2026 Oscars

Photo taken by RAP in LA, August 15, 2025

As I do annually, this post reviews Academy Award nominees in major categories and provides my rankings within them. I am not predicting winners and only rank the films I have seen. Again this year, I have not seen very many of the movies, so I will be updating this post extensively in the future and noting the edits with yellow highlights. 

You can find my post about last year's Oscars here and work backwards if you want. 

Best Picture

“One Battle After Another”

“Train Dreams”

“Sinners”

“Frankenstein”

“Bugonia”

I suspect that a couple of the films I have not seen will push towards the top of this list, but I can only rank what I have watched to-date. Were most of these films better than Eddington? Or Black Bag?

“F1”

“Hamnet”

“Marty Supreme”

“The Secret Agent”

“Sentimental Value”

Directing

Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”

Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”

Every year I struggle with ranking in this category -- I usually just put them in the same order as I do the films unless there is a good reason not to do so.

Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”

Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value”

Chloé Zhao, “Hamnet”

Actor in a Leading Role

Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”

Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”

I don't think DiCaprio is going to win a second Oscar this year and Jordan did play two characters. 

Timothée Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”

Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”

Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”

Actress in a Leading Role

Emma Stone, “Bugonia”

I do not think Stone will win a third Oscar and doubt that she deserves it for this role. I saw a lot of Jessie Buckley last month as we watched the entire run of Fargo, the series. She's talented.

Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”

Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”

Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”

Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”

Actor in a Supporting Role

Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”

Benicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”

Delroy Lindo, “Sinners”

Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”

There's apparently a lot of buzz about the one performance I have not yet seen (Skarsgard), but Sean Penn could absolutely win for this role. He was great. I would be very surprised if the other 3 won.

Stellan Skarsgard, “Sentimental Value”

Actress in a Supporting Role

Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”

Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”

I would not be surprised if Taylor won, but obviously I still have to see several other performances. 

Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”

Amy Madigan, “Weapons”

Animated Feature Film

This is one of those years that I did not see any of these films. 

“Arco”

“Elio”

“KPop Demon Hunters”

“Little Amélie or the Character of Rain”

“Zootopia 2”

Documentary Feature Film

I have neglected this category often in recent years. It happened again.

“The Alabama Solution”

“Come See Me in the Good Light”

“Cutting Through Rocks”

“Mr. Nobody Against Putin”

“The Perfect Neighbor”

International Feature Film

Honestly, I probably would have watched "The Secret Agent" in a nearby theater while traveling in the UK if it was shorter (it runs 160 minutes). The problem with "Sentimental Value" and "Sirat" is that they were not showing at a non-chain theater near me. I'll view several of these soon, most likely. 

“The Secret Agent,” Brazil

“It Was Just an Accident,” France

“Sentimental Value,” Norway

“Sirat,” Spain

“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Tunisia

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Best Films of 2025

The graphic below identifies the top 25+ films from 2025 that critics ranked on their end-of-year "best of" lists. The full list goes to 100 and if you are interested in seeing it, I'm sourcing the list from the same website as I used last year. I'm fairly certain that the methodology for compilation is the same. Here's the detail I posted last year:

Films are sorted by the percentage of lists they are included on.* This is typically the same as sorting by number of lists included, but can vary when films make lists across multiple years.  For example, if one film makes 10 lists in a year with 100 lists available, it’s ranking will be higher than a film that makes 15 lists when 200 lists are available.  The times a film appears at the top of a list is used as a tie-breaker.

*punctuation errors corrected 

Basically, this is an annual best films comment that I'm posting for 2025. This is the post about the best films of 2024. Below this graphic, you'll find my rankings of these films (by tiers) with a lengthy list of the ones I still need to see. As I watch them over time, I'll edit the post but note the changes with yellow highlighting.  

This "best of" comment is distinct from both the annual post on "films of 2025," which is my end-of-year musing about all the films I saw in a calendar year, and my annual Oscar post, which concerns that year's Academy Award nominees. I have seen some 2025 films in early 2026 and will post about the Oscars soon.

This is my reranking of the top 25:

Top-Tier Films (Oscar-bait)

One Battle After Another

Black Bag

Second-tier films (very good, with minor flaws)

Sorry, Baby

Train Dreams

Eddington

Sinners

Third-tier films (watchable, but more flawed)

Frankenstein

Bugonia

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Fourth-tier films (some serious flaws)

Films yet to see:

28 Years Later

Afternoons of Solitude

Blue Moon

Caught by the Tides

Hamnet

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

It Was Just an Accident

Marty Supreme

Misericordia

No Other Choice

Sentimental Value

Sirat

The Mastermind

The Shrouds

The Secret Agent

Weapons

Glancing through the rest of the top 100, I've seen the following films already and rank them roughly in this order:

Souleymane's Story (76)

A House of Dynamite (52)

The Ballad of Wallis Island (61)

The Phoenician Scheme (33)

Eephus (26)

Roofman (73)

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (38)

Jay Kelly (39)

Companion (84)

One of Them Days (72)

Materialists (54)

Highest 2 Lowest (50)

Friendship (48)

Superman (27) 

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (74)

Nearly all of these films would be in my second or third tier above. 

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Honorary Kansan?

Today my spouse and I visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. This is one of the artists most famous paintings (Sunflowers):

In case you don't know, the sunflower is the state flower of Kansas.

This is his painting of a wheat field. 

Kansas calls itself the "breadbasket of the world" because of the volume of wheat it produces.

Maybe you are familiar with this self-portrait:

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Books of 2025

  

Annually, I write a post listing almost all of the books I read during the calendar year. It seems kind of hard to believe, but I have produced such a post every year since 2005. This is a link to the 2024 list if blog readers want to work backwards. You will find that the books are loosely ranked within categories. 

Nonfiction:

John Owen, Ecology of Nations: American Democracy in a Fragile World Order (Grawemeyer winner for 2025)

Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism

Jonathan Caverley, Democratic Militarism

Ronald Kramer, Apocalyptic Crimes; Why Nuclear Weapons are Illegal...

Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World

Michael Lewis, The Premonition

These were all good books, though the Lewis work is not as tight as the ones he often produces. I've previously disclosed a writing project that explains several of these choices and I was solicited to review Kramer for a journal.  

I read several other books for this category that I am not listing here. This is because I do not include works that I did not read cover-to-cover even if I read huge chunks of them. 

Also, I do not include any works that I reviewed unless those reviews were published. In practice, this means that this post will not include the books I reviewed for the Grawemeyer Awards in Ideas Improving World Order. I generally won't disclose reading a book in that process unless it happens to win. Even then, I mostly read those winning books after they have advanced in the process, it is very rare that a book I was asked to read advances to win. I can think of maybe 2 or 3 examples over a period of decades.

Baseball/Sports Non-Fiction:

Joe Posnanski, The Soul of Baseball; A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America

Jane Leavy, The Last Boy; Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood

Ted Williams with John Underwood, My Turn at Bat

Bob Gibson with Lonnie Wheeler, Stranger to the Game

Dan Gutman, The Way Baseball Works

Philip Lowry, Green Cathedrals

John Dewan, The Fielding Bible 

KC Star, George Brett: A Royal Legend

Jeff Montgomery with Matt Fulks, If These Walls Could Talk: KC Royals Stories... 

Anthony Castrovince, Fan's Guide to Baseball Analytics

Chuck Woodling, Against All Odds: Kansas Won the 1988 NCAA Championship

Steve Cameron, George Brett: Last of a Breed

I continued my trend of reading lots of baseball non-fiction. Most of these books I own and I'm trying to decide what might be worth keeping. 

Posnanski's book is well worth your time and I really enjoyed the books about Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, and Bob Gibson. Your experience may vary. For more information I recommend you read my reviews at Goodreads. 

Several of the books on this list I read a few pages at a time over breakfast or lunch. These include the works on George Brett, the 1988 Kansas basketball champs, Lowry's Green Cathedrals (about stadiums), and Dewan's Fielding Bible. 

Literature and Genre Fiction:

Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys

John Updike, The Coup

Jonathan Lethem, Brooklyn Crime Novel

Samantha Harvey, Orbital

Depending upon who is reading them, two or three of these works might be considered genre fiction. However, the authors and/or subjects are often considered literary. The books by Towles and Whitehead are highly recommended. One is about half the length of the other and it does not lose much in its efficiency. 

I was disappointed in this Updike work, but really disappointed in Lethem's book. And Orbital was too unconventional for my tastes. 

