Here is the trailer:
Saturday, 1 November 2025
Truth & Treason
I wanted to write about this movie, but I happened to see it the same weekend as the No Kings protests. I don’t know if it is still in theaters, but I wanted to post about it anyway. It is based on a true story that occurred during World War II in Germany. It is about a young man, I cannot say boy because he was much more mature than that, who decided to stand up and speak the truth. It is not easy to stand against a government that has no shame or integrity. It is not easy to stand when you run the risk of being eliminated for having the audacity to speak against a selfish, narcissistic, authoritarian leader who does not care about his country’s people and treats them like his serfs.
Here is the trailer:
Here is the trailer:
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Roger Ebert gave it a thumbs up, but just barely.
It's getting better reviews from a public not quite so concerned with how or whether it checkboxes some critic's movie theories. 88% favorable at Rotten Tomatoes, 96% favorable at Fandango, grade of "A" (A+ to F scale) at CinemaScope.
It is still playing in theaters. (I checked local theater listings--found it in three.) With those kinds of favorability numbers it'll probably be getting screen time for awhile yet.
Wonderful. My friend had wanted to go see the new Julia Robert's movie, After the Hunt, but it wasn't playing in the theater we wanted to go to, which was by our chosen lunch spot. So I picked this one.
We were going to try to catch the Julia Robert's movie later, but it is fading fast. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a splat, 38%.
Dick Cheney has died at 84. While I was not really a Cheney fan I would have taken him over Trump any day.
#NeverTrump. Even if the alternative would have been Cheney. (Which, of course, never happened.)
Looks like the Democrats are having themselves a good night, pretty much across the board.
I don't think I'll stay up for the returns to come in from California, but I've been thinking for a couple of weeks now that the Democrats were gonna get to reapportion California to more clearly favor Democratic victories all across the state. I'm still thinkin' they're gonna get their chance at that.
Bad night for Trump. Probably means it's a good night for the nation.
Totally agree. A good night for the country.
I am looking at the lines of voters in California, where they are voting on proposition 50, which allows for the redistricting. The lines are very long, and include quite a few younger voters, who are notoriously uninterested in voting.
CNN is projecting that Prop 50 has passed.
They have been watching the down ballot elections as well and there too the Democrats are showing well.
The Senate Republicans (in the person of Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota) are going to try to break the deadlock over funding the government tomorrow with a package of full year spending bills including aid to agricultural interests and renewed funding for food stamps (a/k/a "SNAP" benefits), aid to veterans, and aid to congressional staffers (i.e. they'll start getting their paychecks again plus back pay for the month just passed). Notably, it does NOT include a resolution to the upcoming lapse of Obamacare subsidies.
We'll soon see if the recent election returns somehow makes the Democrats more eager to fold on their Obamacare demands. (Assuming Thune goes through with his plan to call a vote on this new package.)
I've been pondering how the Democrats might frame their demands for an extension of the Obamacare subsidies in a form that would appeal to the general voters (and to independents in particular). And I've finally settled on having them proposing a most unconventional solution….
They could demand a vote on extending the Obamacare subsidies just as they are for another year. Promise that either way, up or down, they'd then accept the Republicans' offer on the table (outlined just above ↑↑) and agree to reopen the government on those terms.
Won't happen, of course, but the concept appeals to me.
Maybe they should ask the American people to vote on extending the ACA and Medicaid coverage for another year.
If Senate Republicans can fund those programs they can fund the ACA and Medicaid.
There is no Constitutional provision which allows for the submission of political questions to "the American people". The Founding Fathers were rather down on the concept of democracy. (They very much favored aristocratic white male republican goverment.) Our democratic predilections have evolved over the course of the last 236 years since the adoption of the original Constitution. The concept of ballot initiatives submitted to the voters is very much confined to state laws in those states that have come to allow ballot initiatives. It's never been threatened on a federal leve.
…federal level.
"They could demand a vote on extending the Obamacare
subsidies just as they are for another year."
Be damned! Schumer did it. Politico In fact, he went it one better; he wants it attached to the CR that the Republicans have been trying to pass. They both pass or fail together. Good for Schumer.
Well now. It didn't take hardly any time at all for Thune and his Trumpkan/Republican cohorts to reject Schumer's bit to attach an extension of the Obamacare subsidies. (I think the Democrats are every bit justified in being suspicious of Trumpkan/Republican promises to address the problem later. Trump and his Senators aren't known for keeping their word.)
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I also notice that the Trump administration has successfully challenged a federal judge's Order that they find the funding for the full November SNAP payments. I think Trump's gonna regret that one. His dedicated Trumpkins are heavy users of federal food assistance. I think they're gonna notice that Trump went out of his way to burn their access to groceries, and I think they'll make Trump pay for that move. They're not likely to vote for the "woke" Democrats, but they may not come out to vote to support Trump either, and he's gonna need 'em come the mid-terms in about a year.
My hope has always been that their redistricting ploy will prove irrelevant because enough Republicans will realize they are the ones getting the shaft, not the Dems.
See, love them or hate them, the Dems did try to include everyone in their social programs.
In the end, the Democrats folded again.
They gave the Trumpkan/Republicans what they wanted (reopening the government) in exchange for a promise from the Trumpkans to reciprocate by allowing a vote, no later than mid-December, to extend Obamacare. There's no reason to assume Trump will go along with that, even if the the Trumpkans in the Senate keep their word. And also no reason to assume this 'deal' will ever see a vote in the House. So maybe Trump won't have to kill it; maybe Johnson, or even Thune, will be able to kill it for him.
I think the Democrats probably should have held out. I think the Trumpkans would have folded eventually. Maybe not. I guess it's a questionable call either way. But some 'centerist' Democrats decided to fold and seems Schumer just didn't have the votes any longer. Pain tolerance varies among politicians, just as it varies among people. (As I understand it, Schumer and his leadership team voted against it, save for Dick Durbin, who's already announced his retirement from the Senate at the end of this term.)
Perhaps the only way we will ever get rid of the incompetent Republicans in government is for them to run our country into the ground, which they are speedily doing. Maybe people will notice.
I mean, if even Marjorie Taylor Greene can notice, why not other people?
Lauren Boebert stood up to pressure to change her vote on the Epstein files discharge petition. Huh! Like Marjorie Taylor Greene before her doing something of merit. Guess they are not all bad. Doesn't mean they are the kind of people I would ever vote for, but I give them credit for doing something good.
Boebert and Greene are both still carrying water for the QAnon Crazies. They got their present positions by pandering to the conspiracy theories (as did Trump) and now they find that they can't switch it off (gawd knows Trump's tried). I give them no credit for being captive to the crazies they nurtured.
I will take any cracks in the MAGA cult that we can get.
I'm all in favor of them fighting amongst themselves. But I ain't givin' 'em any credit for it.
Okay, this is just dumb. This is not how ya make the Epstein questions go away.
"President Donald Trump on Friday directed Attorney General
Pam Bondi and the FBI to investigate links between Jeffrey
Epstein and notable Democrats, the president’s latest attempt
to deflect scrutiny over his connections to the disgraced
financier by focusing on his political opponents.
"In a social media post, Trump pushed Bondi to target former
President Bill Clinton, Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman
and former Harvard President Larry Summers, who served in
senior positions in both the Clinton and Obama
administrations, along with the bank JPMorgan Chase."
Politico
Current indicators suggest that Trump is going to attack Venezuala in the very near future.
He will not bother to declare war--he'll just order the attack.
And very likely they will fight back.
The American Congress however, will not.
I am thinking that Marjorie Taylor Greene has become a deeper crack. Whether it is due to her alliance with the women who were victims of Epstein, the health care crisis or her future political goals doesn't really matter. She hasn't suddenly become a Democrat or even given up on the conspiracy theories. She is now floating the idea that Israel may be pressuring Trump to cover up the Epstein files.
But it is a good thing that she is speaking out. It encourages others.
Venezuela, another mistake in Trump's ledger. The American people do not support a war with Venezuala.
Ken Burns new documentary "The American Revolution" starts tonight on PBS at 7:00 central time.
"The American Revolution"
I see that. Curiously, the local PBS affiliate is running it four times a night. Two sequentially, then a break for an hour of Christiane Amanpour, then two more runs sequentially. I guess they want everybody to be able to catch it, but it seems like overkill to me.
It seems word's gotten into Trump's White House, the discharge petition on the Epstein files is gonna pass the House with a possible veto proof majority. Suddenly Trump is in favor of it's passage. (He doesn't want to be shown up as having been flaunted by a majority of the House Trumpkins.)
There's evidence coming out of the James Comey federal case suggesting that Trump's handpicked prosecutor was engaged in some legal mischief before the grand jury that eventually returned some (but not all) of the requested indictments against James Comey. Politico This is the sort of thing that could spell dismissal of the charges with prejudice to the refiling thereof for prosecutorial misconduct, and perhaps even disbarment proceedings against the prosecutor caught making mischief.
I think Trump has finally realized that the Epstein case was causing him some serious issues with his base. He needed to pivot to get ahead of it. There is a reason he is a successful conman.
It seems Scott Jennings wrote a book. I don't think I will be buying it
I would not be surprised that the prosecutor in the Comey case did not act within the law. She is only a Trump minion. Hopefully the case against Comey will be thrown out.
Is the novelty of Trump finally wearing off?
So far I think last night's episode of "The American Revolution" was the most interesting.
I noted that last night's episode took the time to explain that the "Founding Fathers" were most certainly not interested in creating a democracy, that they almost universally disfavored democracy. Our Federalist Society dominated, "originalist" Supreme Court has that much figured correctly. The notion that the United States should be a democracy came about much later in time--more around the time of the Civil War and to some extent as a product of that war rather than a founding principal of the landed gentry's rebellion against English rule.
"Is the novelty of Trump finally wearing off?"
I'm not sure I follow the intent of the question, or the assumptions embedded therein. But, assuming I do… The answer would appear to be "yes". (And none too soon either.)
Details of the Trump administration's secret 'backchannel' negotiations with Russia to get Putin to agree to a peace deal are leaking out. First rumors seem to suggest another attempt to surrender to Putin on behalf of Ukraine. NATO and Ukraine are being quietly nervous about the rumors.
I am finally reading that book I bought so long ago, "White Trash" by Nancy Isenberg. It dovetails, at least the first part, with the documentary. No, the founding fathers were not intent on democracy. They were still mired in class structures from the old country.
But I still give them credit for putting us on a trajectory that led to something better. Well, at least it was anyway.
If they hadn't broken our subservience to England we might still be British subjects.
Apparently even Mike Johnson was a little concerned about Trump's wanting to hang the 6 Democrats who made the video telling our military that they can refuse unlawful orders. At least when he was questioned about it he bluntly said "no" he did not agree with that. He actually sounded a little disgusted with it.
Trump has taken to the air (FoxNews radio) to claim ownership of a '28 point peace plan' which consists basically of surrendering to Russia's last set of demands in return for Russia's promise to not come back and take the rest of Ukraine anyway at some later date after they'd rested and prepared their military for the final coup de grâce against Ukraine.
It's as bad as I'd feared. And Zelenskyy doesn't seem to have a lot of options. (Nor a lot of time to hunt for options.)
Marjorie Taylor Greene is resigning as of Jan 6 2026.
Could have knocked me over with a feather. I can only hope it is a case of a rat leaving a sinking ship. That ship being MAGA. But I won't get my hopes up yet.
A lot of House Trumpkan/Republicans are expecting to be in the minority come November of next year. Not near as much fun. Almost zero chance of making national headlines.
Ain't been much in the way of public reaction to Trump's newest gift to Putin.
There is a move afoot in the House of Representatives to bring up a discharge petition to force a vote on the sanctions bill that's been wandering around the Congress for several months looking for Trump to support it. Politico But that seems to be all that's making any noise.
That's another thing that has Trump sideways with some of his base, Ukraine. There are a lot of people out there who support Ukraine and think of Russia as an enemy to be fought, not appeased.
They moved the start of the final episode of the "The American Revolution" to 8 instead of 7 last night. Very strange. I ended up falling asleep towards part of the end. They had just started talking about the guerilla warfare in South Carolina. I was curious to see if they talked about Francis Marion, who was a big part of that.
I will have to try to catch it in reruns.
I came away with disgust and sadness that so many people were willing to vote away what was so hard fought for by our forebears, when they voted in Trump and his sycophant Republican supporters.
I don't think that's a sizable enough contingent to effect him. It's unlikely they'll get a hearing in the Senate even if they get the discharge petition to move the process along in the House. The Trumpkan/Republican 'base' is more into beating up on smaller targets; things like sending an aircraft carrier and three destroyers to storm around and blow up little boats and intimidate Venezuela are more their style.
The documentary did mention Francis Marion and quoted Banastre Tarleton referring to him as an "old fox". But it was a brief reference.
It appears that Ukraine's European allies are working to shore up Ukraine in the face of Trump's attack. It just took the reporters a little time to catch up with the breaking developments. Politico.EU There will, no doubt, be more of this during the next week. (Although I expect the traditional Republican remnant in the American Congress to continue to kowtow to Trump. I don't expect much outta them at all.)
"[R]epresentatives of the Trump administration met with
Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian envoy who is under U.S. sanctions, to
draft a plan to end the war in Ukraine, according to multiple
sources familiar with the matter.
"The meeting took place in Miami at the end of October and
included special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Dmitriev, who leads the
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), one of Russia's largest
sovereign wealth funds."
Reuters
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