How Donald Trump became the monster that he is.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

A TikTok video by contributor “dh479.710” explains in excruciating detail how Donald Trump became the cruel, chaotic person that has caused so much destruction to our government and our nation. I’m not sure who this individual is, but from where I sit he absolutely nails it, and so I felt it worthwhile to transcribe his video and present it here for your consideration. You can watch the full video at TikTok.

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Transcript:

I’ve been wondering for years how Donald Trump became so cruel, and so sadistic. So I decided to do some research on child trauma and dark psychology to understand what’s actually going on here.

He mocked a disabled reporter on national television and laughed. He called for violence at his campaign rallies time and time again and reveled in it. (See “Personal Observations” below)

He stood in front of crowds and fantasized about jailing his political enemies while the crowd cheered.

In 2020, Donald Trump’s own niece, a clinical psychologist named Mary Trump, published a book¹ explaining exactly how her uncle became this cruel.

Trump sued her for $100 million to stop the book from being published; she published it anyway.

Here are the five childhood events that turned Donald Trump into who he is today.

1: The Mother who disappeared

Donald Trump was two years old when his mother was hospitalized for six months following a series of emergency operations. She nearly died, and when she came back she was never really quite the same.

Psychologist John Bowlby at the Tavistock Institute in London identified what happens to a child when the primary caregiver disappears during the first two years of life. He called it “maternal deprivation” – the complete failure of the attachment bond at the exact moment when the brain is learning whether other people can be trusted and whether other people’s pain matters.

Bowlby found that children who lose their primary caregiver before age 2 develop what he called “affectionless psychopathy,” the permanent ability to feel remorse; the permanent inability to feel empathy; the permanent inability to form genuine emotional bonds with other human beings.

Donald Trump was 2 years old. His brain was forming its first understanding of what other people are. And the person who was supposed to show him that other people matter simply was not there.

Mary Trump described her grandmother as “ghostly absent” for most of Donald’s childhood. A woman who attended to her children when it was convenient for her, not when they actually needed her. Mary Trump argues that her uncle has never watched another human being suffer and felt anything. Not the disabled reporter, not the separated families at the border, not the people dying without healthcare. The person who was supposed to teach her that other people matter was not there and nobody else ever filled that gap.

2) The Brother his father destroyed

Donald Trump’s father had two sons. Donald’s older brother Freddy was the firstborn. Freddy was kind, Freddy was sensitive, and Freddy loved people. Freddy Trump wanted to be a pilot more than anything in the world. His father called Freddy weak every single day. He mocked him at the dinner table in front of the whole family constantly. When Freddy apologized, his father mocked the apology too. He would repeat it back in a sneering way. His father wanted a killer. Freddy was a human being and his father destroyed him for it. Mary Trump, Freddy’s own daughter, documented what happened to her father. She wrote that Donald Trump’s father dismantled Freddy by devaluing and degrading every aspect of his personality until all that was left was a man who hated himself and spent every day trying to earn the approval of a father who would never give it.

Freddy became an alcoholic; he lost his pilot’s license; he ended up doing maintenance work for the family business. He died at 42, broken, invisible, and alone.

Trump’s father did not just destroy Freddy; he used Freddy as a live lesson to Donald. “This is what happens to weak people in my household. This is what being sensitive gets you. This is what happens when you feel things.” Freddy was not weak. Freddy was the only one in that family who made his daughter Mary feel loved.

Trump’s father destroyed the kindest person in the family and made Donald watch every single day. Donald never forgot the lesson as he watched his brother get destroyed daily and never spoke to defend him.

3) The moment Donald chose to become his father

Watching was not enough for Trump’s father. Donald did not just observe what happened to his older brother Freddy – he participated. Mary Trump documented that Donald began mocking Freddy alongside his father. He learned to sneer at his brother’s sensitivity the same way his father did. He learned to call Freddy weak. He learned to degrade him in front of other people. He chose his father’s side completely and permanently.

Anna Freud, one of the most important psychologists of the 20th Century, identified the mechanism that produces this exact behavior in 1936. She called it “identification with the aggressor.” When a child cannot escape an abuser, it cannot defeat them, the brain chooses a third option: become the abuser. Adopt their cruelty. Perform the humiliation on the target. Make yourself indistinguishable from the thing that terrifies you so you don’t become the target. Anna Freud found that this is not a completely conscious choice. If you become the aggressor, no one can use the aggressors tactics against you. But a child pays a price for that safety. Mary Trump describes what it cost Donald in clinical terms.

She wrote that Trump’s father short-circuited Donald’s ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion. By limiting Donald’s access to his own feelings, his father perverted his son’s perception of the world and damaged his ability to live in it. Trump’s father did not just destroy Freddy; he used Freddy’s destruction to cut Donald off from his own humanity. He made Donald the monster he was. Mary Trump argues her uncle Donald has not felt genuine empathy for another human being since he was a small child sitting at the dinner table, learning to laugh while his brother was destroyed in front of him.

Donald didn’t lose his humanity, his father³ Fred took it from him.

4) Malignant narcissism

In 1964, psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm identified the most severe personality pathology in clinical history. He called it malignant narcissism. The combination of four traits that together produce what Fromm called the purest form of evil a human being can become: 1) narcissism 2) paranoia 3) antisocial personality and 4) sadism. Fromm said malignant narcissism represents the most vicious destructiveness and lack of humanity that psychology has ever documented. This is not ordinary cruelty, it’s cruelty that feeds on itself, cruelty that needs to escalate, cruelty that is never satisfied.

Trump has mocked a gold star family³ on national television. He has suggested that a female journalist was bleeding from a facelift. He called a gold star widow who had just buried her husband, and fumbled her husband’s name, and told her that he knew what he had signed up for. She said it made her cry even worse. In my opinion, those are not political acts, those are the acts of someone who experiences other peoples’ pain as entertainment.

John Gardner, a psychologist who taught at Johns Hopkins medical school for 28 years, applied Fromm’s concept of malignant narcissism to Trump specifically. He called it the most destructive and dangerous collection of psychiatric symptoms possible in a leader.

In 2017, 27 psychiatrists and mental health experts published a book called 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑑 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑝. They said their duty to warn the public superseded professional neutrality; they put it on record. Mary Trump, who sat across the dinner table from Donald for decades and holds a PhD in clinical psychology said he meets all nine DSM² criteria for narcissistic personality disorder. She said he will never change. She said the damage was done too early and too completely. She wrote that Donald continues to exist as he was at 3 years old: incapable of growing, incapable of learning, unable to regulate his emotions or take in new information. And the country gave this three-year-old the most powerful office in the world.

5) Why he needs the chaos.

Trump’s presidency has been defined by one thing above everything else: chaos. Daily explosions, constant firings, threats in every direction. Reversals that make no sense. A government that bounces from crisis to crisis without ever stopping. Mary Trump argues this is not incompetence – he does it because it feels familiar to him.  Chaos is the only environment her uncle has ever felt safe in.

Sigmund Freud identified this pattern over a century ago. He called it “repetition compulsion,” the unconscious drive to re-create the conditions of your original trauma in childhood – not because you want to suffer, but because familiar pain feels safer than unfamiliar calm.

Psychologist Bessel van der Kolk at Boston University spent decades studying how childhood trauma rewires the brain. He found that people who grow up in chaotic households don’t just tolerate chaos as adults – the recreate it, because calm feels like the moment before something bad happens. Chaos feels like home. Donald Trump grew up in a house where his father destroyed people at the dinner table every night for fun. Where nothing was safe. Where love was withheld and cruelty was the only currency that mattered. That was his normal from the day he was born, so when he got power he recreated the chaos. The daily explosions, the firings, the threats, the reversals, the cruelty aimed at every direction at once.

Van der Kolk’s research suggests this is not incompetence – Trump recreates chaos because chaos is the only thing that has ever felt like home, and now the entire country lives inside chaos. This is what happens when you emotionally destroy someone at a young age. A mother who vanishes at the exact moment the brain learns how to treat other people; a father who tortured his oldest son in front of his younger son every single day; a younger son who watched that torture and chose to become the torturer and the abuser rather than defend the older brother; a clinical diagnosis that 27 psychologists put on the record; a man so traumatized by his own childhood that he needs the entire country to live inside chaos with him.

Mary Trump documented all of it. She watched it happen from the inside. Donald Trump’s older brother Freddy paid for it with his life. Donald paid for it with his humanity. And the rest of us are paying for this damaged person’s reality right now.

End of Transcript

Personal observations:

For those who doubt Trump has mocked a disabled reporter:

This event in 2015 alone should have been the absolute end of his candidacy in 2015, but the nation’s hateful contingent was already fully in favor of Trump’s cruelty.

You don’t think Trump has ever advocated violence? We won’t even talk about January 6th, 2021.

As I read of Fred Trump’s destruction of his son Freddy, including mocking his apologies, was immediately put in mind of the depiction of Denethor son of Ecthelion in the Lord of the Rings movies. This is exactly how he was depicted in his treatment of the favored son Boromir and the rejected son Faramir, and it was painful to watch. This devastating exchange happens in “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” Before Faramir rides out to retake Osgiliath, Denethor tells him he wishes Faramir had died instead of Boromir. Faramir turns back and asks, “If I should return, think better of me, father,” to which Denethor chillingly replies, “That will depend on the manner of your return”. Excruciating cruelty, portrayed with horrid accuracy by John Noble.

The description of Fred Trump’s hatred of weakness is echoed in detail in a mini-essay by xenophonsXiphos; I have bowdlerized it slightly for a family-friendly blog.

I have experienced this kind of sadistic, passionate hatred for perceived weakness in my own life, as early as 1963. Bullies abound in the world, and they cannot be appeased. The only courses of action is to become like them (witness LeFou and Gaston in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,”) or to hit back at them so hard that they find an easier target with fewer consequences. They can not, sadly, be taught the error of their ways. What is certain is that in the American school system, while administrators crow loudly about their “zero tolerance policies,” these are nothing more than lip service to a problem they do not care to deal with and end up punishing victims often more than perpetrators. Not hard to understand why things like Columbine happen.

Footnotes

¹ Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man

² Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

³ A “gold star family” is a family who has lost at least one member to military conflict. During World War II, it was common for people to hang service flags in their window to indicate how many family members were actively serving n the military, blue for living and gold for deceased. In August 2024 the Red Star Service Banner was created by the Red Star Foundation. Creating a symbol of hope and recognition for the families who have lost a service member or veteran to suicide. On January 28, 2025, Rep. Jack Bergman (MI) read the Red Star Service Banner into the Congressional Record. You can still see these flags in many windows today.

Three-star service flag, indicating three family members in the service with one casualty of war.

The poison of Christian Nationalism

Posted on by The Old Wolf

In the Appendix to 𝐿𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑆𝑙𝑎𝑣𝑒 by Frederick Douglass (Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845), Douglass wrote:

“I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative, that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion. To remove the liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation. What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the 𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑣𝑒ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference — so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭: 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐮𝐩𝐭, 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧-𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐞-𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝. [Emphasis mine]. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels.”

The entire appendix – nay, the entire book, but the appendix is a representative summary of Douglass’ thought – is a short but compelling read, and I recommend it to anyone who wishes to understand the foundation of hate in Christian Nationalism.

The following text is a representation of how this attitude showed up in 1965, and which persists today, to the great shame and detriment of our society.

“The hate stare was everywhere practiced, especially by women of the older generation. On Sunday, I made the experiment of dressing well and walking past some of the white churches just as services were over. In each instance, as the women came through the church doors and saw me, the “spiritual bouquets” changed to hostility. The transformation was grotesque. In all of Montgomery only one woman refrained. She did not smile. She merely looked at me and did not change her expression. My gratitude to her was so great it astonished me.” Griffin, John Howard, Black Like Me.¹

Given the gross disconnect between the Christianity found in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon, and the behavior of far too many² of those who profess to be followers of Christ in the current timeline, it is no wonder that so many people are turning away from mainstream Christian churches, citing loss of belief, negative experiences, LGBTQ-related concerns, scandals, and politics.

As a nation, we must do better if we are to have a country that works for everyone, with no one left out. R. Buckminster Fuller expressed this idea in what came to be known as his “World Game,” after which this blog is named:

“Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Footnotes

¹ Black Like Me, first published in 1961, is a nonfiction book by journalist John Howard Griffin recounting his journey in the Deep South of the United States, at a time when African Americans lived under the Jim Crow laws. Griffin was a native of Mansfield, Texas, who had his skin temporarily darkened to pass as a black man. He traveled for six weeks throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia to explore life from the other side of the color line. Sepia Magazine financed the project in exchange for the right to print the account first as a series of articles.(Wikipedia)

John Howard Griffin as a Black man, walking under an arcade in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photograph by Don Routledge.

² It goes without saying that there are countless people in all Christian denominations who do their best to emulate the teachings of Jesus and go about, in a quiet and unassuming way, doing good. These are they who form a bulwark against the flood of openly-practiced hate and division of the hypocritical Christian Nationalists.

Another unscientific survey – the movie that made you laugh the hardest.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

The question was posted in a Baby Boomer group on Facebook.There were over 1500 responses (not including sub-levels.) Here is my tabulation, for your watching pleasure.

I saw this Charlie Chaplin movie (Modern Times) in the theater with my mother around 1961. It was the first time I was literally rolling in the aisles.
The Top Ten – Click to reveal the winners, with number of votes. If you ask me, no surprises.

Blazing Saddles 175

You know… Morons.

Young Frankenstein 108

Ƥᶙƫƫᶖᶇ’ ǫᶇ ƫⱨᶒ Ɽᶖƫᶎ

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 63
Airplane 53
Animal House 49
Caddyshack 39
Planes, Trains & Automobiles 38
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 34
Porky’s 33
The Birdcage 33

Here are the rest:

Note: Yes, I know there are a few duplications, such as “Anything Mel Brooks” and “Mel Brooks Anything” – but these are few,and I beg your indulgence.

