A horde of ignorant, but racially motivated, men infest the Wisconsin GOP. Brian Westrate is a good example of playing to this bad condition: in an attempt to discourage racist Republicans from displaying Confederate banners at a protest, he erroneously (and outrageously) contended that he did “well understand that the Confederacy was more about states…
America
America, Coronavirus, Freedom of Speech, Israel, Libertarians, Liberty
Israeli Discipline, American Disorder
by JOHN ADAMS •
Free expression is not a rejection of reason, including reason in public health. Libertarian politics – of free markets in capital, labor, and goods, of responsible government, of individual liberty, and of peaceful international relations – requires a mature discipline. I do not support recent protests against temporary public health measures during this pandemic. And…
America, History, Politics, Trump, Unfit
Great American Speeches
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Coronavirus, History, Politics, Public Health, Trump
How to Handle a Crisis
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Coronavirus
Heroes
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Music
Monday Music: Honoring Ellis Marsalis
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Authoritarianism, Law, Liberty, Never Trump, Trump
The Creeping Authoritarianism in Trump’s America
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Resistance, Trump
Times of Resolution & Defiance
by JOHN ADAMS •
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, History, Impeachment Trial
Every Completed Senate Impeachment Trial in American History Has Had New Witnesses
by JOHN ADAMS •
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 •
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 •
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 •
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 •
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 •
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…