Over the last year, Trumpism has advanced three grand lies: against the significance of the pandemic, against Biden’s clear win in the presidential election, and against the fact of a violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th. In response to that third lie – that there was no violent insurrection – there is ample…
History
America, History, Holiday, Milwaukee, Politics, Sen. Ron Johnson, U.S. Senate, Unfit, Wisconsin
Ron Johnson Got the Reception He Deserved
by JOHN ADAMS •
Ron Johnson held up a Senate vote to make Juneteenth a holiday, and when he at last relented, he did so only begrudgingly (“While it still seems strange that having taxpayers provide federal employees paid time off is now required to celebrate the end of slavery, it is clear that there is no appetite in Congress…
America, Cycling, Federal Government, History, Holiday, Local Government
Juneteenth
by JOHN ADAMS •
Sometime later today, Pres. Biden will sign a bill, having passed overwhelminmgly in both the House and Senate, to make Juneteenth a national holiday. The House saw only 14 members opposed (one being Tom Tiffany, R-WI 7) and the Senate voted after Sen. Ron Johnson withdrew his opposition to a vote. Making Juneteenth a national…
Cats, History, Language
Friday Catblogging: Why do we say ‘cat got your tongue?’
by JOHN ADAMS •
History, Music
Monday Music: U.S. Marine Band, Sousa’s Deep Cuts: Wisconsin Forward Forever
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, History, Politics, U.S. Senate
The Filibuster: How one small rule change in 1806 started it all
by JOHN ADAMS •
Alt-Right, America, Authoritarianism, Congress, Herrenvolk, History, Law, Mendacity, Trump, Trumpism
Confederates, Copperheads, and Conservatives
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s an understatement to say that a democratic society that endures a violent mob seizing its capitol building is a society in distress. We find ourselves in the twenty-first century facing movements as malevolent and mendacious as the nineteenth century’s Confederates and Copperheads. Karen L. Cox writes What Trump Shares With the ‘Lost Cause’ of the…
America, Elections, History, Law, Liberty, Never Trump, Presidential race 2020, Resistance, Trump, Victory
2020: ‘But Not Just That’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tim Miller – who is always worth reading, writes of 2020 as The Worst. But Not Just That. These paragraphs resonate: Most importantly, 2020 will always be the year that we joined together and toppled the greatest threat that our fragile union has faced in many decades. Turning out more people to vote against the president-strongman…
America, Cats, History, Military
Friday Catblogging: Heroic Military Cats
by JOHN ADAMS •
Jackie Mead writes of 6 Heroic Military Cats. Among those admirable felines was the U.S. Navy tabby Princess Papule: Striped tabby Princess Papule was born on July 4, 1944, at the Pearl Harbor Navy Base in Hawaii. Pooli, as she was known to the sailors, was brought aboard the attack transport USS Fremont by crewman James Lynch.…
America, History, Holiday
Pres. Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863
by JOHN ADAMS •
The year that is drawing toward 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 can not…
America, Elections, History, Law, Presidential race 2020, Voting Rights
Voting by Mail
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, History, Military, Trump, Unfit, Veterans
VoteVets.org: Pvt. Dan Crowley, Aged 98
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Culture, Documentary, Film, History, Race
A Black Cowboy’s Story
by JOHN ADAMS •
Cowboys are among the most iconic figures of the American West. They’re mythologized as strong, independent people who live and die by their own terms on the frontier. And in movies, the people who play them are mostly white. But as with many elements of Americana, the idea of who cowboys are is actually whitewashed…