My Cousin Vinny 29
The Jerk 22
Monty Python and the Holy Grail 21
What About Bob 20
Spaceballs 18
Anything Pink Panther 16
Home Alone 16
Uncle Buck 16
Up in Smoke 16
Arthur 14
Dumb and Dumber 14
Stripes 14
The Gods Must Be Crazy 14
Weekend at Bernie’s` 14
What’s Up Doc 12
Anything Mel Brooks 11
Smokey and The Bandit 11
Some Like it Hot 11
The Party 11
The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming 11
Tommy Boy 11
Coming to America 10
Multiplicity 10
Trading Places 10
Blues Brothers 9
The Great Outdoors 9
The Money Pit 9
Anything Monty Python 8
Money Pit 8
Mrs. Doubtfire 8
Fawlty Towers 7
Life of Brian 7
Princess Bride 7
Uptown Saturday Night 7
Arsenic and Old Lace 6
Beverly Hills Cop 6
Friday 6
Grumpy Old Men 6
No Time for Sergeants 6
Overboard 6
Something About Mary 6
The Black Knight 6
The Producers 6
White Chicks 6
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum 5
Anything Marx Brothers 5
Cat Ballou 5
Foul Play 5
Harlem Nights 5
History of the World Part 1 5
Liar Liar 5
Major League 5
Naked Gun 5
Raising Arizona 5
Ruthless People 5
Which Way is Up 5
American Pie 4
Anything Jerry Lewis 4
Anything Mr. Bean 4
Back to School 4
Beer league 4
Bridesmaids 4
Clue 4
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels 4
Galaxy Quest 4
Happy Gilmore 4
Harvey 4
MAS*H 4
Me, Myself and Irene 4
O Brother Where Art Thou 4
Revenge of the Nerds 4
The Big Lebowski 4
The Court Jester 4
The Great Race 4
The Meaning of Life 4
The Out of Towners 4
There’s Something about Mary 4
A Fish called Wanda 3
A Million Ways to Die in the West 3
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 3
Ace Ventura 3
Anything Cheech and Chong 3
Baby’s day out 3
Best in Show 3
Bringing Up Baby 3
Dr Strangelove 3
Fast Times at Ridgemont High 3
Flying High 3
Good Morning Vietnam 3
Grandma‘s Boy 3
Hear no Evil, See no Evil 3
High Anxiety 3
Hollywood Knights 3
Joe Dirt 3
Major Payne 3
Mr. Mom 3
Murder By Death 3
My Fellow Americans 3
RV 3
Secondhand Lions 3
Ski Patrol 3
Stir Crazy 3
The Apple Dumpling Gang 3
The Long, Long Trailer 3
The Nutty Professor 3
The Odd Couple 3
Tootsie 3
Vacation 3
Yours, Mine, and Ours (Lucille Ball) 3
1941 2
A Day at the Races 2
All of Me 2
Anything Charlie Chaplin 2
Anything Chevy Chase 2
Auntie Mame 2
Bachelor Party 2
Bad Santa 2
Borat 2
Bowfinger 2
Cannonball Run 2
Captain Ron 2
Car wash 2
Christmas with the Kranks 2
Cool Runnings 2
Duck Soup 2
Easy Money 2
Escanaba in da Moonlight 2
Father Goose 2
Heat 2
Home Alone 2 2
Inner Space 2
Jumanji 2
Kentucky Fried Movie 2
Little Miss Sunshine 2
Mars Attacks 2
Midnight Run 2
Mouse Trap 2
Mr Hobbs Takes A Vacation 2
Muriel’s Wedding 2
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
Nacho Libre 2
Napoleon Dynamite 2
Office Space 2
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 2
Peewee’s Big Adventure 2
Rocket Man 2
Rustler’s Rhapsody 2
Shot in the Dark 2
Silver Streak 2
Sister Act 2
Slap Shot 2
So I Married an Axe Murderer 2
Soggy Bottom USA 2
Something’s Gotta Give 2
Sons of the Desert 2
Stepbrothers 2
Support Your Local Sheriff 2
The Cowboy Way 2
The Mask 2
The Naked Gun 2
The Son-In-Law 2
The Toy 2
Undercover Blues 2
Victor Victoria 2
When Harry Met Sally 2
Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2
40 Year Old Virgin
50 First Dates
A Christmas Story
A Comedy of Terrors
A Guide for the Married Man
A Hard Day’s Night
A League of Their Own
A Mighty Wind
A Shot In The Dark
A weekend at Bernie’s
After the Fox
Airplane 2
Alien
Almost Famous
An Inconvenient Truth
Animal house porkys
Any Trinity Movie
Anything Bob Hope
Anything Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
Anything Don Knotts
Anything Laurel and Hardy
Anything Madea
Anything Mel Brooks
Anything Peter Sellers
Anything Richard Pryor
Anything The Three Stooges
Apple Dumpling Gang
Austin Powers
Back in Action
Bad Grandpa
Bad News Bears
BaseketBall
Bedazzled
Bedtime story
Beer Fest
Big
Big Business (1929)
Big Business (1988)
Black Sheep
Blackbeards Ghost
Blue Streak
Bruce Almighty
Burglar
Bustin’ Loose
Canadian Bacon
Cannibal: The Musical
Caveman
Chicken Run
Christmas in Connecticut
City Slickers
Clerks
Cold Turkey
Come September
Coneheads
Cotton comes to Harlem
Crocodile Dundee
Dan in Real Life
Day at the Races
Dazed and Confused
Death at a funeral
Death at a funeral (British Version)
Delirious
Desk Set
Django
Don’t Tell Her It’s Me
Down Periscope
Dream Team
Dutch
Edward Scissorhands
Elf
Employee of the Month
Envy
Eraserhead
Every Which Way But Loose
Father of the Bride
Fletch
Folks
Forrest Gump
Friday the 13th
From here to Eternity
George of the Jungle
Get Smart
Ghostbusters
Going South
Goonies
Groove Tube
Groundhog Day
Grumpier Old Men
Gus
Hall Pass
Hangover
Happy Texas
Head
Hellzapoppin
Hold that Ghost
Hollywood Shuffle
Hooper
Hot Fuzz
Hotshots
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
I’m Gonna Git You Sucka
Inner Space
Jaws
Joe’s Apartment
Johnny Dangerously
Jumping Jack Flash
Just Friends
Just Visiting
Kelly’s Heroes
Kingpin
Kingpin
Kung Pow
Law Abiding Citizen
Les Misérables
Lethal Weapons
Life Stinks
Little Man
Look Who’s Talking
Love Stinks
Love You to Death
Ma And Pa Kettle
Mask
McClintock
Meet the Parents
Midnight Run
Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
Moving violations
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Mr. Mom
My Blue Heaven
My Favorite Year
My Name is Trinity
Night at the Roxbury
Night of the Living Dead
Night Shift
Norbit
Nothing to Lose
Notting Hill
Oh God You Devil
Old School
Operation Petticoat
Oscar
Our Relations
Our town
Out of Towners
Over the Hedge
Paint Your Wagon
Paper Moon
Paulie
Pillow Talk
Play it again Sam
Police Academy
Pootie Tang
Private Benjamin
Private Eyes
Pure Luck
Rat Race
Red
Rings Star in Caveman
Road Trip
Robin Hood (Disney)
Robin Hood Men in Tights
Rock and Roll High School
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Sailor Beware
Sand Lot
Scared Stiff
Scrooged
See No Evil Hear No Evil
Seems Like Old Time
Serial Mom
Shanghai Noon
Shrek
Silent Bob
Silver Streak
Son in law
Spies Like Us
Spinal Tap
Splash
Steele Magnolias
Strange Brew
Student Bodies
Summer of 42
Survivors
Talladega nights
Team America
The Life of Brian
The 5th Element
The Absentminded Professor
The Apartment
The Bank Dick
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Big Chill
The Boat that Rocked
The Caveman
The Devil In Miss Jones
The Full Monty
The Full Monty
The Funny Farm
The Ghost and Mr Chicken
The Ghost Breakers
The Godfather
The Golden Girls
The Hangover
The Happening
The Heat
The Hollywood Knights
The In-Laws
The Life of Brian
The Man Who Knew Too Little
The Man with 2 Brains
The millers
The Odd Couple
The Parent Trap
The President’s Analyst
The Shart
The Three Amigos
The Trouble With Angels
The Twelve Chairs
The Villain
This is Spinal Tap
This is the End
Three Men and a Baby
Three Studies
Throw Momma from the Train
Titanic
Tom Jones
Top Secret
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
Wag the dog
Waking Ned Devine
Walk Like a Man
Way Out West
We’re the Millers
Weird Science
Welcome Back Kotter
Where da White Women at
Where the Buffalo Roam
Who’s Harry Crumb
Wild Hogs
Year One
Yellowbeard
Yes Man

If anything, this list should provide an abundant supply of laughs for those who enjoy silliness. As always, Your Mileage May Vary, because taste cannot be argued, or even explained. You like what you like, and no one’s approval is required. Me, I’m not wild about gross stupidity (such as “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”) but hey, you do you.

The Old Wolf has Spoken.

Lemons

Posted on by The Old Wolf

This meme has been around for a while. On September 19th, 2019, Twitter user @PetrichorCrown posted artwork of a cat tasting a lemon, causing their face to retract, with the caption “Am I a comic artist now?”.

From there, as things tend to do on the internet, the meme went wild. At “Know Your Meme,” it’s referred to as “Thour.” I thought I’d share a few examples – some of them are quite clever.

Millepede –> Pill Bug
Don’t know this character
This is my reaction as well.
An early entry
Eevee gets in on the action
An especially clever entry
I am woefully behind the times on pop culture. A hazard of growing older.
Greyhounds are funny animals anyway.
Should I know who this is?
This one is very old school. By the way, did you pay for it?
Now we’re getting into the realm of the bizarre.
And more meta still
Play the reverse card and you get…
This creature must have super powers
But not everyone has the same reaction to lemons.
This one is extraordinarily dark – click to reveal the image

The Old Wolf has spoken.

A Toast to One’s Own Downfall

Posted on by The Old Wolf

It is almost impossible to describe how primitive Trump’s approach is and how much joy it brings to the enemies of the USA: After his suicide as a superpower, America will find it difficult to regain its status.

Guest post by Timothy Snyder in the Süddeutsche Zeitung

The United States is spending billions of dollars to lose a war against Iran that enriches its oligarchs, impoverishes its citizens, damages its alliances, and strengthens its enemies. The war reveals a guiding principle of US President Donald Trump ‘s foreign policy : superpower suicide. Empires rise and fall, but to my knowledge, no state has ever intentionally and systematically destroyed its own power—certainly not with such speed.

Note: The original Article in English – “America’s Superpower Suicide” – is at Project Syndicate, but is behind a paywall. This is a German translation by Jan Doolan. (Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2026) which has been back-translated by Google translate. It’s a poor substitute for the original English, but the text is important enough that I felt it should be shared.

This strategic suicide is hard to admit: one still hopes that Trump’s failures are based on some understanding of the US national interest . They are not.

A superpower must at least be a modern state that—through the rule of law and other institutions—encompasses a substantial number of citizens committed to a common goal. But the Trump administration treats the US not as a modern state, but as a business opportunity for a select few.

To remain a superpower, a state must also be able to sustain itself over time. Continuity depends on a principle for the transmission of political authority. By striving to remain in power indefinitely and undermining trust in elections, Trump is challenging the very principle that enables political succession in the United States. There are, of course, other ways to achieve this, such as dynastic rule or a politburo decision. A transition to either of these forms—one could imagine the circle of tech oligarchs responsible for the rise of Vice President JD Vance as a capitalist politburo—would spell the end of the American republic.

The Trump administration has gutted the civil service and replaced the military leadership.

Ensuring the right people are in positions of power is crucial for a state to gain and maintain power. Throughout history , powerful states have found various ways to identify qualified individuals and promote them to leadership positions, regardless of their background. Ancient China had a system of examinations. Napoleon established the principle of merit in both civilian and military life.
The US, for its part, once had a civil service the world envied, as well as a highly merit-based military. But the Trump administration gutted the civil service and replaced the military leadership—a process overseen by people unqualified for the positions they held. The fact that Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and Pete Hegseth are now Director of National Intelligence, FBI Director, and Secretary of Defense, respectively, is a clear indication that a superpower is committing suicide.

In a deeper sense, a superpower must have an education system that prepares its population, and thus its political leaders, to face global challenges. But in Trump’s USA, public education is being defunded, universities face reprisals if they defend academic freedom, and school libraries, including those at military academies, are being purged of useful books.

Similarly, the appreciation of science, which fueled the rise of many great powers, has come under attack in Trump’s USA. Like the ancient Mesopotamians, whose astronomers developed scientific methods for mapping the heavens, and the Romans, who used the scientific knowledge of the Greeks to build an empire, the USA became a superpower by creating government institutions to fund science and attract scientists—often immigrants.

However, the Trump administration has launched a shocking offensive against science. It is withholding research funding for political reasons, preventing aspiring and established scientists from moving to the US, and questioning fundamental scientific findings such as human-caused climate change.

Even if Trump’s new battleships were built, they would be completely unsuitable for modern warfare.

As a result, the Trump administration abruptly halted the energy transition in the US and instead increasingly subsidized ecologically and economically obsolete fossil fuels. As a superb forthcoming book demonstrates, societies that embrace new forms of energy rise; those that do not perish. This may be the most profound truth in human history and makes Trump’s decision an existential error that will accelerate the decline of the US and empower China—its main competitor and the global clean energy superpower .
The same applies to the technology and innovation that underpin military power. The US has always spent enormous sums on armaments. Yet the administration is focusing on equipment of the past, including a new class of battleships to be named after Trump . The plan is a complete pipe dream. Even if these battleships were somehow built, they would be utterly unsuitable for modern warfare, the contours of which have been laid bare by the high-tech war between Russia and Ukraine. They can be considered doomed from the moment they are launched.

The Ukraine war is a prime example of how the Trump administration disregards the art of diplomacy in favor of “deal-making.” Yet there is ample evidence—including his kowtowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin—that Trump doesn’t know how to negotiate. Furthermore, US allies are vilified and ostracized for no other reason than personal grievances .

Without a sense of national interest, there can be no understanding of the purpose of alliances. Nor can there be any appreciation of the international system—the laws, rules, and norms that underpin US global dominance. It is almost impossible to describe how primitive Trump’s approach is and how much pleasure it brings to the enemies of the United States.

The war against Iran is a strategic defeat; to the extent that the US had any objectives at all, they were not achieved.

This brings us back to Iran. In international confrontations, a superpower wins at least sometimes. But the Trump administration loses time and again. The war against Iran is a clear strategic defeat; to the extent that the US had any objectives at all, they were not achieved. Trump’s policies have resulted in more enriched uranium remaining in the hands of an even more radical Iranian regime, which possesses new sources of economic power (control of the Strait of Hormuz; intimidation of the Gulf states), and have made it virtually impossible for the US to exert any influence on Iranian society.
The government also celebrates defeats in symbolic ways, as is characteristic of declining states. Consider Hegseth’s comparison of the rescue of a downed US pilot to the resurrection of Jesus—a blatant blasphemy that could distract us from the underlying strategic helplessness. Such Christological imagery is used to transform a defeat in the real world into a victory in an imaginary one. Polish Romanticism, for example, viewed the collapse of a republic (primarily due to wealth inequality) as proof that Poland was the “Christ of nations.”

Finally, many states are losing power because they simply cannot afford to maintain it. For the first time since 1945, US national debt is higher than gross domestic product. A useful point of comparison: large deficits are normal when facing a challenge like World War II. But the Trump administration is running these deficits for a very different reason: to avoid taxing wealthy individuals and corporations. This approach—which views the government as a service provider for the super-rich—is incompatible with winning wars or maintaining the social services that make a modern society function.

Reforms and corrections are no longer relevant, because the suicide of the US as a superpower under Trump is a symptom of the democratic distortions and inequalities that enabled such a world-historical strategic folly in the first place. What made the US a superpower also enabled the current attempt at self-destruction. Instead of striving for a return to the former status quo, intensive efforts must now be made to reshape US policy so that people are given more power to create a more just future.

Dear USA: When You Were Awesome

Posted on by The Old Wolf

This sad love letter to the USA was written by one of our civilized Aussie mates and posted on Facebook. The good folks down under like to use a lot of spicy language for emphasis, but I try to keep my shares family-friendly so I’ve taken the liberty of bowdlerizing this entry, and I hope I’ll be forgiven. But if you want to read the essay in all it’s glory, you can click here.

You might be cool, but you’ll never be purple safari suit cool.

Dear USA: When You Were Awesome

A letter to America from the boy in western Sydney who was once your biggest fan

May 14, 2026

I was 5 years old at Saint Mary’s South Primary School when I first fell in love with you.

Her name was Miss Hess. Blonde hair. An accent I’d never heard before in my whole short life. I remember her standing at the front of our kindergarten classroom and being absolutely mesmerised. I asked her where she was from. She told me she was from the United States of America. Somewhere down south. Alabama, maybe. I don’t remember exactly. I didn’t even know what a United States even was at the time. What I remember is the way the words came out of her mouth. The roll and lilt and warmth of them. They sounded like the films we’d already started watching. They sounded like everything good.

A 5-year-old in western Sydney doesn’t have the words for “I am infatuated with my kindergarten teacher because she’s from a magical place.” But I was. Completely. And from that moment, you had me.

That’s how it started. With a blonde American lady at the front of a New South Wales classroom, telling a barefoot Aussie kid about the country she’d come from.

You can build the rest of a life on a foundation that small. I did.

Because you were the greatest country on the face of the bloody earth. Everyone knew it. Everyone said it. The dream was to go there one day. To stand under the Statue of Liberty and look up. To stand on the rim of the Grand Canyon and look down. To walk over the Golden Gate Bridge. To get a photo at the Empire State Building. To lose your shirt at a Las Vegas card table. To take your kids to Disneyland. To eat a hot dog in Times Square.

You sent us Hollywood and we ate it whole. You sent us Indiana Jones and Marty McFly and Han Solo. You sent us Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin. You sent us the moon landing on grainy footage and we watched it in school assemblies. We were hypnotised by the technologically of an advanced civilisation as if we were still rubbing two sticks together trying to discover fire.

When Crocodile Dundee went to New York, I went with him. Every Aussie kid did. We sat in our lounge rooms half a world away and walked the streets through Mick’s eyes and the whole thing felt close enough to touch. Like maybe one day, we’d get there too.

When I was a teenager, my uncle bought a Rambler Matador. Big American sedan. Chrome you could see your face in. Then a Rambler X. Big two-door coupe. He called it the big American job and I’d run my hand down the panels like I was touching a piece of the country itself. I felt so proud sitting up in that front seat turning heads everywhere we’d go.

He’d go to Vegas every chance he got. Come back with stories. The casinos. The lights. The buffets the size of a school hall. The way the air conditioning hit you when you walked into a hotel lobby. The way the dealers called you sir. The way the whole place seemed to exist on a scale Australia couldn’t compete with.

I’d sit there as a teenager and listen to him with the same wide-eyed awe a 5-year-old had for Miss Hess. You were still the dream. Still the place. Still everything good and big and possible. The richest people on the face of the earth. Wall Street. Manhattan. Texas. California. The kind of country a kid from western Sydney could only get to by saving every coin for a decade.

