Deputy Metro Editor at Chicago Sun-Times. Family, Trek, Zevon, Ireland, White Sox, Northwestern, journalism, teaching.
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Articles by John O'Neill
Movie review: Despite spurious conspiracy theory, ‘Wild Horse Nine’ is worth a watch Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Salvadore Allende was a Marxist. But he won a democratic election as president of Chile in 1970. Three years later, on Sept. 11, 1973, Allende died under mysterious circumstances. The official line was (and is) that he committed suicide. But the conventional wisdom is that Allende was murdered in a CIA backed coup d’etat. This is the backdrop of “Wild Horse Nine,” written and directed by Martin McDonagh.
Column: Despite his vitriol, one can still be happy for El-Sayed’s supporters
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... U.S. Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed was hardly gracious in his victory speech. He continued to insinuate that Israel is to blame for the price of eggs, an assertion as anti-Semitic as was the Islamophobia employed by the campaign of Republican Mike Rogers. Nor was it helpful that the senator-elect reiterated the libel against Israel, accusing the Jewish state of genocide and apartheid.
Movie review: ‘Wicker’ provides good photography. But it’s otherwise pointless. Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Good photography is an asset to any movie. But it can’t carry the day if the storyline is ridiculous. “Wicker” is scenic, which is what induced me to see it after having watched the trailers. It takes place in a presumably English village. It’s a fantasy-comedy-drama. The period isn’t specified. But it seems like a story set around the 17th Century. So what is “Wicker” about? First of all, the characters don’t have names. They are assigned positions.
Column: Eisenkot led parties must form government with Arab parties
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Israel went to the polls on Oct. 27. But it seems Israelis will have to return to the polls in the coming weeks, as the elected parties are far from forming a government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition took 53 seats in the Knesset. Parties under opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot took 48 seats. Arab-led parties took 19 seats. A total of 61 seats is needed to form a government.
Is Poundland booming or dying?
Is Poundland a declining business, racking up losses and teetering on the brink of insolvency as higher wage costs and squeezed household budgets eat into an uncompetitive retailer’s margins? Or are asset-stripping corporate raiders trying to force a booming business into administration after loading it with debt, putting more than 10,000 people out of work just before Christmas, so they can flog the last of the stock while leaving suppliers with the bill?
Column: Arab Americans knew what they were getting in Trump
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Much has been made in the press about Arab American voters, who supported Donald Trump in 2024 now regret the Trump presidency. Bishara Bahbah, who led Arab Americans for Trump in 2024, was quoted this past week in The New York Times as stating “We’ve been fooled. We’ve been taken for fools.” According to the paper, Arab Americans “are feeling betrayed” by Trump. Fooled? Betrayed?
Movie review: ‘A Talent for Murder’ isn’t a talent for movies Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... “A Talent for Murder” is hard to review. It’s too bizarre to like and difficult to follow. Directed by Anton Corbijn and based on the 2014 play “Switzerland” by Joanna Murray-Smith, “A Talent for Murder” stars academy award winning actress Dame Helen Mirren as Patricia Highsmith, the acclaimed author of the Tom Ripley book series who died in 1995. Though Ms. Highsmith was an actual person, the movie is pure fiction.
John Healey’s Budget in nine graphs
John Healey has just delivered the biggest Budget in recent history. The 98 policy measures on the government’s scorecard are more than any recent chancellor has unveiled before. Trouble is, in cash terms, they add up to a whole lot of nothing. The 98 lines on the scorecard add up to £7 billion of extra spending and £7 billion of extra tax in the final year of the forecast, making the budget about a quarter as big as either of Rachel Reeves’s. There were no big surprises.
Column: Are Progressives in Michigan now the establishment Democrats?
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... “We need to see moderate and establishment Democrats be as committed to the party rallying around the nominee as they are when we get flak for progressives not rallying around a nominee.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington and Chair of the Congressional Democratic Caucus) • There is a by no means a marginal number of disaffected Democrats in Michigan wary of the U.S. Senate candidacy of Abdul El-Sayed. And for good reason(s).
