment of women, how they were treated.”

I am Irish Catholic. My home county in Iowa, the Dubuque diocese, was very Catholic. Back in the sixties, drugstores in Dubuque, Iowa, would not sell the birth control pill to unwed girls. When I was in the hospital, having just given birth in 1968—a married woman, age 23—one of my doctors (who was a devout Catholic) refused my request for a prescription for the pill. He would pass such requests along to his Protestant partner, who had no such reservations.

There are political forces abroad in our land right now who would like nothing better than to deny United State females the right to purchase the birth control pill, because the ability to choose when (or if) to have a child empowers a woman. The immediate battleground is the issue of abortion, but the signs are there that that is just the first stop on the path of the current Conservative Supreme Court.

As for corporal punishment, when I was introduced to my very first classroom in the fall of 1969, a fellow teacher handed me a paddle and instructed me on the “proper” way to use it to paddle misbehaving students. I was appalled. I threw it away immediately. This disciplinary method had been ongoing in the district. If you think nothing like these Irish stories could ever go on in the United States, guess again. You just have to be old enough to have lived it, as I have.

I remember all the pregnant girls in my high school who were “drummed out of the Corps.” Once it was determined that a girl was pregnant out of wedlock, she was banished from attending class. (The boyfriend who had impregnated her suffered no such punishment.) The expectant mother would disappear to a mother and baby home run by the Catholic church. The home would house her until she delivered her child.

As one of the women in the film testifies, “There’s no point in talking about today and then, because it was so different.” Yes, it was. I remember it well. I am saddened to see the same power play(s) being perpetrated upon this generation of women in the United States via the currently red hot abortion issue. It’s done in the interests of refusing to empower women.

The most important decision a woman will make in her lifetime is whether or not to give birth. It will affect every facet of her life from that time forward. It should be her decision, in consultation with her doctors and her family. It should not be legislated or decided by a group of men in Washington, D.C.

Director/Writer Sinead O’Shea does a nice job of painting a picture of yesterday that I lived through and remember only too well. By quoting Dr. Mary Randle (“There is always a way to resist”) and painting a picture of the abuses of the Catholic Church against the weakest among their charges, O’Shea has vividly illustrated how irreparable harm can be done in the name of religion.

The law banning corporal punishment in the schools of Ireland passed in that country in 1984. Divorce is now legal and laws banning women from working are a thing of the past. The attempts to roll back Roe v. Wade in the United States under the cover of religion are ongoing and on the ballot in November.

Another documentary by Sinead O’Shea is 2017’s “A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot.”

“No Ordinary Campaign” World Premiere at Chicago International Film Festival Chronicles Efforts to Cure ALS

By Connie Wilson

On October 17, 2022

In Health/Medicine, Movies, Politics, Reviews

“No Ordinary Campaign” at Chicago International Film Festival Chronicles ALS Research

The documentary “No Ordinary Campaign,” directed by Michael Burke, focuses on the fight for more funding and help for patients suffering from ALS. The focal point of this fight for life is ALS sufferer Brian Wallach and his wife. Brian, a former Assistant District Attorney, met his wife. Sandra Abrevaya while working on Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

In this fight however, after his diagnosis at only 37, the stakes are literally life and death—for Brian and for all other sufferers of diseases like ALS. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. With their background in politics and their friends in high places (Obama speaks in the documentary and the Mark Zuckerberg/Priscilla Chan Initiative underwrote) the couple spearheads efforts to increase awareness and funding for ALS research.

The Wallachs lead the charge in personifying “courage in impossible situations.” They use their organizational skills to unite patients and their families, nationwide, and work to raise funds, testifying before Congress for increased funding to find a cure for these neurological diseases because “hope alone does not get you a cure.” Founding iamalsorg.com is a first step to unifying the many disparate voices crying for help.

One of the impediments to care turns out to be the FDA itself, which had a 6 month wait time to apply for social security disability benefits, when the life expectancy of many ALS patients is, basically, that short. It made no sense, nor did the clinical trial of a promising new drug (AMX0035) that let patients take it, but only for a short time. Patients who were experiencing progress were cut off after the clinical trial period, for no discernible good reason.

Brian and Sandra are shown making an emotional appeal to Congress in which they said, “Do not let another generation of patients die in pursuit of the perfect. Instead, let them be the first generation to live.”

The efforts of the consortium including legislative help from Senators Dick Durbin and Lisa Murkowski, leads to success in the Accelerated Access to ALS bill being signed by President Biden in June (2022) and approval for the use of AMX0035. The group also raised $80 million in funding in 2 years, much more than had ever previously been devoted to research for a cure.

With patients (1 in 300 will get ALS) pleading for help before the Congressional committee, Representative Rosa DeLaura of Rhode Island said, “I promise you we will fight for your survival. Godspeed.”

This was the World Premiere of the documentary from Redtail Media. Katie Couric was one of the executive producers.

“The Natural History of Destruction” at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 15, 2022

In Editorial, Movies, Politics, Reviews

“Babi Yar. Context” (AP 1944 Photo)

Perhaps the most succinct thing that can be said about “The Natural History of Destruction,” a film that screened at Cannes by Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, is that there is nothing “natural” in destroying what has taken civilization centuries to build. There is nothing “natural” about massive civilian loss of life. This screening was the North American Premiere of the film.

On October 22nd, the film was awarded the Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, with the following comments:

Silver Hugo

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DESTRUCTION (Germany, Lithuania, The Netherlands)

Dir. Sergei Loznitsa

Sergei Loznitsa has accomplished a pure cinematic experience which displaces our political positions, and compels us to empathize with the German citizens living through the war they instigated. By means of meticulous and slow editing, a complex array of scenes, rich with nuanced sonic detail, unfold in front us. The archival black and white images are breathless and relentless: they confront us without buffer with the horror of the war machine, to which there are no winners and everyone is a victim. The rare and strategic placement of speeches, as well as the occasional leak of color into the scenes, punctuate the otherwise non verbal stretches of accumulating horror: we witness war from all angles – from above and below, from close up and from afar, from within the machine performing the wreckage, from the factory assembling its parts, and from the bottom of the ruins it leaves behind.

This 1 hour and 52 minute film is based on the book by German writer W.G. Sebald, “Air War and Literature.” It has no narration, as such, and consists solely of archival material of bombs being made. Bombs being loaded onto war planes. Planes dropping bombs. Bombs exploding. Dead bodies on the ground. Civilians suffering the after-effects of the bombings.

There is, however a prelude of sorts where we see the happy civilian populace of a variety of cities—mostly in Germany, it appears, from the blimp flying overhead (OL-2129) with the German swastika on its tail. The people are enjoying life, unaware of the tragedy that is about to befall them.

Most of the footage is black-and-white, but it lapses into color periodically. What we see of the unnamed cities are bombed-out craters, buildings on fire, and complete rubble. In other words, it looks a lot like the Ukrainian cities that are being bombed by the Russians now, or like the remains of Naples, Florida after Hurricane Ian.

What little narration there is may be mumbled voices saying things like: “I’ve never seen anything like this.” “Neither have I.” “4,000 pounds just went up.” “Good show!”

The use of “Good show” pins down the bombers as being the RAF (British Royal Air Force), but the Luftwaffe is also involved in a variety of dogfights, and we hear other speakers (Churchill, Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris, Field Marshal Mongtomery) talking about the entrance into the war of the United States: “Now we are no longer alone. We have powerful allies. Many tonnage of explosives can be carried into Germany.” Prime Minister Winston Churchill is shown being applauded by crowds in the streets and saying the British shall “stride forward into the unknown.”

Churchill is also heard saying: “We shall drive on to the end and do our duty, win or die. God helping us, we can do no other.” Churchill also urges German civilians to flee the cities where munitions are being made and watch their country burn from afar (or something else remarkably uncharitable).

A German voice, unidentified, decries the “shameful bloody campaign of today” and vows to fight on using counter-terrorism. You get the feeling that the director simply wants to make the point that killing innocent civilians of ANY country is unjustified, but the lack of identification of cities or speakers or air forces leaves one adrift. Are we looking at the ruins of Germany or of England? It probably doesn’t matter to the director, who simply wants to make the point that this sort of wanton destruction is wrong, no matter what.

British officer Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris is heard saying, “There are a lot of people saying bombing can never win a war. So, then, I say, we shall see. Germany will make a most interesting initial experiment.”

I live near Arsenal Island in Rock Island County, Illinois. The island has been involved in making munitions for the U.S. Army for a very long time—at least back to the Civil War, when it also served as a POW camp for captured Confederate soldiers. In the event of a nuclear Armageddon, which seems more and more likely with leaders like Vladimir Putin on the loose, we will have a big target on our backs as the enemy attempts to wipe out the capabilities of this large government installation.