Friends would come back from their own trips with their own stories and I’d absorb every one of them. The skyline at night. The redwoods. The size of a steak. The taste of a Coke from a glass bottle. You were a country, and you were also a feeling, and you were also a promise.

And then one Tuesday morning your towers fell.

I remember exactly where I was. I remember the heaviness in my chest that didn’t lift all day. I remember the pounding headache that wouldn’t quit. I remember feeling physically ill in a way I couldn’t put words to, because what I was feeling wasn’t shock or fear, it was grief. The grief of a kid watching the older brother he idolised get sucker-punched on live television.

We watched the people jumping. We watched the firefighters running in. We watched a country built on optimism take the worst hit of its history. And we cried for you. Not the polite kind of crying. The proper, shoulder-shaking, can’t-believe-this-is-happening kind.

We had our own dead in those towers too. Australians who were just there for work, for love, for a long weekend. They died with your dead and we mourned them together.

It was the Musketeer thing. All for one. One for all. That’s what we were to you and that’s what we believed you were to us.

And when you went to war, we went with you. Bush invaded Iraq on the back of a lie about weapons of mass destruction and somewhere deep down a lot of us knew it was a stretch. But the wound of 9/11 was still raw and we were not going to leave our mate alone in a dark room. So we went.

Vietnam. Iraq. Afghanistan. Three of the bastards. Wars you started. Half of which were wrong before the first boot hit the dirt.

But we didn’t cut. We didn’t run. We sent our blokes, our brothers, our dads, our cousins, our schoolmates, to fight beside yours. We buried our diggers under flag-draped coffins. Long Tan. Tarin Kowt. The whole bloody mess of it. We stood with you because that’s what mates are meant to do. Even when you’d screwed it up. Even when the cause was wrong. We showed up.

Because that’s what the little boy at Saint Mary’s South had been taught to do. That America was worth dying beside. That the bond was real.

But somewhere along the way, you started losing your mind in public.

It happened gradually at first. The kid from the kindergarten classroom, now a grown man, didn’t notice it straight away. He noticed Hollywood went a bit dark. He noticed your news started screaming. He noticed your politicians stopped looking like leaders and started looking like grifters. He noticed your churches got loud and your guns got louder. He noticed the kids getting shot in their classrooms while you did nothing. He noticed Charlottesville. He noticed Ferguson. He noticed the slow grinding way you couldn’t seem to fix the things you used to be so proud of fixing.

The boy from Miss Hess’s kindergarten was watching his older brother slowly come apart on the kitchen floor.

And then you elected him. Twice.

A man found liable in your own courts for sexual abuse. An adjudicated rapist. A convicted felon. An insurrectionist who sent a mob to murder his own vice president and then watched it on the telly with a Diet Coke. A thrice-bankrupt steakhouse hustler. A spray-tanned pardoner of pedophiles who took his pen, once back in the Oval Office, and walked rapists and child abusers out of prison because they wore the right hat on the right day.

This is who 77 million of you chose. Not once. Not Twice. Third time the charm. With more votes the second time than the first.

The boy from Saint Mary’s South could not believe it. Refused to believe it the first time. Wept the second.

And how did this bloke repay the country that bled beside you for half a bloody century? He disparaged the free trade deal we’d signed in good faith. Slapped tariffs on Australia. On Canada. On Britain. On every mate who’d showed up when it mattered.

After Long Tan. After Tarin Kowt. After every coffin we sent home from a war you started. He treated us like an enemy.

And then he set about the rest of the world. Threatened to annex Canada like it was a Monopoly square. Threatened Greenland. Belittled prime ministers in the Oval Office on camera. Disparaged NATO. Cuddled up to Putin while telling Ukraine they were on their own. Shook down friends. Rewarded dictators.

The little boy who loved you would not have recognised the country you’ve become. He would have closed his picture book and asked Miss Hess where the real America had gone.

But before I go any further, I need to say this clearly. Because there’s a version of this letter that lumps every single one of you in together, and that version is not just unfair, it’s wrong.

I am not talking to the critical-thinking Americans.

I am not talking to the millions who saw this coming and tried to stop it. I am not talking to the women who marched in Washington. I am not talking to the unions. I am not talking to the teachers showing up in red states to teach actual history. I am not talking to the lawyers fighting this in court. I am not talking to the doctors quietly performing the procedures you’ve made illegal. I am not talking to the journalists getting fired for telling the truth.

I am not talking to Jimmy Kimmel. I am not talking to Stephen Colbert. I am not talking to Seth Meyers and John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon. I sit on the other side of the Pacific and I watch your monologues at 8 o’clock in the morning over a long black and I laugh and I cry and I say out loud to Mitzy, “These bastards still get it. These bastards are still in the fight.”

You critical-thinking Americans, you are not the country I’m writing this letter to. You are the country I still love. You are the country Miss Hess told me about, before things went sideways. You are the version of America the little boy in the kindergarten classroom was infatuated with. You haven’t gone anywhere. You’re still in there, fighting like buggery, and I love you for it.

I’m with you. The rest of the world is with you. We see you. We hear you. We feel your pain. We are not turning our backs on you.

But we are turning our backs on the 77 million.

We are turning our backs on the brain-dead imbeciles. The Fox-marinated cousins. The QAnon mothers. The church-going hypocrites with the gun safe in the rec room. The Confederate-flag-flying pensioners. The silent-majority golf-cart Republicans who knew exactly what he was and voted for him anyway. The 77 million morons who looked at a man bragging about grabbing women by the pussy and a list of 30-something felony convictions and said yes, this bloke, this one, this is the one I want running the country my children will inherit.

And yes. The good Americans are going to suffer too. The tariffs will hit your blue-state retirees. The recession will hit your union households. The collapse of soft power will hit your students abroad. We know that. We don’t want that. It breaks our hearts. But there is no version of the world’s response that punishes only the guilty and spares only the innocent.

We’re all suffering. We’re all going to keep suffering. And if it takes the rest of the world turning its back to make the 77 million finally understand what they have done, then so be it.

We have tried polite. We have tried diplomatic. We have tried hand-wringing. None of it has worked.

So the world is going to send the only message left. Withdrawal of trade. Withdrawal of trust. Withdrawal of admiration. Withdrawal of immigration. Withdrawal of tourism. Withdrawal of the assumption that you are the leader of the free world. The kind of message that gets through skulls thicker than two short planks.

And it might, just might, drag a few of the lazy non-voters off the couch next time. The ones who weren’t going to vote for him but couldn’t be arsed voting for anyone else. The ones who let this happen by sitting it out. Maybe when they see how bad it gets, they’ll find their way to a polling booth in 2026 and 2028 and actually do their bit.

And there’s one more thing I want to say, and it’s to the Democrats.

When you win it back, and you will, you have to actually fix it this time.

You don’t get to go back to the way things were. You don’t get to coast on the relief of him being gone. You don’t get to spend the next 4 years patting yourselves on the back for being the adults in the room.

Because what made him possible was 40 years of neoliberal rot. 40 years of offshoring. 40 years of stagnant wages. 40 years of healthcare bankruptcies. 40 years of pretending trickle-down was real economics and not a hostage note from the donor class. The germination of Trumpism is in the soil you helped till. You and the Republicans both, but you, the Democrats, were supposed to be the bulwark, and you sold out to the same donors and now here we are.

So when you get the keys back, you have to dig the rot out. Tax the bastards. Break up the monopolies. Fund the schools. Cancel the medical debt. Build the housing. Stop pretending Wall Street is the economy and Main Street is just there to applaud.

And throw a boatload of criminals in prison.

Him. His cabinet. The lawyers who helped. The senators who looked the other way. The donors who funded the coup attempt. The judges who shielded him. Build the cages and fill them. And keep them in there, year after year, in their orange jumpsuits, so that the next would-be Trump, and there will be a next one, knows exactly what is waiting for him at the end of the road.

Accountability is not optional. Accountability is the only vaccine.

The grief is the worst part. Not the rage. The grief.

It’s the grief of a man in the Blue Mountains who used to be a 5-year-old in Miss Hess’s kindergarten, sitting at his desk, trying to explain to his readers why the country he grew up loving is now the country he can’t bear to watch. It’s the grief of an older brother going off the rails and not being able to drag him back. It’s the grief of watching the Statue of Liberty become a hollow joke. It’s the grief of watching Captain America turn into the bloke he was created to fight.

You used to be awesome. You really did. And we loved you for it. Not as a satellite state. Not as a junior partner. As a friend. As a mate. As something close to family.

But the little boy is grown now. And the older brother has lost the plot.