What Sadiq Khan gets wrong about London’s post-Brexit economy
‘London’s economy is smaller and the number of jobs are less’ thanks to Brexit, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said on the Today programme this morning. Is he right? No. Adjusted for inflation, the capital’s economic output was 16 per cent greater in 2024 than in 2015, the year before the vote to leave, according to ONS figures published last month. There were 6.44 million jobs in London in June this year, against 5.76 million in June 2016 – some 675,000 more.
Column: Selling out Ukraine is disgraceful
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Lest you doubt President Donald Trump is inclined to abandon Taiwan to the designs of China, consider that he welcomes the communist behemoth to talks on the future of Ukraine. This past Monday, Trump stated that he is open to a denuclearization summit between the United States, Russian, and China with talks reserved to negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict (absent participation of Ukraine).
Movie review: Current film does justice to Jane Austen novel Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... “Sense and Sensibility” was written by Jane Austen in 1811. It was the great author’s first novel. Director Georgia Oakley has brought the novel to the screen and the film stays true to the book. The movie stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor Dashwood and Esme Creed-Miles as Marianne Dashwood, two of the three sisters and the leading roles. The other sister is the youngest, Margaret Dashwood (played by Bodi Rae Breathnach). The sisters and their mother, Mrs.
Column: Israel has a better alternative to Netanyahu
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Israel goes to the polls on Oct. 27. President Donald Trump has entered the Israeli political fray by endorsing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Whether it’s appropriate for a U.S. president to invoke himself into the electoral function of another democracy is a debatable point. What is less debatable is that Trump has a much better alternative in Gadi Eisenkot, a retired general of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and former Army Chief of Staff.
Column: How far can Rogers stray from Trump?
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... It was not long ago when Mike Rogers was offering himself as a rubber stamp for President Donald Trump. But in recent weeks Rogers has distanced himself from the president. He has called for an end to Trump’s war with Iran and has even come out against Trump’s trade war with Canada. But the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate strives to remain in the president’s good graces. The dilemma Rogers faces reminds me of political dynamics of yesteryear.
Is London at ‘peak bedbug’?
Train drivers are refusing to board infested trains. Guardian staff are working from home after an eight-month outbreak. Pest control firms are inundated with calls from Islington and Croydon. Just how bad is London’s bed bug problem? The Times reported this week that we are at ‘peak bed bug’, with cases rising up to 25 per cent a year. The quote comes from Valpas, a firm that sells bed bug prevention and monitoring services to hotels.
Movie Review: Remake of ‘Angel and the Badman’ is a western fan’s western
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... “Shane” is my favorite western and one of my favorite movies. It’s my hope there will be in my lifetime a remake of this great tale of a gunfighter. But remakes are difficult. Comparisons are inevitable and not always favorable. There will also be the nay-sayers poised to dismiss the remake as a betrayal of the original movie. But with a gutsy director, a remake is doable.
Movie Review: Remake of ‘Angel and the Badman’ is a western fan’s western
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... “Shane” is my favorite western and one of my favorite movies. It’s my hope there will be in my lifetime a remake of this great tale of a gunfighter. But remakes are difficult. Comparisons are inevitable and not always favorable. There will also be the nay-sayers poised to dismiss the remake as a betrayal of the original movie. But with a gutsy director, a remake is doable.
Movie Review: Remake of ‘Angel and the Badman’ is a western fan’s western
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... “Shane” is my favorite western and one of my favorite movies. It’s my hope there will be in my lifetime a remake of this great tale of a gunfighter. But remakes are difficult. Comparisons are inevitable and not always favorable. There will also be the nay-sayers poised to dismiss the remake as a betrayal of the original movie. But with a gutsy director, a remake is doable.
Movie Review: Remake of ‘Angel and the Badman’ is a western fan’s western
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... “Shane” is my favorite western and one of my favorite movies. It’s my hope there will be in my lifetime a remake of this great tale of a gunfighter. But remakes are difficult. Comparisons are inevitable and not always favorable. There will also be the nay-sayers poised to dismiss the remake as a betrayal of the original movie. But with a gutsy director, a remake is doable.