I hope this Ukrainian filmmaker’s plea that people wake up and quit wreaking destruction on peaceful civilians in such horrible ways finds an audience of sane leaders, but it seems less likely with every passing day. “The Natural History of Destruction” opens on October 17, 2022.

Printers’ Row Rained Out For Me on September 11, 2022

By Connie Wilson

On September 12, 2022

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

Well, if any of you were Chicago residents, you know that it rained A LOT today, Sunday, September 11th.

I have to confess that I did not make it to the IWPA booth at Printers’ Row for precisely that reason.

I got up about 9 a.m. (early, for me) and it was raining.

I had a cup of coffee and sat around for over an hour, thinking it would let up.

It did not.

I went back to bed and got up closer to 11 a.m., and I consulted the hour by hour weather forecast, which said that there was a 100% chance of rain for the next several hours.

About 1:20 p.m. the rain actually ceased…briefly. It was right back at it within half an hour.

BEE GONE: A POLITICAL PARABLE

Not to be too big a wuss, but dragging a box on wheels through the wet streets of Chicago is not great for paperbacks, and paperbacks were what I had with me. I was going to go with the political books of the hour, because, as we used to say about Nixon, “We won’t have DJT to kick around any more.” (Or so I fervently hope).

If you had your TV sets tuned to the Bears game at Soldier Field, right across the street from me, you will know that it was really pouring down during the game. Enough said.

My apologies to any of you who did make it out, but I could not imagine that there would be more than one or two folks brave enough to saunter down to Polk Street during the downpour.

The books I had with me are all available on Amazon, and I hope you check them out.

Printers’ Row in Chicago on Sunday, Sept. 11th

By Connie Wilson

On September 10, 2022

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Politics

BEE GONE: A POLITICAL PARABLE

I will be manning the IWPA (Illinois Women’s Press Association) booth from approximately noon until 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11th.

My computer assistant and I attempted to send out a MadMimi newsletter, only to learn that the person who compromised my last credit card screwed me out of that account. I have been trying to fix this for a week. No luck.

I decided to take only my political books to this year’s fair.

Why?

For one thing, “BEE GONE” came out just before the pandemic shut things down and is my most recent book.

Preceding that was “Obama’s Odyssey: The 2008 Race for the White House”, Vols. I & II. These two books have a wealth of photographs taken as I followed the political candidates of 2008 across the land and into the halls of the DNC and the RNC.

"The Christmas Cats Flee the Bee," sixth book in the Christmas Cats series (www.TheXmasCats.com). The Powers-That–Be conspired to keep me from ever being able to advertise “BEE GONE,” which is a shame, as the illustrator is brilliant and the book is a hoot and a half (unless you are a MAGA fan.)

Since my hope is that there will be a future soon without DJT, bringing “BEE GONE” in multiple copies seems right. The book is about $10 and the children’s version—in full color with puzzles and mazes—has the same great illustrations of Donald Trump as a gigantic bumble bee determined to take over the hive from the Queen Bee.

Enjoy! See you on Sunday at the IWPA booth if you’re in Chicago.

Hundreds of Top Secret and Classified Documents Found in Mar-a-Lago Raid

By Connie Wilson

On August 31, 2022

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

The search at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 found twice as many classified documents as Trump’s lawyers had turned over voluntarily, despite promising they had returned everything. This was also despite two attorneys (one named Evan Corcoran—hope he’s no relative) signing off and telling the FBI that those they had initially taken were the extent of it, when they were not.

The documents had been seen by members of the club, some of whom ratted The Donald out about his lax handling of the sensitive documents, marked Top Secret, Secret and Confidential. Regardless of how “sensitive” the documents were, they should not have been removed from the White House. It is not true that “they all do it” and that “Obama took some, too.” All previous presidents followed elaborate protocols for when and where they could even look at the documents, but Trump apparently kept some of his “mementos” in his desk drawer and would show it to casual Mar-A-Lago visitors. Among those items were the “love notes” from the North Korean dictator to Mr. Trump. Another he had removed was the letter left him by former President Barack Obama.

The blacking out (redacting) of much of the search warrant language was necessary to protect both the witnesses who have testified to seeing the documents in Mar-A-Lago and to the identity of other secret sources, whose very lives might be endangered.

