Pantheon, Rome, Italy https://t.co/yH2viW2UzB via @360cities — John Adams (@DailyAdams) April 15, 2020
History
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, 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…
America, Blogging, History
But We Never Went Away…
by JOHN ADAMS •
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, History, Holiday
A Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
Art, Diversity, History
Recreating a Famous Painting, 241 Years Later
by JOHN ADAMS •
John Trumbull’s founding-era painting, Declaration of Independence, is one of the most famous in America. Recently, Ancestry.com commissioned the recreation of Trumball’s scene in a photograph with the descendants of the Declaration’s signers. The recreation is truly hopeful:
Art, Cats, History
Friday Catblogging: Not a Real Lion, Yet Impressive Nonetheless
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, History, Liberty, Never Trump, Politics, Trump
After This Conflict Is Won
by JOHN ADAMS •
These last years have been difficult, and one can reasonably expect worse from Trumpism before that ideology is consigned – as it will be – to the political outer darkness. A necessary condition for optimism is an understanding of the present from which one can build a better future. (Local boosterism and babbittry are failures…
America, Blogging, History, Newspapers, Press, Press Release, Public Relations
Sullivan on Public Officials as Reporters
by JOHN ADAMS •
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, City, Film, History, Science/Nature, Space
Apollo 11: NASA and Civilians Remember the Moon Landing
by JOHN ADAMS •
“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, History, Holiday, Liberty
Happy Independence Day
by JOHN ADAMS •
Cats, History, Music
Hep the Hepcat (December 1946)
by JOHN ADAMS •
From the Library of Congress: Caption from Down Beat: Probably no dance band ever has played to so many empty tables consistently as the Sam Donahue ork [orchestra] during the recent double booking with Lionel Hampton at the Aquarium. The operators decreed that Sam should play afternoons, and the place isn’t open in the afternoon!…
Cats, History, Military
Friday Catblogging: ‘Treat ’em rough – Join the tanks – United States Tank Corps’
by JOHN ADAMS •
From the Library of Congress, a First World War American recruiting poster shows a black cat with prominent fangs and claws leaping above a battlefield with tanks.
Books, Film, History, Music
Monday Music: Robert Johnson, Kind Hearted Woman Blues (1936)
by JOHN ADAMS •
See also Netflix’s ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads documentary on Johnson and Wardlow’s and Cornforth’s biography of Johnson, Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson.