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…
History
America, Blogging, History, Newspapers, Press, Press Release, Public Relations
Sullivan on Public Officials as Reporters
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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 • • 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, History, Holiday, Liberty
Happy Independence Day
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Cats, History, Music
Hep the Hepcat (December 1946)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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 • • Comments
Books, Film, History, Music
Monday Music: Robert Johnson, Kind Hearted Woman Blues (1936)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
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, Congress, History, Law, Misconduct, Trump, Trump-Russia
The Case for Impeaching Trump
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Yoni Applebaum contends It’s Time to Impeach Trump (“Starting the process will rein in a president who is undermining American ideals—and bring the debate about his fitness for office into Congress, where it belongs”): On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood on the steps of the Capitol, raised his right hand, and solemnly swore to faithfully…
Corruption Probe, Crime, Federal Government, History, Law, Trump
Nixon Called for an End of an Investigation, Too
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Foreign Affairs, History, Propaganda, Putin, Trump, Trump-Russia
Trump Parrots Putin’s Lies About the Soviet Afghanistan Invasion
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Bad Ideas, Bigotry, City, History
Confederate Iconography is White Failure (Moral and Economic)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Frances Stead Sellers writes of Confederate pride and prejudice (“Some white Northerners see a flag rooted in racism as a symbol of patriotism”): Ashort walk from where President-elect Abraham Lincoln made the last train stop in his home state before leaving for Washington on the verge of the Civil War, a Confederate battle flag flies…
Cats, History
Friday Catblogging: Cat Mummies
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Amanda Erickson reports Archaeologists have discovered dozens of cat mummies in an ancient Egyptian tomb: On Saturday, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities announced that a team of archaeologists had uncovered dozens of mummified cats, along with 100 wooden cat statues and a bronze bust of Bastet, the ancient Egyptian goddess of cats. The artifacts, found in a tomb…
America, Cartoons & Comics, History, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
We’re Going to Need a Bigger Cartoon
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In 1865, cartoonist Oscar Harpel drew A Proper Family Re-Union, depicting notorious American traitors Benedict Arnold and Jefferson Davis drinking a treason toddy of Satan’s creation. I’ll not presume to make the theological claim that Trump will, in fact, one day find himself in the company of those three, but as a political matter, America’s going…