Apparently, Trump considered anything he touched during his time in office “his.” He considered himself to be much like a king and everything was “his.”

Even if the documents were as ordinary as the menu for breakfast (and they weren’t) removing them from the White House was wrong and an obstruction of justice, and, since the many polite government requests to give them back ended with only a partial return of the papers, the FBI conducted its raid on Aug. 8th. And, to make matters worse, the ex-president and his cronies attempted to move the documents around to prevent the government from seeking their rightful return.

As the “New York Times” put it:

“The investigation into Mr. Trump’s retention of government documents began as a relatively straightforward attempt to recover materials that officials with the National Archives had spent much of 2021 trying to retrieve. The filing on Tuesday (Aug. 30) made clear that prosecutors are now unmistakably focused on the possibility that Mr. Trump and those around him took criminal steps to obstruct their investigation.

Investigators developed evidence that “government records were likely concealed and removed” from the storage room at Mar-a-Lago after the Justice Department sent Mr. Trump’s office a subpoena for any remaining documents with classified markings. That led prosecutors to conclude that “efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation,” the government filing said.

The filing included one striking visual aid: a photograph of at least five yellow folders recovered from Mr. Trump’s resort and residence marked “Top Secret” and another red one labeled “Secret.”

It is time. LOCK HIM UP!

The legal filing included a photo of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago.Department of Justice

Beware of So-Called “Questionnaires” Posing As Objective: It’s the GOP At Work

By Connie Wilson

On August 25, 2022

In Editorial, Local, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics

Future President of the United States Joe Biden in Independence, Iowa, on the Fourth of July, 2019.

This is a bit of a stream-of-consciousness comment, following the phone call I received yesterday that asked me to participate in a survey. It was a robo-call, automated, and purported to be objective, asking for how much knowledge you had about the candidates for Cheri Bustos’ former seat in Congress.

At first, it asked for things that seemed “normal,” such as age, income, and knowledge of the candidates running in the mid-term election.

I did notice that all of the Republican candidates (Esther Joy King) were mentioned first in each and every comparison to her Democratic challenger, Eric Sorenson. You had to punch 1 through 6 for some questions and, in some cases, such as your gender, there were only 2 buttons to click for male or female. A 1 would generally mean that you disliked the remark and a 6 (and just up to that) indicated strong support for the premise, with the middle numbers indicating more neutral stances.

After the routine, normal questions, the questionnaire took a nasty turn.

All of the scenarios that depicted Eric Sorenson (the Democratic candidate) were quite negative. All of the scenarios for the Republican candidate (Esther Joy King) were portrayed much more positively. The backgrounds of the prospective candidates were definitely being “cherry-picked,” for sure. For instance, Sorensen was depicted as just shy of a zealot regarding global warming and bound to spend all of your money on measures to counteract climate change. Quite frankly, as you watch the nightly news of each and every climate disaster, the charge that Sorensen wants to try to fix the flooding and fires seemed like a positive, to me, but the questionnaire found it objectionable that he was in favor of trying to reduce green house gases so that we might be able to get out of the horrible weather cycles we are currently facing. (One has to sigh heavily when thinking of how much more actively this entire situation would have been addressed under President Al Gore way back in 2000. We would have had 22 years to plan for what is now upon us, but “W” and the GOP did not believe in global warming and vocally castigated those who raised their voices with the scientific predictions that are coming true right now.

Most of the situations depicted were actually accusations that Eric Sorensen, a former weatherman, had little to do with. He hasn’t been in office, so he really doesn’t have a track record to mention. They were presented in the context of, “Eric is a Democrat and would support Joe Biden and Joe Biden did ______, ______, and ______.” The things that poor Eric was being accused of were pretty far out there and definitely neither his fault nor something his campaign necessarily ran on. To listen to the recorded voice, poor Eric was almost solely responsible for inflation. Any minute I expected the accusations to veer into criminal territory.

In other words, this so-called objective “survey” was a thinly-veiled advertisement for the GOP candidate.

If you answer your phone and hear that it is a “questionnaire” be warned.

Alexi Giannoulias

I was fortunate that I had researched all of the candidates in the primary and run an informational piece on all of them in both parties and on Alexi Giannoulis, who was running for office after years away from a position in Illinois government.