On the Diane Rehm Show of 12.19.16, former Speaker of the House Gingrich offered that a Trump Administration could simply pardon its own advisors to remove those advisors’ unlawful conflicts of interest: I think in the case of the president, he has a broad ability to organize the White House the way he wants to. He…
Authoritarianism
Alt-Right, America, Authoritarianism, Federal Government, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Trump
The Work of the Next Several Years
by JOHN ADAMS •
Charles Blow writes of the work ahead for those many citizens who now find themselves compelled to defend their rights: I fully understand that elevated outrage is hard to maintain. It’s exhausting. But the alternative is surrender to national nihilism and the welcoming of woe. The next four years could be epochal years in the history…
Authoritarianism, Crime, Foreign Affairs, Trump, Tyranny
Someone the President-Elect Admires
by JOHN ADAMS •
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, overseer of a contentious and bloody crackdown on drug dealers and users, boasted on Monday about having personally killed criminal suspects when he was mayor of Davao City. “In Davao, I used to do it personally — just to show to the guys that if I can do it,…
America, Authoritarianism, Liberty, Russia
Alexei Navalany Announces Run for President of Russia
by JOHN ADAMS •
If Alexei Navalany is willing to fight against Putin, in a society where Putin’s authoritarianism is much advanced, then we in America who are the fortunate & blessed heirs of a democratic tradition (where authoritarianism is yet only nascent) have no justification for reluctance to join our own fight. We’ll find those we can support, from among…
Authoritarianism, Russia
Arrest of Moscow Activists on Russian Constitution Day for Reading Their Own Constitution
by JOHN ADAMS •
Arrest of Moscow activists on Constitution Day for reading the Constitution. Video by Radio Svoboda. https://t.co/lO7bRzS9Cu — X Soviet (@XSovietNews) December 12, 2016 ?????????? ?????????? ? ?????? ?? ?????? "?????????? ???????????". https://t.co/NMPYtkieiN pic.twitter.com/l0SqGTFmip — ????? ??????? (@SvobodaRadio) December 12, 2016
America, Authoritarianism, Far-Right Populism, Labor, Liberty, Politics, Trump
In a Principled Opposition, the Basis for a Grand Coalition
by JOHN ADAMS •
Writing at The Week, Jeff Spross nicely summarizes Why Trump’s Cabinet poses a unique threat to the working class. Spross both explains Trump perceptively & succinctly, and in the same post implicitly holds out the prospect of a grand coalition (principled liberals, conservatives, and libertarians) to oppose him. (For an explicit call for broad opposition, from…