So the rest of us, the Aussies, the Kiwis, the Canadians, the Europeans, the Japanese, the South Koreans, all the kids who used to look up to you, we’ve had to grow up too. We’ve had to become the adults in the room. We have to hold the line on democratic norms. We have to keep climate policy alive. We have to stand with Ukraine. We have to defend the rules-based order that you wrote and are now spitting on.

The student has become the teacher because the teacher has had a stroke and is yelling at the wheelie bins.

And it breaks my heart. It really does. Because somewhere in me there is still a 5-year-old at Saint Mary’s South Primary School, looking up at a blonde American kindergarten teacher with stars in his eyes, wanting you to come back. Wanting Miss Hess to be from a country I still admire. Wanting the McDonald’s and the moon landing and the Bruce Springsteen songs to belong to the country I loved. Wanting Captain America to be a hero again. Wanting to look up.

But the boy is a man now. And the man is sad. And the country he grew up loving is gone.

We will love what you used to be for as long as we can remember it. And we will mourn what you’ve become for the rest of our lives.

And when you come back to us, if you come back to us, we will be here. Heartbroken. Tired. Older. But still your mates. Because in the end, that is what we are.

We just need you to come back. We miss you.

IFLA ~ Gman

Shared with love by The Old Wolf

Burning the GOP

Posted on by The Old Wolf

https://xcancel.com/TheRoot/status/2054698203489214848

Transcript:

—-

A Louisiana resident who identified himself as Marshawn delivered a fiery, emotional speech to lawmakers during a state Senate hearing over redistricting Monday, accusing Republicans of trying to “cheat” Black voters out of political power.

—-

“I have no doubt in my mind that the map’s going to pass, if y’all could give us less than zero seats you would do it. 

Y’all do this under the orders of someone who says the civil Rights act was harmful to white people, that it caused Reverse racism. 

RFK [Jr.] said that black children are overfilled on antidepressants and that they need to be re-parented on different forms, all of them. 

Pete Hegseth constantly brings Doug Wilson to the Pentagon to give a prayer service. Doug Wilson is the same pastor that said slave owners were on strong spiritual ground.

I don’t have no belief on no morality on anybody that follows Donald Trump.

If you wasn’t with this map, you wouldn’t be underneath this President, you wouldn’t be in your party.

You would stand up, you would stand against it, you would speak out about it. 

So as far as I’m concerned, if you here as one of these Trump Republicans, you already showed us who you are. You showed us what you want to do. And I believe the country as a whole is rebuking your party.

Y’all are in a death spiral. That’s why you have to redistrict. That’s why y’all have to cheat. That’s why Trump got to go to Texas and say he entitled to five more seats. It because y’all know what y’all is doing is abhorrent. 

We letting our people die in Iran based on false pretense, that Tulsi Gabbard and Joe can’t say it ain’t real. 

Y’all okay with all that. So I’m positive that y’all goin’ be ok with the map. But the beautiful thing is, the children that y’all have made, and the people that’s younger than y’all, don’t support none of this racism that y’all want.

The MAGA party is the last breath of the Confederacy, and I’ll be happy to see the millennials and gen z bury y’all. There will be no more of your party. The midterms gonna come and y’all gonna get wiped out. 

Trump gonna get dragged out of the White House, and I’m gonna love every second of it. Because y’all loved every second of the suffering that he caused to everybody in this country, and worldwide.

We starvin’ Cuba. We bombed Nigeria. We holdin’ Zimbabwe and Zambia hostage for they minerals. We don’t want to give them AIDS support. The pro-lifers that say “all life is special,” y’all letting kids die of AIDS. What part of your Bible say that? Point out the scripture. I think everybody would love to see it. And we would love to see y’all in the midterms.”

—

After this powerful speech, the Republican in charge tried to hit back with this weak-sauce “neener neener” response: “Your hat says, ‘Trump was wrong about everything.’ It should say ‘You are wrong about everything.’ “

Marshawn clapped and said, “Adorable. Burn!”

An Open Letter to Chief Justice Roberts

Posted on by The Old Wolf

This beautiful letter was written by “Lucinda Law” (@Cindy Lineberry) and published on Facebook. It deserves wider exposure, so I repeat it here in its entirety.

Dear Justice Roberts,

It has come to my attention through your various media appearances that your feelings are hurt — that people view you and your Court as political actors, which you insist is not an accurate understanding of what the Court does.

So let me resolve the confusion: the misunderstanding is yours, not ours.

People believe your Court is political because it is and acts so in plain view of the nation.

You unleash unlimited corporate money into elections by inventing constitutional protections for concentrated wealth. You dismantle voting protections while dining with the very political movement that benefits from their destruction. You expand presidential immunity in ways conveniently favorable to a corrupt executive you have rewarded with extraordinary deference, 90% deference. And then you perform public astonishment when Americans recognize your pattern.

Your Court did not merely “interpret” the Constitution. It selectively hollowed it out whenever democratic participation threatened entrenched power.

Citizens United accelerated America’s transformation into an oligarchy where billionaires and corporations wield more political influence than millions of citizens combined. Shelby County gutted the Voting Rights Act, after which states moved with remarkable speed to burden the very voters the Act was designed to protect. The immunity ruling signaled that sufficient power can place a president beyond meaningful accountability.

Then you publicly mourn the collapse of trust. What exactly did you think would happen?

Legitimacy is not something a court grants itself while issuing ideologically convenient outcomes wrapped in constitutional language — when the public is fortunate enough to even receive a full opinion instead of another consequential ruling buried in the shadow docket.

Legitimacy is earned through restraint, consistency, ethical seriousness, and fidelity to principle even when principle is inconvenient to power.

This is precisely the credibility your Court squandered. We understand perfectly well what we have been watching. We all see you and your court and its role in what our nation has become.

And we are furious — not because we are too ignorant to understand constitutional law, but because we are capable of reading the Constitution you claim to defend- while watching this Court repeatedly twist it to serve its own ideological will.

History will remember this era. And it will remember you and your Court- not as a guardian of constitutional democracy, but as a key institution that eroded it. That is already your legacy, so stop whining- you earned a nation’s scorn.

I wholeheartedly endorse this letter to the chief justice of the most illegitimate, compromised, partisan SCOTUS that has existed in my ¾ century of life. Only three of the justices currently strive to interpret the Constitution as it was written – a document designed to create a world that works for everyone, with no one left out. The other six? Well, not so much.

These six are determined to turn the United States into a Christian Nationalist Autocracy, and have ruled in favor of Trump and MAGA and the Heritage Foundation’s agenda in more cases than I ever thought possible. When this regime falls, as fall it must, they will be remembered with the kind of historical opprobrium reserved for the worst societal outcasts – people like Joseph McCarthy, Boss Tweed, or Andrew Johnson.

“Sir, are you trying to show your contempt for this court?”
“No, your honor, I am doing my best to conceal it”

The Old Wolf has spoken.

My list of the greatest Science Fiction movies.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Disclaimer: Your Mileage May Vary. If you don’t like these, just click away.

These are given in no particular order because rating them would just be too hard. I love them all.

The Last Starfighter

Just a fun romp, great popcorn flick, arcade game love letter.

Men in Black

This is a placeholder for all three. No. 2 is the weakest, but still a good ride. Number 3 made me cry. Griffin is my favorite one-off character in the series.

Dune (1984)

An utterly worthy adaptation of part of Frank Herbert’s epic saga, which is virtually impossible to adapt. I enjoyed the follow-ons, Timothée Chalamet and his co-stars did a marvelous job, and the effects were breathtaking… but this one stands alone. The third-stage guild navigator scene alone is memorable for effects-fu. Lisan al-Ghaib!

Independence Day (1984)

“We will not go quietly into the night!” Bill Pullman’s speech gives me frisson of delight every time I see it. Never mind the plot holes, it was a joyous ride. “Welcome to earth! *Bam!* Now that’s what I call a close encounter!”

District 9 (2009)

A brilliant, terrible film that I have only ever been able to watch once because it’s so disturbing, but it left me hoping for a sequel which never appeared.

The Fifth Element (1997)

Watching Leeloo weep as she learned about war tore my heart out. The only thing worth saving in this terrible timeline of ours is love. Gary Oldman’s performance was amazing, but interestingly enough he didn’t care for the rôle.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014, and sequels)

I could re-watch any of these, although I thought the second one was weaker than the other two. These characters play off each other wonderfully.