Genre Fiction:

Donald Westlake (as Richard Stark), Butcher's Moon (Parker #16) 

Chris Pavone, The Expats

Kate Atkinson, Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie #4)

Philip Kerr, A Quiet Flame (Bernie Gunther #5)

Eric Ambler, Passage of Arms

Lawrence Block, Hit List (Keller #2)

Stephen King, Colorado Kid

Helen MacInnes, Assignment in Brittany

Ruth Rendell, Wolf to the Slaughter (Inspector Wexford #3) 

Mick Herron, Slow Horses 

Michael Dibdin, Cabal (Aurelio Zen #3)

Lawrence Block, Out on the Cutting Edge (Matthew Scudder #7)

Ian Fleming, Man with the Golden Gun (James Bond #13)

Agatha Christie, Evil Under the Sun (Hercule Poirot #24)

Walter Mosley, Six Easy Pieces (Easy Rawlins #8) 

Everything above this paragraph is superior to the fiction that follows. I actually gave Butcher's Moon 5 stars on Goodreads but it is for long-time Parker fans -- don't start there if you are unfamiliar with the series.

Beyond crime novels, this list includes quite a number of spy stories. The Slow Horses TV show is so loyal to the book that it is hard to recommend the book if you already watched the series. I doubt I'll read more of them as a friend said the series was generally loyal and he's read all or most of the books. 

I'd recommend these listed books by Pavone, Ambler, MacInnes, and Fleming. Apparently there are more Kate Moore stories by Pavone, but this is the first, so you don't need to read any of these others after reading something else. That goes for James Bond because I assume you are familiar with the character.

Donald Hamilton, The Wrecking Crew (Matt Helm #2)

James Burke, Dixie City Jam (Dave Robicheaux #7)

Joel Goldman, The Last Witness (Lou Mason #2)

Garrett Epps, The Floating Island

William Forstchen, One Second After

John Grisham, Calico Joe

Ross Macdonald, The Ferguson Affair

Robert Parker, Crimson Joy (Spencer #15)

PD James, Unnatural Causes (Adam Dalgliesh #3)

Joseph Heywood, Ice Hunter

Philip K. Dick, Time Out of Joint

Sue Grafton, O is for Outlaw (Kinsey Millhone #15)

James Michener, Legacy

James Crumley, The Right Madness (CW Sughrue #4)

Most of the rest of the books on my list received 3 stars on Goodreads, though the last few here were unimpressive and disappointing. Grafton's books have appeared near the bottom the last two years but I'll probably plug along anyway. A couple of the books are the first in a series and I'm not sure I'll be reading more of them (Forstchen and Heywood). Many of these authors have written books that I enjoyed more than the ones I read in 2025. 

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Films of 2025

 

Attribution: Steve Morgan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

As usual, there are numerous well-reviewed 2025 films that I did not yet see during the calendar year. Many have been released in recent days and weeks and I won't see them until 2026 -- or later. Still, this year I saw many very good to excellent films from 2025. 

Long-time readers may recall that it used to take great effort to figure out which movies were released this year and which movies I saw. I used to consult various lists, box office numbers, etc. However, now that I'm using Letterboxd, I have a really good feel for the exact movies I saw this year -- and a fairly good idea of which of them were released in 2025. A few of these titles are listed with 2024 production dates, but I'm fairly confident that if they are here, they were not widely distributed in the US until 2025. This includes some that my spouse and I saw at film festivals. 

FWIW, I saw a large number of 2024 films this year too and if I was writing it now, would significantly revise last year's post on the Films of 2024. Indeed, I logged 92 films this year on Letterboxd so the list below is obviously only a sliver of my viewing. 

I write an annual version of this post so anyone interested an use that link to work backwards -- or simply click on the film labels below the post to see a list. 

We attended festivals in Collingwood, Ontario (Blue Mountain viewings are noted with ***) and Indianapolis, Indiana (Heartland is ****) and saw five films in total at those events. We also saw a couple of other films in theaters while traveling -- on a really hot day in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and on a festival day in Indy when we could not get good seats for a different movie (** below). Mostly, these movies were streamed on our television, though a few involved library DVDs. 

The first few films I discuss are excellent, but really the top 15 are all worth seeing.

Both of the top 2 films deal with immigration, which confirms that this is a globally important political issue since one is from the US and the other is from France and the immigrants are from Latin America in one and Africa in the other. Paul Thomas Anderson has made a Tarantino-style movie with previous Oscar winners in key roles and Souleymane's Story is a relatively small film with a novice actor. 

Black Bag is a fun spy film that is exceptionally well done with a great cast. 