Column: Quebec separatism again raises its political head
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... It was the summer of 1994. Quebec separatists were heading for a certain victory in the provincial elections in September. But Canada was in a state of denial. The Globe & Mail (Canada’s Toronto based national paper) ran a headline in July 1994 proclaiming: Separatism Not An Issue, Poll Finds.
Does John Healey really have a £35 billion Budget black hole?
The headlines today say John Healey has a £35 billion hole in his Budget. The figure comes from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) – but the think-tank also says that Healey’s headroom, the margin by which government revenues are projected to exceed day-to-day spending in a few years’ time, may have barely changed since Rachel Reeves’s spring forecast, falling from £24 billion to perhaps £20 billion now. So what’s going on? The IFS’s £35 billion figure isn’t for headroom.
Column: Skipping U.S. Senate portion of ballot is not a vote for Rogers
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... My decision to vote for neither Abdul El-Sayed nor Mike Rogers in the U.S. Senate race has incurred wrath. (See In Re: Abdul El-Sayed; The News Herald; Sept. 23.) Critics have protested over social media that a vote for neither candidate is a vote for Rogers. These are supporters of Abdul El-Sayed who assume my vote would otherwise go to the Democratic nominee. First of all, a vote for neither is a vote for neither. It’s not a vote for Rogers.
Movie review: Verity means Truth. But what is the truth? The movie lets the viewer decide. Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Few movies have the twists and turns “Verity” contains. The film is directed by Michael Showalter and based on the 2018 bestseller of the same title by Colleen Hoover. The movie opens with a gruesome scene in which struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh (played by Dakota Johnson) witnesses a pedestrian fatally struck by a car in downtown Manhattan traffic. Though the accident is good for colorful cinema, the plot takes a wild turn.
Column: Rehashing Watergate investigation is a disservice
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... President Donald Trump has pushed the nation closer to a constitutional crisis than any president since Richard Nixon. The government paid political ads featuring Trump. Jeopardizing the right to vote. Dropping hints of running for a third term. Nothing to say of trying to hijack the presidency and causing an insurrection in 2021. You have to go back to Tricky Dick to draw an analogy to Trump.
Book review: Stories collection lacks spirit of Halloween Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... October is the Halloween season. Time for stories of witches, werewolves, vampires, and ghosts. It’s my favorite time of year. The changing leaves, the candy, the scary costumes. All of this puts me into the spirit of the season. Halloween is a time when we don’t fear the jack o’ lanterns and haunted houses. We embrace them. “All Hallows Eve” caught my attention in the bookstore. It’s a collection of holiday tales by different authors and edited by Ellen Datlow.
Column: U.S. avoids taking a stand on Taiwan. And that’s dangerous
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Little was accomplished during the recent visit to the United States by President Xi Jinping of China. It was more a show than a summit. Of particular neglect was the lack of progress made on the issue of Taiwan. China continues to view Taiwan as a breakaway from the communist mainland. U.S. President Donald Trump emerged from the talks still opposed to Taiwan independence while supporting Taiwan’s self-rule.
No John Swinney, Scotland won’t pay for England’s social care
There’s a question mark over who will pay for Andy Burnham’s proposed national care service – and First Minister of Scotland John Swinney thinks he’s found the answer: Scottish pensioners. He said today: ‘I have received the first official estimate of the cost to Scotland’s pensioners of the Prime Minister’s attack on the triple lock. It will take up to £4 billion from Scotland’s pensioners. And the Prime Minister plans to use it to pay for social care in England.
Column: Misunderstanding criticism on the Right and Left
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... There isn’t much point in examining President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban from the White House reporters from CNN, MS-NOW, and Politico. The ban is clearly unconstitutional. But Trump’s measure deserves a hearing in the court of public opinion. The president protests that he is the victim of negative coverage by the above three news sources which amounts to unfair criticism. In my opinion, the criticism isn’t unfair.
