Editors of small-town newspapers sometimes lack the judgment (and self-respect) to remain independent of government. During these lapses of decision-making, one finds that elected or appointed officials become, themselves, reporters on their own stories. (For a case like this in Whitewater involving a school board member, see Public Officials Should Not Be Reporters.) Margaret Sullivan, of the…
America
America, Congress, Elections, Trump, Trump-Russia
Moscow Mitch
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
America, Babbittry, Boosterism, Mendacity, Politics, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
Origins, National
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over at the Gaslit Nation podcast, guest Greg Sargent contends that the ‘90s, under the influence of Newt Gingrich and his ilk, are the origin of contemporary Trumpism. Sargent points to the craziness of anti-Clinton conspiracy theories as the beginning of our current condition. (Our current condition is one in which lies don’t have to…
America, Bigotry, Cruelty, Immigration, Migrants, Religion, Trump
Moral Monday at the Borderlands
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
From Facebook: Moral Monday at the Borderlands: Faith leaders, congressional leaders and people whose conscience compels them, come together to demand an end to child detention; that all refugees seeking asylum are granted due process; that that the 14th Amendment granting equal protection under the law for all persons is upheld; that human rights are…
America, Authoritarianism, City, Culture, Federal Government, Libertarians, Liberty, Local Government, Politics, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Trump-Russia
The Biggest Story of Our Time
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In life – at least life in a well-ordered, free society – the highest matters are not political. They are familial, cultural, social – involving greater pursuits than contending over the role of the state. Under this view, one contends over politics (as libertarians do) not because it is too important but because it must…
America, City, Film, History, Science/Nature, Space
Apollo 11: NASA and Civilians Remember the Moon Landing
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
“It was a feeling that went throughout the world, almost like an electric bolt,” one woman remembers of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The lunar landing, which celebrates its 50th anniversary on July 20, is collectively remembered in the film by a handful of the 530 million people who watched the event live on national…
America, City, Cruelty, Culture, Immigration, Liberty, Migrants, Trump
National Ennobles Local
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
America, Asylum, City, Good Ideas, Immigration, Liberty
Lights for Liberty
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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 • • Comments
America, Government Spending, Holiday, Seven Deadly, Trump
Trump’s Celebration of Himself
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
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 • • Comments
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 • • Comments
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 • • Comments
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 • • Comments
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…