One Battle After Another

Souleymane's Story ***

Black Bag

It's hard to separate the dozen films in the next group and they cover a diverse array of topics. An interesting spin on a crime story set in Ireland, a modern take on the continuing problem of nuclear armament, and a film about recovery from sexual assault top the list, but the remainder of the films offer something for everyone -- interpersonal drama, the COVID pandemic and its politics/conspiracies, a small town baseball film, a human interest story based on a true story, a UFO movie, etc. Several are subtitled foreign films. 

Sinners has been getting substantial attention so you probably already know about it. I liked the film, but it was not among the very best movies I saw this year. 

Aontas ***

House of Dynamite

Sorry, Baby

Ballad of Wallis Island

Holy Cow ***

Eddington **

Sinners

The Phoenician Scheme

Eephus ***

Roofman **

Bugonia

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

Hello Out There ****

This final group includes films that could be worth watching, but I found them to be flawed in meaningful ways. At the top is an AI story, but there's also comedy, social commentary, fun sequels, attempted satire of billionaires, a retelling of a classic superhero story, and the final Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movie. The latter was overly long and predictable, sadly, and far from the best in the franchise. Bridget Jones was a better sequel. 

I was probably most disappointed in Mountainhead because it sounded like a sharp critique of economic inequality and the "billionaire boys [tech] club." Unfortunately, the writing was just so-so and I did not find it that engaging. 

Companion

One of Them Days

Materialists

Friendship

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Mountainhead

Superman

Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning

I will update this if I watch any new films before midnight on the 31st. I'm scheduled to be on a long flight and it is hard to predict what might be available and worth viewing. 


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Life Updates

This blog has not been the site of much posting for many years -- but this year I have said even less than usual. These days, I am far more likely to post about global politics on BlueSky. I post short film reviews on Letterboxd and Book reviews on Goodreads. Fellow beer drinkers that I know in some way can also connect at Untappd where I have been checking in beers since 2013!

As readers may know, I am in the midst of a full-year sabbatical. I read and reviewed Ronald Kramer's Apocalyptic Crimes: Why Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal and Must Be Abolished. You can find that review here (that's a link to the journal Peace & Change). Soon I expect to post a link to an article that is "in press" on "Evaluating the Resilience of US and Canadian Climate Policy" for American Review of Canadian Studies. I submitted page proof corrections October 30 but the journal has not updated online articles since early October. My contribution was meant to be part of a special issue on Canada-U.S. Environmental Relations and focuses on the Electric Vehicle policies that Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau pursued a few years ago. 

What else?

In October, my wife and I took a short road trip to Indianapolis to see a film at the Heartland International Film Festival which was recently named a top 25 film festival in the world. I imagine we'll find our way back up there again in the future though we only managed to see one movie this year: Hello Out There! We intended to go another evening but the remaining tickets at the venues of interest were less than ideal (front row in small theaters). Next year we'll plan better. HIFF does not really have daytime screenings Monday-Friday. We saw Roofman at a mall while we awaited our film the next night. Coincidentally, both of these films featured actors from the TV series Ted Lasso. 

For unfortunate health reasons, a planned October-November sabbatical visit to the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University in The Netherlands had to be postponed until 2026. I'm looking forward to it and my spouse is gradually recovering from an unexpected procedure. I'll post more about the project in the future. 

Meanwhile, I've been revising a conference paper on climate change politics from the Midwest Political Science conference from 2024 and working with Kurt Mills on version 2.0 of our 2020 article on America First and the Human Rights Regime. 

Now anyone who follows me on BlueSky probably has a better understanding of what I've been focusing on these past few months -- lots of climate change and Trump foreign policy -- and actions that seem to threaten American democratic norms and traditions. 


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No Kings

My spouse and I, a neighbor, and friends from different parts of town attended the No Kings rally in Louisville in the Crescent Hill neighborhood. Basically, peaceful protesters lined Frankfort Avenue for several blocks between 3 and 4 pm -- and numerous drivers tooted their car horns in support as they drove by. There were a few Trump supporters in vehicles that went by as well, but no one provoked violence on either side as far as I know. 

Based on the signs, people obviously had very different reasons for protesting. Many signs focused on Donald Trump's immigration policy, reflecting anti-ICE sentiment and support for due process for all. There were a lot of signs about the Epstein files. 

I didn't carry a sign but I'm quite disturbed by the masked immigration raids and deportations (again, without due process) of individuals to places like El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.  In Chicago recently, masked and heavily armed ICE agents allegedly broke down the doors in an apartment building while residents were sleeping and took everyone into the streets at gunpoint (including children). Dozens of citizens were zip-tied together, separated by race and ethnicity, and then interrogated. Eventually, people were bused away to determine if they were criminals. In the words of one resident, "They didn’t treat people like they were American.”

