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…
Trump
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…
2020 Presidential Election, Politics, Trump
Rep. Justin Amash Learns There Are Only Two Significant Sides in This Conflict
by JOHN ADAMS •
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 •
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 •
Conspiracy Theories, Horde, Trump, Unfit
Conspiracy Theories’ Intensity & Drug Tolerance
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
Conspiracy Theories, Trump, Trump-Russia
The Ludicrous ‘Obamagate’ Scandal
by JOHN ADAMS •
Coronavirus, Courts, Federal Government, Law, Local Government, Public Health, State Government, Trump
Practical Implications After Wisconsin v. Palm: The Divide over the Novel Coronavirus
by JOHN ADAMS •
On March 24th, I first began a draft of this post. It seemed to probable then – and it is true now – that Trump would effectually abandon a social distancing or stay-at-home approach, and encourage business as usual to resume promptly. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling in Wisconsin v. Palm has brought that abandonment to Wisconsin…
Politics, Trump
3 Views of the Trump Digital Campaign Operation
by JOHN ADAMS •
Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, is proud of the digital campaign operation he’s created for Trump’s election. He’s even referred to it (absurdly) as a ‘Death Star’ operation. Views of the Trump digital offering are mixed. Dave Weigel sees Trump digital platform as interactively engaging for Trump’s fans: Trump 2020 did not let me go…
Trump, Unfit
Easily Rattled
by JOHN ADAMS •
Coronavirus, Distraction, Trump
Distract
by JOHN ADAMS •
Authoritarianism, Bigotry, Conway, Ethics, Gluttony, Grifters, Impeachment, Kakistocracy, Medicine, Mendacity, Nepotism, Never Trump, Official Misconduct, Sloth, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
Trump’s Condition: Unfit by Many Standards
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s enough, as an indictment of Trump, to see and then reject his role on purely political grounds: a bigoted autocrat of limited knowledge & reasoning ability with a love of foreign dictators and contempt for American liberal democracy. One doesn’t need a training in medicine to reject Trump. There are, however, compelling critiques of…