Letter: Judgement day for democracy is here
Metro Creative Judgement day for democracy is here. After 250 years, and it’s time to put it to a final vote. If you know where you stand, read no further. The rest of this message is for eligible voters who are undecided, independent, or won’t vote. The greatest threat to the freedoms we take for granted is our own president. He continues to bulldoze our rights, and the only way to slow this destruction is to bring some accountability back to Congress.
Scrapping the pensions triple lock won’t pay for Burnham’s care service
Andy Burnham told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg yesterday that he’s ready to ‘rip the plaster off’ and introduce a new social care service, free at the point of use, for everyone in England. ‘Everyone contributes, everyone’s covered,’ the Prime Minister said – but how exactly they will contribute is a question he’s left to Baroness Casey to answer and for voters to endorse at the next general election.
Does Britain have the worst air travel delays in Europe?
On Monday a ‘connectivity issue’ at the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) centre in Prestwick caused flight delays and more than 150 cancellations. It came just two weeks after a systems failure at Nats’s Swanwick control centre caused more than 2,000 cancellations over two days.
Column: In Re: Abdul El-Sayed
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... “Two more years of an unhinged and unchecked Trump administration means the end of America as we know it, and extreme threats to all humanity. This is not hyperbole.” – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on why she endorses Democrat Abdull El-Sayed for the U.S. Senate • Let me at the outset express my respect for Dana Nessel.
Movie review: Adaptation of Daniel is consistent with the Old Testament
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Daniel is one of the heroic figures in the Bible. He is the lead character in the Book of Daniel, as opposed to its author. An Israelite exile, he lived in Babylon in the 6th Century B.C. During this exile, the Jews were subjects of King Nebuchadnezzar II, a tyrant whose moods shifted from respect to cruelty.
Column: Outcome of Russian elections is preordained
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... At this writing, the complete results of elections in Russia, which spanned from Sept. 18-20, were not yet final. But by the time this opinion piece goes to press, the results will confirm Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party will have been returned to power by a wide margin. There is no question Putin’s party will take a large majority in the 450 seat Duma (Russia’s lower house in Parliament).
Column: When Democrats were for tariffs
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Gov. Gretchen Whitmer penned a recent piece for the Wall Street Journal critical of President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada. Whitmer, who is of course a Democrat, asserts that Michigan agricultural exports are down by as much as 89%. Noting that one in five jobs in Michigan are reliant on the exchange of trade in autos with Canada, the governor noted that auto exports to Canada are down 23%.
Column: Netanyahu owes Israel an account of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Golda Meir was nothing if not responsible. That was required of her role as Prime Minister of Israel. Her responsibility was put to the test in 1973 in the wake of a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria. In what came to be known as the Yom Kippur War in October of that year, Israel lost between 2,100 and 2,600 soldiers. Israelis demanded an investigation to learn whose negligence led to this war (which Israel almost lost).
Movie review: ‘The Uprising’ is not for the faint of heart Original
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... My first (and only) piece of advice is that if you don’t like gore then skip seeing “The Uprising.” Heads and limbs are severed with relish and the depiction is realistic. The Uprising is a definite portrayal of mankind at its worst. Be it the King’s Council or the peasants’ revolt, there is no good guy in this movie. The setting is England in 1381.
Surging gilt yields are making Healey’s fiscal headroom even tighter
Once again, ahead of a Budget, all the talk is of headroom and how much of a buffer John Healey will have before bumping up against the government’s fiscal rules. In March, the Office for Budget Responsibility put the headroom – the margin that lets the government spend a little more, or have a weaker-than-expected economy without having to raise taxes or cut spending – at £23.6 billion. Since then, the government’s cost of borrowing has soared as investors have dumped government debt.
Column: Right wing raises concern over Europe
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... “We are all deeply shocked.” This was the assessment of Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany in response to news that the far right Alternative for Germany scored a regional electoral victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. Considering the polls showed Alternative for Germany with a comfortable lead, it’s hard to understand why Merz is shocked.
