A video on how Trump, Ryan, and Walker are abusing eminent domain law and seek to destroy the homes of Wisconsinites to build the Foxconn plant is well worth watching. The short video was removed from YouTube over a bogus copyright claim, but it’s back online. (In the time since the video was first published,…
Trump
Agriculture, Economy, Trade, Trump
A Farmer on Trump’s Trade War: I Can’t ‘Take It’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Libertarians, Trump, Trump-Russia
Appeasement Isn’t Peace
by JOHN ADAMS •
Sen. Rand Paul is a libertarian in the way that Gov. Walker is a free-market man: they prefer the titles, but act in ways contrary to the underlying principles. For Wisconsin, no man behind the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation & Foxconn project could genuinely support free markets in capital, labor, and goods; for Kentucky, no man…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Economics, Economy, Politics, Taxes/Taxation, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
The Trump Tax Bill: That’s Not Reform
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority represents a specific part of the Trump tax bill as beneficial to this city. (See press release 1, press release 2.) For today, looking at the bill generally, it’s bad for America: it’s a sham reform instead of a beneficial restructuring, and it makes this country’s outlook worse. Benjamin H. Harris and Adam…
Bad Ideas, CDA, City, Economics, Economy, Local Government, Politics, Taxes/Taxation, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
More About that Trump Tax Bill
by JOHN ADAMS •
In the spring, Whitewater saw two Community Development Authority press releases touting a specific part of the Trump tax bill. (See press release 1, press release 2.) In response, this website replied (1) with a link to a Congressional Budget Office study implying that, overall, the Trump bill will boost incomes for foreign investors but not…
Bad Ideas, City, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, Trump, Uncategorized, WEDC
Foxconn’s (Overwhelmingly) Low-Paying Jobs
by JOHN ADAMS •
Residents of Whitewater (or at least the ones attracted to corporate welfare) had a chance this winter to hear a state operative extol the benefits of billions in public money for Foxconn. The local 501(c)(6) business league, the Greater Whitewater Committee, brought in a guest speaker to tout the project. See A Sham News Story on…
America, Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Mendacity, Politics, Trump, Trump-Russia
No Sudden Accident
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads that Trump has a new theory about Russian involvement in the November 2018 elections – he’s contending that the Russians plan to help the Democrats: I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher…
America, Authoritarianism, Law, Liberty, Politics, Trump
A Roadmap for Renewal
by JOHN ADAMS •
No map provides all the detail one encounters when traveling a terrain; it is enough that it makes one’s chosen direction discernible. Our present national conflict will one day end, and when it does millions who will have swept Trumpism into the dustbin will then have to renew American politics, restoring to this society once…
America, Authoritarianism, Trump, Trump-Russia, Tyranny
‘America Used to Stand Up to Dictators’
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, Cartoons & Comics, History, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
We’re Going to Need a Bigger Cartoon
by JOHN ADAMS •
In 1865, cartoonist Oscar Harpel drew A Proper Family Re-Union, depicting notorious American traitors Benedict Arnold and Jefferson Davis drinking a treason toddy of Satan’s creation. I’ll not presume to make the theological claim that Trump will, in fact, one day find himself in the company of those three, but as a political matter, America’s going…
Bad Ideas, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Local Government, State Capitalism, Trump, WEDC
The Mercantilist
by JOHN ADAMS •
Veronique de Rugy contends that one should take Trump at his word on trade. It’s doubtful that anyone should take Trump’s word for anything, but that’s too literal a reading of her claim. She’s right that, in effect, Trump truly opposes free trade no matter what he says: As we embark on a trade war, let’s…
Agriculture, Economy, Trade, Trump
Tales of Unrequited Support
by JOHN ADAMS •
Wisconsinites who went for Trump now find themselves economically disadvantaged despite their support. It’s become an international tale: how some residents of America’s Dairyland foolishly hoped for better from Trump and now find themselves experiencing worse: Plymouth, Wisconsin, styles itself as “the cheese capital of the world”. The town of 8,445 people, about an hour north…
Putin, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia
Senate Panel Confirms the Obvious: Putin Tried to Help Trump
by JOHN ADAMS •
Via The Committee to Investigate Russia. Intel Committee Releases Unclassified Summary of Initial Findings on 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment Press Contact: Caitlin Carroll (Burr) (202) 228-1616 Rachel Cohen (Warner) (202) 228-6884 Intel Committee Releases Unclassified Summary of Initial Findings on 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment WASHINGTON – Today, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr…
Bad Ideas, City, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, Trump
Foxconn’s Bait & Switch
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s a groundbreaking ceremony for (a much smaller) Foxconn today. This very morning one reads confirmation – yet again – that taxpayers’ billions for Foxconn are paying for a project that’s now a giant bait & switch. Rick Romell reports Foxconn scales back plans for its first factory in Mount Pleasant: The Foxconn Technology Group manufacturing…