Local politicians have reacted with outrage:

“This raid wasn’t about public safety,” [Chicago] Mayor Brandon Johnson said several days later. “It was certainly not about immigration. This was about a show of authoritarianism, a forceful display of tyranny.”

I am even more concerned about the President's extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean (talk about lack of due process). This undermines the rule of law with the President effectively acting as judge, jury, and executioner. We don't even know if those killed have committed capital crimes. The President has labeled them as drug runners and thus narco-terrorists. The most recent attack has apparently killed an innocent fisherman. That's murder and the Department of Justice is not doing anything to address this. The Supreme Court may have made the President immune from crimes he commits as part of his official acts (as commander in chief, for example), but those firing the weapons are likely guilty of war crimes. The former President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, is in the Hague awaiting his trial for "crimes against humanity" for similarly ordering summary executions of alleged drug criminals.  

Trump is also usurping congressional power of the purse, arguably the most potent power of Congress in the American system of checks and balances. He's ended programs that were authorized (funded) explicitly by Congress (such as solar energy grants) and has lately started spending revenues that Congress has not authorized (he did this in his first term with regards to the border wall). America's founding fathers wanted Congress to be the most important branch of government.  If congressional Republicans want to end these programs, they could do it legally in the budget. The House is accountable every 2 years in elections, with one-third of the Senate also vulnerable every 2 years. 

Trump's tariffs are also a blatant misuse of presidential power as the so-called Commerce Clause of the US constitution explicitly grants Congress the power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations." Congress did pass some laws during the Cold War granting the chief executive power to enact so-called "national security" tariffs (or embargoes), but Trump has been using tariffs to generate revenues, punish states for non-security policy reasons, and as leverage in various negotiations. That's all illegal. If the Republican Congress wants tariffs, pass a law implementing them.

I took some photos, including several of the inflatable costumed critters and one of the main corner of the protest at Bauer. There were more people surrounding the Walgreens across the street from me than there were on my side. 

    

There was a much larger and better-attended event in downtown Louisville Saturday -- it was scheduled for 3 hours and there were speakers (as there were at other events around the US). My group of friends opted for the neighborhood choice. 

President Trump responded to these protests with a despicable AI-generated video of himself wearing a crown and bombing protesters (see below). CNN reports that 7 million people attended over 2700 events across the US on Saturday. Every state had a rally and many were in smaller towns -- not just cities. Kentucky is a red state of course and there were plenty of rallies in other states Trump won. 

CNN notes police reports of zero arrests in either Portland or NYC. 

 

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Resistance Strategy When the Government is Itching for Violence

Last week, President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth spoke to a group of U.S. generals and admirals they had assembled from deployments all over the world. Trump gave a rambling speech, but the most troubling part repeated something he said during his 2024 campaign. The U.S. military should be in the business of fighting what he called the "enemy from within" because it is a bigger threat to America. He noted that this threat was going to be a "big thing" for those assembled. He had recently signed "an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances."

Essentially none of the brass in the audience built their careers on fighting that alleged enemy from within -- especially considering that Trump seems to be talking about his domestic political opponents though he often conflated them with ordinary criminals (who rape, shoot or beat up people). He mentioned ambiguous threats from "insurrectionists" and said they were "paid by the radical left." Read the speech, it is not very clear.

In any event, it must be weird for career military official who have fought the Taliban, ISIS, or Iraqi insurgents to hear a president claim that domestic threats are worse these days. They have homes in the U.S. They can see that America is not like war-torn Iraq or Afghanistan. Why should they believe that these domestic threats are more worrisome than North Korean or Iranian nuclear weapons, or the rise of China as a great power? It's crazy talk, frankly.

Just to be clear, various sources of crime data find that violent and property crime is lower than it has been in decades. There was a 2020-21 blip from the pandemic, but that's it. 

I know a lot of international relations scholars that worry that threats are often inflated via fearmongering, but even they would be unlikely to accept Trump's ridiculous claims comparing foreign to domestic threats.

It was not just this speech that brought the issue forward, obviously. On September 25 Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum-7  which emphasized a (selective) handful of recent cases of political violence that led to a few deaths. He labels this domestic terrorism and basically blames "the left." He includes a set of anecdotes -- just like he has done when noting a few misleading cases over the last decade when discussing alleged immigrant crime. Yes, immigrants occasionally commit violent crimes, but the data have long shown that they do this less frequently than US citizens. 