Rogue One (2016)

The tragic prequel to “A New Hope” and the finale to the Andor saga, this story not only kept me on the edge of my seat but also ripped my heart out.

Them! (1954)

I have some friends with a sheep ranch in West Virginia. At night, in the pond behind their house, the peeper frogs come out and begin to sing. Since the sound of these giant ants was taken from their calls, I pretty much decided that I would not venture out in the evening.

Gattaca (1997)

I stupidly never cottoned on to the clever use of GTCA in the title until I had watched this movie the second time. If the people trying to destroy our government in favor of an oligarchic cabal of the wealthy have their way, most of us would find ourselves “invalid.” May they never be permitted to prevail.

Serenity (2005)

The idiots at Fox cancelled Firefly after one season, but Serenity allowed the fans of the series, of which my wife and I count as two, to have a modicum of closure. I am encouraged, however, by the current efforts of the original cast to launch an animated sequel, starring the voice talents of those who are still alive (RIP Shepherd Book). May this come to fruition!

Soylent Green (1973)

Saw this first in a drive-in theater when it came out. One of the first “dystopian” films I saw, well done for its time – Edward G. Robinson’s performance was masterful and touching, his last credited rôle before he passed away. If you’ve never seen this one and don’t know the story, I recommend it even though it’s a bit dated now.

Silent Running (1972)

Every time I hear the theme song, “Rejoice in the Sun,” sung by the incomparable Joan Baez, I can’t stop the waterworks from coming. This iis a masterwork ahead of its time.

The Iron Giant (1999)

One of the best animated films ever made. “I am not a gun.” You do not have to be what others expect you to be.

Terror from the Year 5000 (1958)

I have written an entire blog post about this one. Scared the crud out of my 7-year-old self for years, and I was terrified of walking past dark corners, or closets with their doors ajar, for the longest time. But revisiting the movie as an adult, I found out it had a decent message and featured the beautiful Salome Jens in her breakout rôle.

Galaxy Quest (1999)

This love-letter to the Star Trek universe is one of the most amazing parodies-turned-serious I have ever seen. Patrick Stewart was recorded to have said,

“I had originally not wanted to see [Galaxy Quest] because I heard that it was making fun of Star Trek and then Jonathan Frakes rang me up and said ‘You must not miss this movie! See it on a Saturday night in a full theatre.’ And I did and of course I found it was brilliant. Brilliant. No one laughed louder or longer in the cinema than I did, but the idea that the ship was saved and all of our heroes in that movie were saved simply by the fact that there were fans who did understand the scientific principles on which the ship worked was absolutely wonderful. And it was both funny and also touching in that it paid tribute to the dedication of these fans.

Another recorded quote:

Best of all, [Stewart] loves the movie Galaxy Quest, a sublime Star Trek spoof. “Jonathan told me to see it. I said I didn’t want to see the piss taken out of me by Alan Rickman and the rest. He told me to see it in Santa Monica on a Saturday night. I did, and it was perfect, fantastic, one of my all-time favourites. They got it exactly right — that’s how it was, and the ending was right at the heart of the spirit of Star Trek.”

I had the honor of seeing “Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary” in the theater with my wife. It was a wonderful tribute to both Galaxy Quest and Star Trek all on its own, and I heartily recommend it.

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

“Look, Mummy! There go the firemen! There’s going to be a fire!” This was a loving adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s seminal novel about a world in which books were totally banned. On the odd chance that you have neither seen the film nor read the book, I will provide no spoilers… but it’s a classic, and especially well done for its time.

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Michael Crichton knocked it out of the park with this book, one of the first ones I acquired as a member of Book of the Month Club. A great read, and a worthy adaptation which spawned numerous “disease gone rampant” films in years to follow, such as Contagion and Outbreak.

Annihilation (2018)

High, high on my list of favorites. It flies in the face of multiple science-fiction tropes that depict alien life as some variation of bipedal humans with different colored skin. The truth may be closer to what this film chillingly emphasizes: when and if we ever encounter alien life, it may be virtually nothing like what we have ever imagined.

Interstellar (2014)

Also rising to the top of my list is this beautiful, brilliant exploration of one attempt to save humanity from encroaching disaster. Heavier on human drama than scientific accuracy (a lot of speculation about what’s inside of and around a black hole, more fantasy than science), it always brings tears of joy and sadness to my eyes, as it did once again last night.

Avatar (2009)

James Cameron’s epic saga, now in its third iteration. From a storytelling standpoint, it’s Fern Gully meets Pocahontas, repeated three times – but especially the first one, depicted here, created a world of stunning visual graphics and utterly believable effects. I saw the first one in 2010 with my new bride, in 3D; this was quite the visual extravaganza which gave me a bit of a headache it was so overwhelming, but boy howdy do you get right into the amazing world of Pandora.

Contact (1997)

“You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.” ― Carl Sagan, Contact

A wonderful adaptation of Carl Sagan’s novel, one of my favorite reads and a movie I will return to often.

E.T. (1982)

Always a classic. The practical effects were sometimes clunky, but by the end of the film you have fallen in love with one of the oddest-looking characters imaginable. Beautiful film, beautiful story, punctuated by the heart-pumping music of John Williams.

The Martian (2013)

I can’t belive it’s been 13 years since this film came out. It feels as though it was just yesterday that I was contemplating the power of science to overcome an impossible situation. A galloping adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, and will be worth watching long into the future. As far as the practicality of a colony on Mars, despite the excesses of Elon Musk, I recommend reading A City on Mars by the Weinersmiths, an important analysis of whether or not might be able to – or even should attempt to – establish a human presence on our neighboring planet.

Back to the Future (1985)

From the Twin Pines Mall to the Lone Pine Mall, this trilogy of films featuring Christopher Lloyd and the heroic and brave Michael J. Fox never ceases to entertain. There’s very little to say in praise of these films that has not already been said by many others. These always invite a re-watch and have become part of cinematic legend. If you have a Roku device and watch the Roku City screen crawl, the famous Clock Tower takes a place of honor in the lineup of hat tips to wonderful movies.

Wall-E (2008)

How a film manages to suck you in and enchant you with almost 42 minutes of zero dialog is a tribute to the world-building of Pixar Studios. Not only a morality tale but also one of the sweetest and most improbable love stories that I have ever seen, I revisit this movie regularly if my heart needs warming – which it does, often, in this dystopian timeline we find ourselves in.

Frequency (2000)

Two coinciding aurora events allow ham radio contact between a man and his son 30 years in the future. Many “Butterfly Effect” twists and turns, but a lot of love and a happy, satisfying ending. My wife and I love this film.

Inception (2010)

Does the top keep spinning or not? We’ll never know, but I have my own thoughts on this multi-layered expedition into the world of dreams. It’s complex enough (along the lines of Donnie Darko, another great film that I have – for reasons of my own – not included in this list) that you need a graphic guide to get your head around what’s happening. I have provided one for you here, for your gratuitous enjoyment (art by Rick Slusher).

The layers of Inception
Forbidden Planet (1956)

One of the great B-movies of the ’50s, this film stands the test of time for good science fiction. Along with ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still” (next one on the list), it has remained a beloved classic of the science fiction genre. Beware the Monster from the Id!

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Made the same year as I was born, this film, for me, embodies the science fiction I grew up with as soon as I learned to read and could plunder my father’s library of sci-fi classiscs from the 40s through the ’60s. Based loosely on the 1940 science fiction novelette by Harry Bates, it warns humanity of destruction to come if we don’t clean up our act. While the ending fails to include the unexpected twist at the end of Bates’ tale, it still packs a punch. The remake of 2008 is… “interesting,” but doesn’t hold a candle to the original.

Ex Machina (2014)

This one is chilling. It basically asks the question, “What would happen if an artificial intelligence with no moral constraints is unleashed upon the world?” And, to add to the impact, the answer is not provided, but rather implied in a terrifying manner.

Minority Report (2002)

What would happen if you could catch criminals before they had committed their crimes? This re-imagining of Phillip K. Dick’s story tries to answer that question, and the product is a great watch.