Book review: You’re never too old for Marvel comic book heroes
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Marvel Comics were a part of my boyhood. D.C. Comics were okay. But Batman and Superman were a bit hokey. Marvel superheroes were cutting edge. Thor, Hulk, and (of course) Spider-man. Those were the superheroes with class. Part of boyhood was to speculate as to which superhero was stronger. It went without saying that Marvel superheroes were more powerful than their D.C. counterparts.
Column: 25 Years Later, 9/11 still fresh in most minds
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... It’s not hard for me to believe 25 years have passed since the 9/11 attacks. What’s hard for me to grasp is how many are too young to remember. Indeed, even younger adults weren’t yet born when the terrorists struck. But most people, young and old, are familiar with the breakdown of numbers. The twin towers of the World Trade Center were hit by two planes at approximately 8:45 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.
Lucy Powell must acknowledge England’s Pisa success
In 2016, when international test results for school pupils were released, Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said: ‘Scotland used to be a beacon of excellence. It’s not anymore.’ Ten years later, things are worse. In the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) test results in reading, maths and science, taken by 15-year-old pupils last year, Scottish pupils’ average scores slipped in reading, from 493 to 488, and maths, from 471 to 467.
Book review: Recovered diary reveals FDR at his best
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... You can’t judge a book by its cover. At least that’s the old adage. But the cover of “The Yankee Sphinx” is intriguing. The book is billed as an FDR novel. And the picture on the cover is one of FDR’s hand holding a cigarette. Most noticeable is that the picture lacks FDR’s trademark cigarette holder. It was unusual for FDR not to use a cigarette holder until his last days.
Book review: Recovered diary reveals FDR at his best
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... You can’t judge a book by its cover. At least that’s the old adage. But the cover of “The Yankee Sphinx” is intriguing. The book is billed as an FDR novel. And the picture on the cover is one of FDR’s hand holding a cigarette. Most noticeable is that the picture lacks FDR’s trademark cigarette holder. It was unusual for FDR not to use a cigarette holder until his last days.
Book review: Recovered diary reveals FDR at his best
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... You can’t judge a book by its cover. At least that’s the old adage. But the cover of “The Yankee Sphinx” is intriguing. The book is billed as an FDR novel. And the picture on the cover is one of FDR’s hand holding a cigarette. Most noticeable is that the picture lacks FDR’s trademark cigarette holder. It was unusual for FDR not to use a cigarette holder until his last days.
Book review: Recovered diary reveals FDR at his best
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... You can’t judge a book by its cover. At least that’s the old adage. But the cover of “The Yankee Sphinx” is intriguing. The book is billed as an FDR novel. And the picture on the cover is one of FDR’s hand holding a cigarette. Most noticeable is that the picture lacks FDR’s trademark cigarette holder. It was unusual for FDR not to use a cigarette holder until his last days.
Column: Labor movement in alive in America
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Labor Day is upon us. For many, this is an occasion to proclaim the demise of unions in America. You’ve heard it before. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 11.2% of the workforce in the United States are union employees. This is down from the peak 35% in 1954. Employees covered by union contracts in the United States number 16.5 million, 14.7 million of whom are union employees. This is down from the peak of 21 million in 1979.
Column: Ontario premier is all over the place on Trump
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
Column: Trump doesn’t get it
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... “What I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot. Just come and vote.” – President Donald Trump campaigning in South Carolina on Aug. 21 • Republicans are embracing the notion that their candidates will do better if associated with President Donald Trump. Their thinking goes like this: If Trump is on the ballot, it will be a boost for Republicans.
Column: Trump’s Trade war on Canada is wrongheaded
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... This past Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada announced that his country was now in a trade war with the United States. This announcement was in response to President Donald Trump announcing $20 billion in tariffs on Canadian goods imported into the United States. One of the Canadian goods targeted for tariffs is alcohol. Consumers of Labatt Beer and Crown Royal Whiskey had better stock up.
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