Anyway, this is from that NSPM-7:

This political violence is not a series of isolated incidents and does not emerge organically.  Instead, it is a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence designed to silence opposing speech, limit political activity, change or direct policy outcomes, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.  A new law enforcement strategy that investigates all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them — is required. 

There is no data to support these claims. A recent think tank study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies report noted a recent uptick in left-wing political violence, but there were only a small number of total deaths this century and their data revealed that the right had been responsible for far more political violence for several previous decades. The death tally for the last decade was 112 killed by the right, 13 by the left. See Figure 3 and Table 1 if you click that link. That's 125 people total, or around a dozen per year.

As I used to note on this blog, terrorism is a rare event and domestic terror is even rarer. More people die from peanut allergies, bathroom falls, dog bites, etc. The FBI and other organizations have catalogued domestic terror incidents for many years and the CSIS finding is not unique -- political violence has been far more common from the right than from the left. It's certainly not been a serious enough problem to justify reorientation of the military to fight an "enemy from within." That last linked article notes that the Trump administration removed a recent government report with conclusions that contradict Trump's baseless claims. 

It seems like Trump, Stephen Miller, and perhaps Pete Hegseth are itching for combat in American cities. Trump himself has been telling outrageous lies about Portland burning in order to justify sending in the National Guard and/or U.S. military (as a "training ground" as he said in the speech last week). This is from his speech to the military leaders:

Portland, Oregon, where it looks like a war zone. And I get a call from the liberal governor, sir, please don't come in, we don't need you. I said, well, unless they're playing false tapes, this looked like World War II. Your place is burning down. 

I visited Portland for nearly a week in mid-August and the city is not burning. It has problems with traffic and unhoused people, but there are no riots -- or even large protests like there were in summer 2020 (possibly the source of Trump's claims about Portland). I saw a handful of protesters outside a Tesla dealership. Look on social media and residents have been posting all kinds of photos demonstrating the normalcy of Portland life. 

There was a huge insurrection during the final days of Trump's presidency, but he praised that January 6 action and then pardoned all the convicted criminals this year -- even if they had committed violent acts against police officers. Such hypocrisy!

My fear is that Trump et al are sending troops and National Guard members to blue cities like Portland and Chicago (after LA and DC) in hopes of provoking the kinds of civil unrest witnessed in 2020 -- sufficient to allow them to invoke the Insurrection Act and occupy those cities. Those are Trump's words, not mine.

One obvious provocation involves ICE activities in blue cities and states. It is easy to find video footage of masked ICE agents using violence to break down doors, crash through windows, push people around. There do not seem to be many arrest warrants and the media reports plenty of cases when citizens are rounded up with other immigrants. Most immigrants now in ICE detention have never been convicted of a crime. 

Most of the worst stuff from ICE seems to be happening in blue cities and states. In my blue city in a red state, Louisville, the mayor agreed to a 48 hour hold on inmate immigrants. In other words, if an immigrant is arrested, then the city allows the federal government 48 hours to make a decision about deportation. Louisville is thus not a sanctuary city. But, apparently as a result of this agreement, there have been almost no raids and arrests have not ticked up as they have in other cities and states. Anecdotally, I often see Latinos in construction and lawn care, seeming to work without concerns about ICE agents. 

Trump voters in Kentucky (and other red states) might ignore or dismiss the news about heavy-handed ICE practices because they don't see anything like that happening in their cities and states. We residents of red states do know what that looks like. In summer 2020, BLM and Breonna Taylor protests in Louisville definitely triggered authoritarian responses from the police and people could see the streets brimming with protesters and police with occasional violence and some vandalism. 

Should red state activists increase protests in calmer areas? I'm not calling for violence -- quite the contrary -- but perhaps some sizeable ICE protests in red states would reveal more clearly that the administration is implementing a political strategy and not a public policy. How would the administration address large protests in Louisville, Memphis, Birmingham, New Orleans, Dallas, etc.? 

At the same time, I think activists in blue cities and states should be very clear that they are committed to non-violence. Especially if a regime is itching for violence, opposition violence is ineffective and counterproductive, as well as dangerous. The inspiration provided by Gandhi and MLK should guide contemporary protesters. Gene Sharp assembled a huge array of non-violent political tactics. Have a look at his toolkit. 

