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.
History
Books, Film, History, Music
Monday Music: Robert Johnson, Kind Hearted Woman Blues (1936)
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Babbittry, City, History, New Media, Newspapers, Press, Social Media, Writing
The Media’s ‘Post-Advertising’ Future
by JOHN ADAMS •
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 •
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 •
Foreign Affairs, History, Propaganda, Putin, Trump, Trump-Russia
Trump Parrots Putin’s Lies About the Soviet Afghanistan Invasion
by JOHN ADAMS •
Bad Ideas, Bigotry, City, History
Confederate Iconography is White Failure (Moral and Economic)
by JOHN ADAMS •
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 •
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 •
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…
America, History, Holiday, Liberty
Happy Independence Day
by JOHN ADAMS •
In Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the…
Culture, History, Music
Martin Luther King, Jr. on Jazz
by JOHN ADAMS •
God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations. Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life’s…
America, History, Trump
‘America the great’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Shikha Dalmia writes, truly, of America the great: Ever since President Trump sauntered into the White House, America’s image — or “brand,” in marketing parlance — has taken a beating. This month, a Nation Brand Index poll of public opinion in 50 countries found that the “Trump effect” had caused America’s reputation to drop from…
America, History, Holiday
Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863
by JOHN ADAMS •
From first proclamation until now, across generations, Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation has inspired and reassured (and ones hopes does so again today): 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…
Alt-Right, America, History, Tyranny
‘When 20,000 American Nazis Descended Upon New York City’
by JOHN ADAMS •
America has faced movements dark before, not only from abroad, but sometimes from within. It’s worth reminding ourselves, today, that in little over six years’ time after Nazis gathered in Madison Square Garden, the United States – through countless, painful losses and sacrifices – rightly destroyed the very nation that inspired those gathered in 1939.…