Mike Allen, now of Axios, writes about how Trumpism has nationalized politics: Trump is even the story in local races A dilemma for news organizations in this epic era is that President Trump isn’t just the biggest story in politics. On many days, he’s the biggest story in business, the biggest story in media, the biggest…
Liberty
Alt-Right, America, Authoritarianism, Law, Liberty
Mycielski’s Complete Four-Page Guide to Surviving an Authoritarian Regime
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
European journalist Martin Mycielski has prepared a Complete Four-Page Guide to Surviving an Authoritarian Regime (“in graphic form, With love, your Eastern European friends.”) As he now sees the return of authoritarianism to his native Poland, we now see the beginning of it in America. Here is Mycielski’s guide:
Babbittry, Bigotry, City, Law, Liberty, Local Government, Trump
The Somber Trio
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Among the most serious harms are those to liberty and physical well-being. One can compensate adequately for many injuries, but damages at law are slight compensation for lost liberties and physical injuries. We’ve a new national environment, in which actions once impermissible are now encouraged, and redress once required is now no longer recognized. If…
America, Law, Liberty, Putin, Resistance, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
The Erosion of Political Norms (Concluding Part 4 in a Series)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
More than one small town has struggled for years under the debilitating influence of political & economic conflicts of interest, misguided priorities, and dodgy or grandiose claims. These conditions where those that That Which Paved the Way for Trumpism. Those locally who carried on this way made Trumpism more likely, the way a moderate illness might weaken…
America, Art, City, Culture, League of Women Voters, Liberty, Local Government
‘Fortunate’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Norman Rockwell wasn’t the finest painter of the twentieth century (to express the matter gently), but at least when he created a painting capturing the spirit of free speech as one of Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms, he understood speech as a right, not a privilege, lucky break, or favor from government. So it is with government,…
Alt-Right, America, Babbittry, Bigotry, City, Culture, Liberty, Local Government, Politics
The Existential (Imagined and Real)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
It was Michael Anton (writing as Publius Decius Mus) who exactly one year ago famously declared that 2016 was “The Flight 93 Election,” an existential fight for survival for state-loving conservatives: 2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die. You may die anyway. You—or the leader of your party—may make it…
Alt-Right, America, Film, History, Liberty, Trump
Don’t Be a Sucker
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
In 1943, in the middle of the Second World War, the United States Government, fighting on both sides of the world, commissioned a short film about fascism entitled Don’t Be a Sucker. The film describes the fight in which America was embroiled in the style and vernacular of that time; it’s even more compelling to me…
America, Liberty, Politics
‘Pick a torch, America’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
America, Liberty, Putin
Tracking Putin’s Propaganda on Twitter
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, they’ve a Dashboard for Tracking Russian Propaganda on Twitter. It’s called Hamilton 68, after No. 68 of the Federalist Papers, in which Hamilton (writing pseudonymously as Publius) considers the danger of foreign interference in American elections (“These most deadly adversaries of republican government, might naturally have been expected to…
City, Law, Liberty, New Whitewater, Trump
On Transgender Americans
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One could write about the recent Twitter statement from Trump that “[a]fter consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military,” but there’s a broader question than military service. To be sure, I believe…
Alt-Right, America, City, Liberty, Putin, Russia, Trump
‘What Putin’s team is probably telling him about Trump’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Michael Morell, former deputy director of the CIA from 2010 to 2013 and twice acting director, and Samantha Vinograd of the National Security Council staff from 2009 to 2013, speculate from experience on What Putin’s team is probably telling him about Trump: This is a speculative account of a memo that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s national…
America, Law, Liberty
Under the Gazette‘s Reasoning, Rosa Parks Should Have Stayed at the Back of the Bus
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over at the Gazette, there’s an editorial about whether a local school superintendent should have sent a message about immigration to residents without consulting his school board. See, Our Views: Superintendent sends the wrong message. I’ll set aside the issue of immigration, and address the deeper issue of the Gazette‘s reasoning on obedience to the…
Alt-Right, America, Bigotry, Liberty, Race
So Much for the ‘Master Race’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I’m white. (I’ll joke and say that, in fact, I’ve been white for as long as I can remember). It’s simply a natural characteristic for me. (It’s easier, unquestionably, to describe matters this way – as though without a social context – if one has not experienced discrimination). One can’t say the same about Richard Spencer, white…
Liberty, Newspapers, Press
Sunshine Week in Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The USA Today Network of Gannett papers in Wisconsin (including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) asks How open is your government? Tell us: They’re entrusted with important responsibilities to keep people safe, educate kids, maintain roads and enforce rules fairly. Taxpayers fund their salaries. But just how public are public officials? That’s what we want to know. As…