More importantly, scholarly research by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan demonstrates that non-violent movements are far more likely to achieve their policy goals. They wrote a terrific book that I highly recommend, but you can look at this academic article if you want to read something shorter. 

I continue to worry about Trump's fascist instincts and he has been pushing the envelope throughout the year usurping legislative power (cutting spending authorized by Congress, declaring armed conflict on drug cartels, etc.). As Dan Nexon writes, the opposition needs to be planning -- and acting 

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Michigan Travel and Beer Update

White Flame Brewing, Hudsonville

This post is another update to my series of entries about Michigan beer. Basically, I'm listing places we visited on vacation this July and August (2025) along with prior visits to Michigan brewpubs. This is one instance where Google Timeline information is helpful. 

The vacation was fun, though imperfect. It was really hot in the south in late July -- we went to a movie in a shopping mall on a Sunday afternoon to beat the heat. We saw Eddington, which I will mention in my December movie entry -- but you can read about it now on my letterboxd page. Later during the trip, once we went upstate to Traverse City, the entire area got hit by wildfire smoke from Canada. It was disappointing and limited our outdoor activites somewhat.  

In any case, regarding the brewery listings, I'm not including stops where I didn't have at least one drink -- sometimes we decide a place is not for us, or I merely shop for beer. On the way home this summer I  bought some beer at Brewery Vivant in Grand Rapids. 

Given that Michigan has over 400 breweries, my personal list includes only about 6% of the total! I could move to Michigan and have a difficult time sampling all of them. 

2025 (1 new; 25 total) (new ones in bold)

Big Lake Brewing, Holland

White Flame Brewing, Hudsonville

Loco Boys Brewing, Traverse City

Jolly Pumpkin Brewing, Traverse City

Rare Bird Brewpub, Traverse City

Founders Brewing, Grand Rapids

We dined at all these spots and had the best meals in Traverse City establishments and at Founders. I doubt we would return to White Flame. 

Most of the other dining spots we hit were also beer friendly: Hops at 84 East in Holland, Hopcat Holland, 7 Monks TC, etc. 

2024 (5 new; 24 total) 

Latitude 42°, Kalamazoo (April trip)

Big Lake Brewing, Holland

Brass Ring Brewing, Grand Rapids

Two Guys Brewing, Grand Rapids

Short's Brewing, Elk Rapids location

Filling Station Brewing, Traverse  City

Workshop Brewing, Traverse City

Infinity Brewing, Traverse City (September)

Jolly Pumpkin Brewing, Traverse City (September)

Loco Boys Brewing, Traverse City (September)

We dined at all of these except Short's, where I mainly wanted to try the new Payne Pils. Latitude 42 and Brass Ring had the best food though we liked our meals at Big Lake and Workshop. The wait and service at Filling Station had us questioning our choice.

Incidentally, we've now also visited beer friendly HopCat locations in Grand Rapids (2 different locations), Ann Arbor, Detroit, Holland, Kalamazoo, and Louisville (sadly now closed permanently). 

October Update: The food was OK to good at both Infinity and Jolly Pumpkin, but Loco Boys was closer to very good/exceptional. They serve Mexican food! 

2023 (1 new; 19 total)

Griffin Claw, Rochester Hills near Detroit

Brewery Vivant, Grand Rapids

Founders, Grand Rapids

Brewery Vivant may have the best brewpub food we've found in Michigan. 

2022 (4 new; 18 total)

Odd Side Ales, Grand Haven

Unruly Brewing, Muskegon

Rare Bird Brewing, Traverse City

Cherry Republic Brewing Company & Public House, Glen Arbor

Founders, Grand Rapids

We dined at all of those places, though at Odd Side we had to order takeout from a nearby restaurant. They don't have food. 

2021 (2 new; 14 total)

Big Lake Brewing, Holland

Guardian Brewing, Saugatuck (closed/moved to Indiana)

Brewery Vivant, Grand Rapids

We also dined at all of these.

2019 (2 new; 12 total)

New Holland Brewing, Holland

Big Lake Brewing, Holland

Clam Lake Beer Company, Cadillac (2)

Filling Station, Traverse City

Workshop Brewing, Traverse City

MiddleCoast Brewing, Traverse City (was called Monkey Fist at the time)

We did not dine at Big Lake or MiddleCoast, but both have food (I think).

2018 (2 new; 10 total)

Workshop Brewing, Traverse City

Clam Lake Beer Company, Cadillac

Filling Station, Traverse City

We dined at these.

2017

I was on antibiotics that trip and did not visit any brewpubs and avoided alcohol. 

2016 (2 new; 8 total)

Saugatuck Brewing, Saugatuck

Filling Station, Traverse City

2015 (2 new ones, 6 total)

Short's Brewing, Bellaire

Rare Bird, Traverse City

We dined at these.

Older trips: (at least 4 visited, from memory)

New Holland Brewing, Holland

Mackinaw Brewing, Traverse City

North Peak, Traverse City

Jolly Pumpkin, Traverse City

We did not dine at Jolly Pumpkin, but they have food -- and various other locations across the state.

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Wildfire Season

There's a long introduction explaining the origins of the song...by singer Jobi Riccio. 

 

Of course one problem is that Wildfire Season is now 365 days in some places.

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Baseball Stadium additions

Globe Life Field, Texas versus Seattle Friday July 

I've seen professional baseball in dozens of ballparks -- many of them no longer open or even standing. My Dad and Mom took me to my first major league game in the early 1970s (I have not made an effort to pinpoint the game and my ticket stub collection is incomplete). It was in the old Municipal Stadium in KC so the game was probably in 1971 or 1972. Growing up in Kansas, this helped cement my lifelong fandom of the Kansas City Royals. In my youth, the team was terrific and George Brett was a huge star and eventual Hall of Famer. I attended his induction ceremony in Cooperstown. During college at Kansas, I occasionally made it to the park then known as Royals Stadium (now Kauffman, after the original owner). 

From 1984-1987 I lived within easy driving distance of old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore and attended many games while in graduate school in College Park. With friends, I also road-tripped to Philly, Boston, and New York -- seeing the Mets at Shea. I attended Yankee Stadium during the Cooperstown weekend. Two buddies from grad school also went with me to spring training 1987 and we saw 8 baseball games in 7 days, but these were all exhibitions in minor league parks or training facilities. 

While a doctoral fellow at Stanford I attended several A's games in the Colliseum and one Giants game in Candlestick. The next 3 years I lived in Chicago and went to numerous White Sox games at old Comiskey and a few Cubs games at Wrigley. I lived walking distance to the latter, but was an AL fan. From Chicago I road tripped to Milwaukee a couple of times to see the Brewers. 

On my honeymoon, my wife and I attended a Mariners game in the Kingdome. Before you say that is not very romantic, keep in mind that this was during the second week of that trip. On our 10th wedding anniversary, we went to Montreal for an Expos game at the Big O. 

Since moving to Louisville in 1991, I've seen the Reds in Cincy a number of times (2 different parks!) and have trekked to St. Louis to see the Cardinals (2 parks).  During trips to visit friends and family, I've seen the Nationals in DC (2 parks). On vacations over the years, I've managed to attend games in Detroit (2 parks), Toronto, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland (2 parks). On conference travel, I saw the Braves in Atlanta. Travel has also taken me back to Seattle and Chicago so I've seen new parks in those cities too. 

Earlier this month, I attended the SABR National Convention and added Texas's Globe Life Field to my list of parks (pictured above). Despite living in Waco for an academic year, and having a sister in Houston for many years, I never attended a Texas (or Houston) home game before.  In any case, the conference was fun and I had a chance to catch up with some old friends both at the conference and in the DFW area. My favorite panels involved a mix of former players, baseball journalists, and a former union lawyer-executive (Don Fehr). The players on these panels included Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins, former Expos pitcher Steve Rogers, and old knuckleballer Dodger-Ranger Charlie Hough. 

Adding Texas means that I've now seen 20 major league franchises in their home parks in 21 cities (Expos became Nationals). In August, I plan to make my first visit to Dodger Stadium to see LA versus San Diego. 

I'm not even going to attempt to list all the minor league parks I've visited over the years, but I've often blogged about those experiences. This summer I added Rochester where I attended a game on Memorial Day.  I've often organized minor league trips to see specific top-rated prospects who became future stars --  Bobby Witt was in Omaha when that team played Columbus in Ohio, I saw Vlad Guerrero Jr. (and Bo Bichette) in A ball in Lansing, Michigan, and Pete Crow-Armstrong in South Bend. The visiting team in Rochester this summer, Guardians affiliate the Columbus Clippers, featured Chase DeLauter. He homered. Remember that name even if he's not guaranteed to be a future all-star. 


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