Polling from Morning Consult illustrates well the limitations of Trump’s base-only strategy: his support (base and supportive voters) represents less than needed for re-election. That support is, in fact, notably consistent in its inadequacy: Over many months, including before the brunt of the pandemic, Trump has been stuck in a weak position. This does not…
Trump
Authoritarianism, Federal Government, Freedom of Speech, Police, Trump, Unfit, Violence, William Barr
Detailed Video Timeline of the Crackdown on Protesters Before Trump’s Photo Op
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Washington Post analyzed hours of video footage and obtained audio of police communications and other records to assemble the most complete account to date of the June 1 crackdown on protesters in Washington D.C.. Late in the day on June 1, demonstrators gathered near the White House, on the edge of Lafayette Square, to…
Authoritarianism, Religion, Trump, Unfit
Antithetical
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Authoritarianism, Trump, Tyranny, Unfit
War Zone
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
America, Authoritarianism, Corruption, Economy, Public Health, Trump, Unfit
Trump’s American Carnage
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Books, Literacy, Trump
Bogus Bibliophiles Benito Mussolini & Donald Trump
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s an oft-repeated tale, from Ernest Hemingway, about an encounter he had with Benito Mussolini in the 1920s, in which Mussolini – by Hemingway’s account – pretends to read a book: At a time when the Western consensus was championing Mussolini’s potential to rehabilitate postwar Italy, Hemingway branded the Duce as “coward” with a “genius…
Trump
Trump Finally Gets a Wall
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
America, Bigotry, History, Never Trump, Politics, Treason, Trump
The Flag of Treason
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Politics, Trump, Violence
Trump Can Incite, But He Can’t Quell
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The man who in 2016 arrogantly declared “I alone can fix it” spent party of Friday evening sheltering in the White House bunker. Trump is unique among presidents in his support for vigilantism (see Donald Trump is America’s First Vigilante President). Inciting others to violent, illegal action (or excusing that action among this supporters) is…
Authoritarianism, Freedom of Speech, Law, Liberty, Social Media, Trump, Twitter
Twitter’s (Perhaps Momentary) Advantage Over Trump
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
2020 Presidential Election, Politics, Trump
Rep. Justin Amash Learns There Are Only Two Significant Sides in This Conflict
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Rep. Justin Amash, who toyed with running for president as a third-party candidate, has decided against doing so. Amash has come – however slowly – to see that, in his words, “circumstances don’t lend themselves to my success as a candidate for president this year.” His candidacy was always a bad idea. See Only a Grand…
Gluttony, Grifters, Trump
GOP Cribs
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Never Trump Republicans of the Lincoln Project have criticized Trump more than once, and are now burrowed deep under his oddly-pigmented skin. They’re highly effective in the way that Russian dissidents were highly effective against the brutality of the Soviet Union: no one knew both those experiences and the character of the regime that…
Authoritarianism, Law, Trump, Unfit
He Thinks He’s a King
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Conspiracy Theories, Horde, Trump, Unfit
Conspiracy Theories’ Intensity & Drug Tolerance
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Drug tolerance occurs when a drug user experiences a lesser reaction to a drug after its repeated use. One solution – although a possibly dangerous and self-defeating one – is to take even more of that same drug as its effects decline. The horde that fanatically follows Trump requires ever-more fantastic claims to produce the…