Embed from Getty Images Trumpist Kayleigh McEnany has left CNN (where she appeared as a Trump surrogate), for both Trump TV and the Republican National Committee as the RNC spokesperson. Evan McMullin, a conservative opponent of Trumpism, rightly (but too optimistically, I think) observes that “[i]nstead of doubling down on Trumpism, GOP leadership would be well served…
Politics
City, Politics, Trump
When Lions Meow
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
No one is obligated to think about politics, let alone write about politics. (Indeed, in a more libertarian world, for example, the state would be smaller, and there would be fewer political matters of which to speak and write.) In Whitewater and cities nearby, however, there are more than a few who have public, political…
City, Culture, Politics, Trump, Trump-Russia
The Limits of Cultural Shelter
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In difficult times, some will retreat to apolitical, cultural matters. An apolitical approach is not one that I would take, but for others perhaps it seems the best that one can do. Indeed, in Whitewater, I’ve advocated that approach for those who would not take an overt stand on the principal political question of our…
Politics, Trump
Comms are secondary (at best)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Mooch did his homework. pic.twitter.com/Wku0DF2ovd — The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) July 24, 2017 In the video above, the Daily Show compares Trump’s gestures with those of new Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. The latter seems an impersonator of the former. (Imagine being so eager for power that one would impersonate Trump; it’s like wanting a…
Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Politics, Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
The Fellow Travelers
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Jeremy Peters nicely describes the descent of far too many into mere fellow travelers for Putin, a dictator, imperialist, and murderer (Peters is far too mild about Putin, but he’s ably identified the self-hating Americans who support Russian’s dictator, and some of whom are perhaps even fifth columnists for Russia): WASHINGTON — Years before the…
Babbittry, Politics, Resistance, Trump
Trumpism Down to the Local Level
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I wrote last week, in a post entitled ‘What Putin’s team is probably telling him about Trump,’ about five degrees of culpability for Putinism’s insinuation and degradation of American politics. One could modify that list only slightly, and thereby describe Trump’s present influence in America: (1) those who have served the Trump as operatives and…
Newspapers, Politics
Local Newspaper Demographics
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
One of the interesting – but hard to answer – questions about local news is the composition of its readership. Of local news publications, this question implicates professional publications like the Daily Union and Gazette (and even a longtime politician’s website like the Banner). One could guess – but only guess – that local readership…
Politics, Russia, Trump
Gabriel Schoenfeld on ‘Trump and his whole circus – They have no good choices’
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Gabriel Schoenfeld, the author of Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law, was a senior adviser to the 2012 Romney for President campaign. He observes the damage that Trump has done to the GOP: Figures like Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, cogs in the White House machinery who today seamlessly defend Trump and his…
Politics
About the 2017 William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence to…Sean Hannity
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Lachlan Markay reports that pro-Trump Sean Hannity will receive the 2017 William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence from the conservative Media Research Center (see the announcement, below). That’s risible for a few reasons: (1) Hannity’s not an example of media excellence if either media or excellence are to have any meaning, (2) Hannity’s nothing…
Newspapers, Politics, Trump
‘So soft I want to put them in a pillowcase’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Dave Weigel (@daveweigel), on Twitter, describes nicely the kind of questions that Trump gets from Fox & Friends: “The questions from the Fox and Friends exclusive with Trump are so soft I want to put them in a pillowcase.” I’ve added Weigel’s transcription of questions, below. Residents of Whitewater would be familiar with a local…
City, Culture, Demographics, Local Government, Politics
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 8: Nearby)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
This is the eighth post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. Just beyond the Whitewater proper lie several towns that form the rest of the Whitewater Unified School District. They play a key role in life within Whitewater, far beyond school policies. A few observations: The New…
Authoritarianism, Foreign Affairs, Politics, Putin, Russia, Trump
Time, 5.29.2017
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 14 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This is the final post in a series considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. I can happily recommend Goldstein’s book, both for the tale it tells of a single city’s struggle after an auto plant closes, and for what readers may reasonably infer about a none-too-bright boosterism that has left Janesville (and other cities) divided…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 13 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This is the thirteenth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter of Part Six (2013) of Janesville (Chapter 54, A Glass More Than Half Full). Goldstein’s 54th chapter describes a 2013 dinner of Forward Janesville (a local “business alliance hell-bent on reviving the city’s economy”). Someone at…