As tensions continue between protesters and federal officers in Portland, Ore., mothers have taken to the front lines to face tear gas. Three Portland moms talk about the “Wall of Moms” demonstrations and why they think they’re needed to protect protesters from federal agents.
Liberty
Business, City, Coronavirus, Laws/Regulations, Libertarians, Liberty, Local Government, Open Government, Public Health, School District, University
Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Temporary Mask Ordinance: 7 Points
by JOHN ADAMS •
Updated evening of 7.22.20 with meeting video. (The discussion on Whitewater’s mask ordinance runs from 31:09 to 3:37:50.) At last night’s meeting of the Whitewater Common Council, the seven-member council voted unanimously for a temporary mask ordinance, taking effect 8.1.20 and running through 12.31.20, requiring masks in parts of buildings open to the public, and…
America, Equality, History, John Lewis, Justice, Law, Liberty, Race
Wake up!
by JOHN ADAMS •
Coronavirus, Covidiocy, Culture, Libertarians, Liberty, Public Health
Individual Responsibility in Conditions of Pandemic
by JOHN ADAMS •
Economist Robert Samuelson, writing Americans are historically unhappy. But there’s a lesson to learn here, observes that The connecting threads of these pessimistic surveys are the novel coronavirus and its devastating impact on the economy. Nearly everyone is affected in one way or another. There’s a clash between America’s individualistic culture (“You can’t make me wear…
Authoritarianism, Books, Coronavirus, History, Libertarians, Liberty, Public Health, Reasoning, Rhetoric, Russia, Tyranny, Walworth County
An Example of Bottomless Ignorance in Walworth County
by JOHN ADAMS •
Some residents of Walworth County, Wisconsin object to public health measures to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. So hysterical is their opposition that one reads Opponents say county’s coronavirus safeguards are ‘like Russia’: Confronted by a raucous crowd of opponents fearing government intrusion, Walworth County Board members have backed away from a measure…
Authoritarianism, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Social Media, Trump, Twitter
Twitter’s (Perhaps Momentary) Advantage Over Trump
by JOHN ADAMS •
Trump, furious at a private company for exercising its right under the law to establish and enforce terms of service, now finds that Twitter has again placed warnings on another of his tweets, and also on his attempt to retweet that same message from the White House account. The recent Twitter response to a Trump…
America, Coronavirus, Freedom of Speech, Israel, Libertarians, Liberty
Israeli Discipline, American Disorder
by JOHN ADAMS •
Free expression is not a rejection of reason, including reason in public health. Libertarian politics – of free markets in capital, labor, and goods, of responsible government, of individual liberty, and of peaceful international relations – requires a mature discipline. I do not support recent protests against temporary public health measures during this pandemic. And…
America, Authoritarianism, Law, Liberty, Never Trump, Trump
The Creeping Authoritarianism in Trump’s America
by JOHN ADAMS •
Authoritarianism, Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Russian Federation
Yegor Zhukov’s Message
by JOHN ADAMS •
At the New Yorker, Masha Gessen translates A Powerful Statement of Resistance from a College Student on Trial in Moscow (‘Yegor Zhukov’s message about responsibility and love at his trial, for “extremism,” shows what political dissent can be and seems to describe American reality as accurately as the Russian one’). (Zhukov was accused of “extremism”…
America, Authoritarianism, Babbittry, Bigotry, Boosterism, City, Law, Liberty, Local Government, Mendacity, Never Trump, Politics, Resistance, Trump
Forget the Tender Feelings of a Pernicious Faction
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at the Journal Sentinel, Craig Gilbert writes about the political divide in For voters in this purple part of Wisconsin [Richland Center], the impeachment fight is a symbol of broken politics. The story establishes a false equivalence between those who support impeachment and those who oppose it, as though the conflict between these views…
America, Authoritarianism, Congress, Impeachment, Law, Libertarians, Liberty, Never Trump, Putin, Trump-Russia
Statement and Testimony of Dr. Fiona Hill
by JOHN ADAMS •
These many years, across generations, many (including libertarians) have wanted peaceful relations abroad, but have found instead a relentless, scheming dictatorship under the Soviets and, not longer after, under Putin. This question in foreign policy confronted us: what is to be said, what is to be done, about imperialistic dictatorships? Some (including sadly some isolationist…
America, City, Impeachment, Law, Liberty
Statement and Testimony of Gordon Sondland, American Ambassador to the European Union
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s an oft-repeated saying that all politics is local. It’s false, at least in our time: in hamlets, villages, towns, and cities our politics is national (and constitutional). In fairness, I’ve always inclined to this view, but it would be better to be wrong than to be proved right under these conditions. It should be…
Libertarians, Liberty, Local Government, Open Government
Why Transparency Matters in Local Politics
by JOHN ADAMS •
From 2015, Libertarianism.org offers a podcast (posted on YouTube) with Kevin Glass, then of the Franklin Center. (Now called the Franklin New Foundation, it’s a center-right organization; many of Glass’s comments – he now works elsewhere – on open government are, however, non-partisan.) There are similar projects with a center-left focus. In Wisconsin, for example,…
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…