In Texas, a white adobe chapel built in 1899 on the banks of the Rio Grande sits in the proposed path of President Donald Trump’s border wall. A Border Patrol agent stands sentry yards away. A military helicopter—part of Trump’s troop surge at the border—drowns out Father Roy Snipes. It’s akin to “saying Mass in…
Trump
America, Congress, History, Law, Misconduct, Trump, Trump-Russia
The Case for Impeaching Trump
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yoni Applebaum contends It’s Time to Impeach Trump (“Starting the process will rein in a president who is undermining American ideals—and bring the debate about his fitness for office into Congress, where it belongs”): On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump stood on the steps of the Capitol, raised his right hand, and solemnly swore to faithfully…
Crime, Law, Trump
Circumstantial Evidence is Often Very Reliable
by JOHN ADAMS •
Trump’s defenders – many of whom would otherwise support aggressive criminal prosecutions – sometimes argue that the case against Trump is merely circumstantial (no “direct evidence of collusion”). These apologists ignore what in other cases they might acknowledge: that circumstantial evidence can strongly, reasonably support a conclusion. Eric Swalwell and Chuck Rosenberg (as recounted by Natasha…
Immigration, Trump
Trump’s Failed Wall-Building Strategy
by JOHN ADAMS •
Bad Ideas, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Demographics, Economics, Economy, Foxconn, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, State Capitalism, State Government, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
‘Inside Wisconsin’s Disastrous $4.5 Billion Deal With Foxconn’
by JOHN ADAMS •
The published case against Foxconn – with reporting & analysis from some of America’s finest journalists and economists – is overwhelming. Their careful, published work has set out the plain facts for well over a year. And yet, as a multi-billion dollar public failure, there are even more startling accounts still emerging. Austin Carr reports…
Corruption Probe, Crime, Federal Government, History, Law, Trump
Nixon Called for an End of an Investigation, Too
by JOHN ADAMS •
Indolence, Kakistocracy, Trump
Slothful: Trump’s In Late, Out Early
by JOHN ADAMS •
Immigration, Kakistocracy, Trump
Trump’s Wall Con
by JOHN ADAMS •
Indolence, Kakistocracy, Trump
Slothful: Donald Trump Works Less Than Most Americans
by JOHN ADAMS •
Even before the latest reporting from Alexi McCammond and Jonathan Swan, there has been ample evidence that Trump was slothful — a shiftless, unproductive man: In a Special Report, MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent, Ari Melber, examines Trump’s first two years in office and a scandal hiding in plain sight: mounting evidence that there are stretches…
Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Hunger, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Planning, Poverty, State Capitalism, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Fight Against Gravity
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Trump Administration wants to bolster industries that are market failures, with coal as an example. Catherine Rampell writes of that effort in The Trump administration learns that fighting gravity is hard: The Trump administration is learning that, as new data show that the industries it has worked hardest to prop up — through bailouts, tariffs…
Immigration, Trump
Does Trump Think Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a Documentary?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Mary Papenfuss reports Rachel Maddow: Trump May Have Cooked Up ‘Taped Women’ From ‘Sicario’: President Donald Trump has been obsessively repeating a horror tale of trafficked women in cars at the southern border, their mouths taped shut, so they “can’t even breathe.” The problem is that trafficked women and border officials apparently have no idea what he’s…
Authoritarianism, Federal Government, Law, Race, Trump
Undermining His Own Case for a National Emergency
by JOHN ADAMS •
Elizabeth Goitein observes Trump Is Destroying His Own Case for a National Emergency (“By waiting for Congress to act, the president is undermining the legal basis for any declaration”): Here’s how the legal process for emergency powers works: Under the National Emergencies Act, passed by Congress in 1976, the president has broad discretion to declare a…
Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Foreign Affairs, Trump, Trump-Russia
‘Foreign powers infecting the White House like malware’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Economy, Federal Government, Never Trump, Transportation, Trump
Commerce Slows
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update, Friday afternoon: Trump folds under pressure agrees to a three-week re-opening of the federal gov’t. Of his Rose Garden address this afternoon (one that I watched in full), Jennifer Rubin observes “[m]aybe this is part of an insanity defense for the Russia probe.” One reads that under the shutdown, interstate commerce now slows: Significant…