The Thing (1982)
The Thing from Another World (1951) 

This is a twofer, because both versions are based on the 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell Jr. (writing under the pseudonym of Don A. Stuart). When I was growing up in New York in the ’50s and ’60s, I would sometimes sneak out of bed while my mother was sleeping and watch “The Late Late Late Show” on TV, and the 1951 version was a regular on this program. Suffice it to say that it gave me nightmares. James Arness as the monster was chilling to a kid of 10. But I think if I had, at that age, been able to view the indescribable effects shown in the 1982 edition, I would have had a heart attack and died young. Both films are worth watching if you like the science fiction genre.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

The 1968 Planet of the Apes is loosely based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des Singes (Monkey Planet) by author Pierre Boulle. I read the novel in translation before seeing the film, and the fact that the movie spawned an entire parade of sequels and remakes and re-imaginings speaks to its impact and durability. Despite any flaws you might find in the simian makeup, the acting is outstanding, and yes, there is a twist at the end that I won’t spoil for you in the event that you don’t know the story. As for other versions, I am partial to the 2001 version starring Mark Wahlberg, and the series featuring Andy Serkis as Caesar. I never delved into the sequels of the original film, preferring to maintain in memory the adaptation of Boulle’s original story.

Arrival (2016)

As a career linguist, I can confidently say that this is one of the most captivating science fiction films I have ever seen (re-watched it yesterday, since we’re on the subject, and yes, I cried again and no, I’m not ashamed.). It’s based on the 1998 novella “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, and is very hard to describe without spoiling the impact of the film. But it sits squarely at the top of my “favorites” list.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

A wildly critical and financial success, grossing over $300 million on a production budget of $19.4 million (very considerable at the time), this masterpiece by Steven Spielberg, again with music from the masterful John Williams, stands as an epic entry in the science fiction pantheon. The model of the Mother Ship used in the film’s production sits in the Udvar-Hazy Space Museum, and includes numerous fun Easter eggs inserted by the designers, many of which can be seen here. Always worth a re-watch.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Watching a PanAm space clipper gracefully approach a space station under construction to the beautiful strains of Johann Strauss’ “Blue Danube’ waltz forever cemented in my mind the beauty and perfection of this adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s novel. This film has been praised and demonized and discussed almost ad nauseam, because many people just don’t get it… but it helps to read the book, and its sequels (2010: Odyssey Two (1982), 2061: Odyssey Three (1987), and 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997)), which make everything about the film clear. The film is utterly timeless, and the visual effects (minus the somewhat clunky proto-human costumes) are just stunning. This film may just be my “number one,” although it’s hard to say when there are so many competing candidates.

Star Wars (1977 onward)

Imperial Star Destroyers

Aside from a passing reference to the Star Wars universe above in my inclusion of Rogue One, I haven’t talked much about these wonderful films.

  • Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
  • The Special That Shall Not Be Named (1978)
  • Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  • Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)
  • Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984)
  • Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985)
  • Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)
  • Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
  • Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005)
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars (film, 2008)
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars (series, 2008)
  • Star Wars Rebels (2014)
  • Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
  • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
  • Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017)
  • Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
  • Star Wars Resistance (2018)
  • The Mandalorian (2019)
  • Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
  • The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
  • Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021)
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
  • Andor (2022)
  • Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi (2022)
  • Ahsoka (2023)
  • Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (2024)
  • The Acolyte (2024)
  • Skeleton Crew (2024)
  • Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld (2025)

I have never seen a fan base that hates its core material more than that of Star Wars. So much complaining and whining and moaning about this or that or the other not being “canon,” or “official,” or “accurate,” or… well, you get the idea. As for me, I love every single bit of the Star Wars universe (the “special that shall not be named” is an exception). Every one of them. And the animated Clone Wars. And all the spinoff series. They’re all great, and they work together to form a comprehensive and consistent world of adventure from a galaxy far, far away.

I will not be taking questions.

Star Trek

I mentioned the Star Trek universe briefly in the description of Galaxy Quest above, and there are a lot of films in this franchise.

Original Series

  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  • Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
  • Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  • Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
  • Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Yes, films V and VI of the Original Series were weaker, but I still watch them. Seeing Christopher Plummer as a Klingon captain always makes me smile, whereas the ending of The Wrath of Khan broke my heart. (As usual, no spoilers in case you’ve been living in a commune with no electricity for the last 50 years.) I think the general consensus is that IV – “Captain! There be whales here!” – is the best of the lot.

Next Generation

James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane in “First Contact,” meeting the Vulcan envoy.
  • Star Trek: Generations
  • Star Trek: First Contact
  • Star Trek: Insurrection
  • Star Trek: Nemesis

All of them are great, but for me, First Contact is my favorite for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the theme music. Best Star Trek theme ever (Voyager runs a close second). Many loving nods to the Next Generation series.

2009 Reboot

“The ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I’ve got left is my bones!”
  • Star Trek
  • Star Trek Into Darkness
  • Star Trek Beyond

All I can say is that I was devastated that there would be no more of these films. Each and every actor channeled their predecessor with astonishing precision; Christopher Pine was James Tiberius Kirk; Zachary Quinto had the good fortune of communing with Leonard Nimoy before he passed, and the latter praised both his skill and his professionalism; Karl Urban is an actor for the decades, and even though he was unable to consult with DeForest Kelley, he nailed that rôle to absolute perfection. How I wish they could have continued this timeline.

Conclusion

There are more. So many more. Hundreds more. So many, in fact, that I probably forgot to include a few of my own favorites. But this list mentions the main bulk of sci-fi films that I have loved and continue to love until my last breath. Like I said, your mileage may vary – If you have a list of your own favorites, link it in the comments!

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Cushlamochree! Stung by another Facebook Scammer

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I do my best to be hypervigilant about scams, but there is so much going on in the world to worry about that sometimes I let my guard down as I reported here.

We recently remodeled our kitchen, and I thought these under-cabinet lights would be just the thing for a bit of extra illumination while working.

I started getting bad vibes from this company called “Aptsociable” when I noticed the actual charge to my credit card included $9.41 for sales tax on an order of $25.37, a 31% tax rate. When I inquired at their customer service address, they responded with this:

According to your email address, we have detected that you did not place an order in our online shop. Could you please checkour order details again? We are afraid that you may reach out to the wrong company and the wrong person.

After providing screen captures of my order confirmation and PayPal receipts, they sent this:

We feel so sorry for your dissatisfaction.
The additional charge was made due to system error.
We credited that additional charge back to your original account.
Please kindly wait for 2-3 business days for the confirmation
message from the bank. 
Yours sincerely,

Customer Service Team

Then I started receiving updates from shipping@24hservice.vip, the same bogus shipping company I mentioned in my earlier post, indicating that my package was working its way through Belgian customs, was being inspected, was in transit, and finally had been shipped to the US.

The package arrived yesterday (direct from China, it had been nowhere near Belgium). It was so small I had no idea what it could have been. Inside, there were four of these (guitar pick for scale)

The only good thing I can say about these little things is that they work, although the light they generate is woefully inadequate. I’m more angry at myself for falling for another shady Chinese merchant than I am at the weasels themselves; by now I have a firm conviction that many Chinese internet marketers, especially the ones who advertise on Facebook, have all the ethics of a starving honey badger. It is also worth noting that Chinese advertisers on Facebook, including those from China, have been linked to widespread fraud and scams, with reports showing Meta earned billions from such ads—up to 19% of its China ad revenue in 2024—despite internal efforts to curb them. Meta tolerated high levels of these fraudulent ads (e.g., scams, porn, illegal gambling) to protect revenue, even after reducing them temporarily in 2024. Zuckerberg is, in my humber opinion, a scumbag.

The package, incidentally, was shipped from “Davve Garzaz, 1825 Paradise Trail, East Stroudsbury [sic], PA” There is a Stroudsburg, but no Stroudsbury. And this is what Google Maps shows for that address:

A rather abandoned-looking structure in the middle of a rural neighborhood.

These vendors pop up with a computer-generated name, make enough sales to generate some profits, vanish into the haze, and reappear later with a new name and the same merchandise. Being in China with only an ephemeral internet presence makes them impossible to find, and very difficult to extract compensation from. The best I could do in this case was to send their customer service address one final Message:

我订购的商品今天收到了。
这些灯的实际尺寸只有我预期的三分之一左右。
这四盏灯加在一起，根本就不值35元。
我真是受够了被那些无良的中国商家欺诈！
这绝对是我最后一次通过Facebook广告购物了。
你们真该为自己的所作所为感到羞耻！
你们全家都下地狱去吧。

I can only hope someone actually reads it and feels a slight twinge of shame for their duplicity and lack of ethics.

Dr. Frank Crane said, “You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment unless you trust enough.” I’d still rather not live in torment, but I’ve got to get better at not being sucked in by duplicitous Chinese vendors.

The Old Wolf has spoken, rather ashamedly.