Churchill proposed a ‘moral of the work’ for his series The Second World War: In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Goodwill. Our times are not Churchill’s times, yet the moral of his work is suitable for us. It’s suitable for us, however, in a partial and unfinished way – we…
America
America, History, Impeachment Trial
Every Completed Senate Impeachment Trial in American History Has Had New Witnesses
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
An analysis from the Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington reveals that every impeachment trial completed in the Senate’s 231 year history has featured witnesses who had not testified in the House: Every impeachment trial completed in the Senate’s 231 year history has featured witnesses who had not testified in the House, according to…
America, Bad Ideas, Government Spending, Trump
$1,000,000,000,000.00
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One reads that U.S. deficit to eclipse $1 trillion in 2020, CBO says, as fiscal imbalance continues to widen: The U.S. government’s budget deficit is projected to reach $1.02 trillion in 2020, according to a report released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, as the federal government continues to spend much more than it collects…
America, Culture, Fortitude, Language, Rhetoric
Roosevelt’s Speech at Madison Square Garden (10.31.1936)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
So this libertarian doubts the economic effectiveness of the New Deal, in its first and later iterations during the Roosevelt Administration. And yet, and yet… I admire Roosevelt greatly, as he was a courageous man who described the conditions of his time honestly (if the solutions not so well). His speech on 10.31.1936, announcing a…
America, Bad Ideas, CDA, Economics, Economy, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Local Government, State Government, WEDC, Wisconsin
But, but, but…we were promised growth, growth, growth!
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Locally, statewide, and nationally, Trump & those who flacked his tax bill, and those who also pushed corporate welfare schemes (Foxconn, WEDC, Whitewater CDA), promised growth, growth, growth! How odd that these men — politicians, movers-and-shakers, developers, landlords, and public relations types — seem to have missed the mark: The World Bank sees U.S. growth stumbling from…
America, City, Never Trump, Politics, Trump
One Year
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
For all the discussion of politics over these last three years, America now comes to a critical year ahead. In these next twelve months, we’ll see primaries, conventions, a general election, and thereafter possible challenges to, and necessary defenses of, the constitutional order. When was there another year so important to America as 2020 looks…
America, History, Television, Wisconsin
On the American Experience: McCarthy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Tonight, on the American Experience on PBS, an episode on Sen. Joe McCarthy: McCarthy chronicles the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who came to power after a stunning victory in an election no one thought he could win. Once in office, he declared that there was a vast conspiracy threatening America…
America, Blogging, History
But We Never Went Away…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Writing at NiemanLab, Joanne McNeil offers a prediction for 2020 in A return to blogs (finally? sort of?): One reason we might see a resurgence of blogs is the novelty. Tell someone you’re starting a new newsletter and they might complain about how many newsletters (or podcasts) they already subscribe to. But tell them you’re…
America, Congress, Impeachment, Law, Politics, Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
Rep. Adam Schiff’s Closing During Wednesday’s Impeachment Debate
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
America, Boosterism, Never Trump, Politics, Travel
Conservatives against Trump Establish The Lincoln Project
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I’m a libertarian, not a conservative, and yet one wishes the best for The Lincoln Project, a national conservative effort to defeat Donald Trump: We do not undertake this task lightly nor from ideological preference. Our many policy differences with national Democrats remain. However, the priority for all patriotic Americans must be a shared fidelity…
America, Authoritarianism, Education, Law, Trump
More Dangerous Than More Dangerous
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
At the Washington Post’s Plum Line, Greg Sargent writes that William Barr’s deceptions are more dangerous than you think. It’s an excellent post about Barr’s attempt to validate Trump’s lies (about Russia, Ukraine, election interference). Sargent’s assessment is even less favorable for the future – and so more ominous – than he writes. Sargent is right…
America, Congress, Impeachment, Trump
The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
America, Authoritarianism, Babbittry, Bigotry, Boosterism, City, Law, Liberty, Local Government, Mendacity, Never Trump, Politics, Resistance, Trump
Forget the Tender Feelings of a Pernicious Faction
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Over at the Journal Sentinel, Craig Gilbert writes about the political divide in For voters in this purple part of Wisconsin [Richland Center], the impeachment fight is a symbol of broken politics. The story establishes a false equivalence between those who support impeachment and those who oppose it, as though the conflict between these views…
America, History, Holiday
A Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail…