Dylan Byers, writing in the latest the daily CNN Reliable Sources email (3.27.17 @ 10:32 PM) while Brian Stelter is away, describes the Three Faces of Right-Wing Media: We throw around terms like “right-wing media” and “conservative media” all the time (see above), but as in the Republican party, there are multiple factions. Broadly speaking, these…
Politics
Politics, Poll, Wisconsin
Marquette Law Poll, March 2017 (First Marquette Poll Since 2016 Election)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Selected results below, from among Wisconsin registered voters; full results are available online. Trump Approval New Marquette Law School Poll puts approval among registered voters in WI of how President Trump is doing his job at 41%. #mulawpoll — MULawPoll (@MULawPoll) March 22, 2017 Trump Disappproval 47% disapprove of Trump job performance, 11% don’t express…
City, Elections, Politics
The Upcoming Spring Election in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
One, but only one, of Whitewater’s Common Council races is contested. Some readers have asked me, variously, if I would comment on the candidates in the contested race, and where one might find the candidate statements submitted to the local League of Women Voters chapter. I’ll leave residents to consider the candidates (including the contested race…
America, Elections, Politics, Putin, Russia, Trump
Rep. Adam Schiff’s Opening Statement Outlining Basis of Russia Investigation
by JOHN ADAMS •
Prepared text of the statement that Rep. Schiff delivered in the video embedded above: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank Director Comey and Admiral Rogers for appearing before us today as the committee holds this first open hearing into the interference campaign waged against our 2016 Presidential election. Last summer, at the height…
City, Economy, Free Markets, Politics
On the Whitewater League of Women Voters Questionnaire (Spring 2017)
by JOHN ADAMS •
At its website, the Whitewater Area League of Women Voters has posted a questionnaire for the upcoming local election. For all the good work that the League does (and the national organization does admirable work in many communities), the questionnaire reveals an unsupported, narrow view of Whitewater’s local economy. Consider the 7th question in the survey…
Politics, Resistance
Molly Ball: Is the Anti-Trump ‘Resistance’ the New Tea Party?
by JOHN ADAMS •
In The Atlantic, Molly Ball observes that “Today, a new movement—loosely dubbed “the resistance”—has suddenly arisen in visceral reaction to Donald Trump’s election as president, with thousands taking to the streets. For those who remember the Tea Party, it feels like deja vu. The parallels are striking: a massive grassroots movement, many of its members new…
Authoritarianism, History, Politics, Resistance
What Grant’s Overland Campaign Teaches for Grave Political Conflict
by JOHN ADAMS •
For matters far removed from warfare, including ones concerning severe political conflict, Grant’s Overland Campaign offers useful lessons. It’s typically a poor idea to describe political affairs in military terms, but grave threats to the political order sadly call for a different approach. One fights in more than one way: sometimes using maneuver, at other times…
Freedom of Speech, Liberty, Newspapers, Politics, Press
‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Federal Government, Local Government, Politics
The National-Local Mix (Part 2)
by JOHN ADAMS •
On November 18th, I posted on a National-Local Mix, that combination of topics that a blogger might consider under Trump. The need to think about a national-local mix was obvious enough: “Trump is a fundamentally different candidate from those who have come before him. Not grasping this would be obtuse. Writing only about sewing circles or local…
Federal Government, Local Government, Politics
Early Days
by JOHN ADAMS •
We’re in the early days of Trump, and we’ve likely a long and difficult way to go. (My daily count runs from 11.9, so it’s not as early from my vantage.) Even now, however, a solid resistance is forming across the country, including in red states that Trump supporters might otherwise consider unshakably Trump’s. (There is…
Politics
Underestimating Opposition
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’m libertarian, not liberal, but a quoted remark from some conservative teenagers about liberals caught my attention. In an essay in the New York Times (Why Rural America Voted for Trump), Robert Leonard describes how two conservative eighteen-year olds think of liberals. Here’s the essay’s introductory paragraph, containing the quote: Knoxville, Iowa — One recent morning,…
Education, Elections, Politics
Wisconsin’s Best & Brightest Vie for Office
by JOHN ADAMS •
Molly Beck reports that two of the three candidates for state superintendent discussed an arrangement – not illegal yet astonishingly cynical – about one of them dropping out in exchange for a state job: A candidate for state superintendent offered an opponent a taxpayer-funded $150,000 job if he dropped out of the race and sought the…
Authoritarianism, Politics, Trump
An Eminent Psychiatrist on Trump
by JOHN ADAMS •
Dr. Allen Frances, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical College, who served as chairman of the task force that wrote the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (D.S.M.-IV), on 2.14.17 sent a letter to the New York Times in which he addresses questions about Donald Trump’s mental state. (See, An Eminent Psychiatrist…
Politics, Trump
The ‘Balls & Strikes’ View
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s an interesting exchange between conservative Trump-critic Evan McMullin and conservative Josh Hammer worth considering. The exchange shows the divide among conservatives about Trump. (There’s also a divide among conservatives about whether anti-Trump conservatives are, in fact, conservatives. To this libertarian, they all look sufficiently conservative; that intra-tribe debate is not one in which I’m engaged.) First…