I live, and write, from Whitewater, Wisconsin. This small city has many charms, but it is neither an island nor a kingdom. Indeed, it is better off being – and knowing that it is – a small town in a great republic, a small part of a virtuous continental society. Far from making Whitewater smaller,…
America
America, Asylum, City, Good Ideas, Immigration, Liberty
Lights for Liberty
by JOHN ADAMS •
LIGHTS for LIBERTY is a national movement to unite Americans from across this continent on the evening of July 12th, 2019. (In Whitewater residents will be gathering in support of migrants’ rights at the Cravath Lakefront at 8:30 PM.) We are a coalition of people, many of whom are mothers, dedicated to human rights, and…
America, History, Holiday, Liberty
Happy Independence Day
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Government Spending, Holiday, Seven Deadly, Trump
Trump’s Celebration of Himself
by JOHN ADAMS •
Incurvatus in se, and trying to pull the republic inward with him: The National Park Service is diverting nearly $2.5 million in entrance and recreation fees primarily intended to improve parks across the country to cover costs associated with President Trump’s Independence Day celebration Thursday on the Mall, according to two individuals familiar with the…
America, Courts, Elections, Federal Government, Law
Major Supreme Court Decisions (And Where to Find Them)
by JOHN ADAMS •
There were two major United States Supreme Court decisions handed down today, on partisan gerrymandering and on a possible citizenship question for the 2020 census form. There will be significant commentary – some informed, some not – about these decisions, but it’s worth reading them in full. Like most decisions, they’re lengthy, yet always worth…
Alt-Right, America, Bigotry, Culture, Ethnicity, Herrenvolk, Immigration, Misconduct, Never Trump, Politics, Race, Resistance, Trump
Trump’s Base Delights in Tales of Others’ Deprivation
by JOHN ADAMS •
In this conflict between defenders of America’s liberal democratic order and Trumpism, those of opposition and resistance have wisely steeled themselves for stories of cruelty as state policy. Trumpism’s aim is a herrenvolk, where his demographically homogeneous base receives permanent preference over others, and in which that same base delights in deprivations and depravities inflicted…
America, Babbittry, City, History, New Media, Newspapers, Press, Social Media, Writing
The Media’s ‘Post-Advertising’ Future
by JOHN ADAMS •
Nationally and locally, the media (whether profit or non-profit) continue their significant transformation: the decline of print, the rise of (interactive) digital media, and the collapse of a middle-of-the-road partnership of boosterism between mediocre newspapers and middling officials. Print’s doomed, and so is digital that merely repeats the same banal style of contemporary print. Traditional…
America, Babbittry, Culture
The Antidote to Boosterism
by JOHN ADAMS •
Bret Stephens offers Neal Armstrong as a worthy example in Apollo 11’s Forgotten Virtues (“Armstrong stayed humble, and human, in the era of relentless puffery and self-promotion”): There’s a short scene near the end of “Apollo 11,” the thrilling new documentary about history’s greatest spaceflight, in which Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong make…
America, Foreign Affairs, Trump, Trump-Russia, Tyranny
The Friend of America’s Enemies
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Congress, History, Law, Misconduct, Trump, Trump-Russia
The Case for Impeaching Trump
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yoni Applebaum contends It’s Time to Impeach Trump (“Starting the process will rein in a president who is undermining American ideals—and bring the debate about his fitness for office into Congress, where it belongs”): On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood on the steps of the Capitol, raised his right hand, and solemnly swore to faithfully…
America, City, Federal Government, Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Local Government, Never Trump, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
Trump-Russia Roundup
by JOHN ADAMS •
While the proper focus against Trumpism involves a zealous lawful effort against Trump and his leading operatives, there is also a problem of Trumpism down to the local level. In both cases, officials advancing Trumpism ignore the overwhelming evidence of his betrayal of our own people to the benefit of a hostile foreign power. As…
America, Never Trump, Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
On Trump-Russia, Right from the Very Beginning
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images Virginia Heffernan reports Early on, Trump-Russia obsessives were marginalized; they’re prophets now: “I felt like the guy in ‘Rear Window,’ ” David Corn, the coauthor of “Russian Roulette,” told me this week. Corn was referring to his affinity for James Stewart’s character, L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece film. Jeff witnesses…
America, Asylum, Charity and Mercy, Federal Government, Law, Liberty
The Assault on Asylum Seekers
by JOHN ADAMS •
This federal administration, despite a leader who receives support from some conservative religious groups, acts against generations of legal, philosophical, and religious principles when it uses force against unarmed asylum seekers. Father James Martin writes Stop the assault on asylum seekers: Yesterday the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency fired tear gas at migrants trying to seek…
America, Mendacity, Propaganda, Putin, Russia, Trump
Operation InfeKtion: The Worldwide War on Truth (Part 3 of 3)
by JOHN ADAMS •
? Russia’s meddling in the United States’ elections is not a hoax. It’s the culmination of Moscow’s decades-long campaign to tear the West apart. “Operation InfeKtion” reveals the ways in which one of the Soviets’ central tactics — the promulgation of lies about America — continues today, from Pizzagate to George Soros conspiracies. Meet the KGB…