Paul Ryan hasn’t been Whitewater’s congressman since the last gerrymandering. We’ve faraway septuagenarian multi-millionaire James Sensenbrenner now. Ryan, however, has been more powerful than Sensenbrenner ever could be. Janesville’s Ryan has held greater political power than anyone in our town, to be sure, ever has or ever will. And yet, and yet, Ryan’s done. If…
Trump
Babbittry, Culture, Local Government, That Which Paved the Way, Trump
A Local Problem Before It Became a National One
by JOHN ADAMS •
Philip Bump contends The only information Trump supports is information that makes him look good: Trump highlighting [conservative-leaning pollster] Rasmussen isn’t quite like putting your best friend as a reference on a job application, but it’s not as though he’s going out of his way to list former employers. He also goes a step further,…
Kakistocracy, Trump
Trump Administration Departures
by JOHN ADAMS •
Brian Steler sent along to his readers a photo showing the departures – so far – from the Trump Administration. Stelter writes that On MSNBC Tuesday night, Lawrence O’Donnell joked that this graphic is a “copyrighted feature of Rachel Maddow’s show:” Her “big board” of Trump admin departures. The list keeps getting longer and the…
Business, Economy, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, Trump
The Man Behind the Foxconn Project
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images You may have read, recently, of a public official who came to Whitewater to talk about the Foxconn project. Why settle for the tired claims of a mid-level state-government operative when one can hear about Foxconn from the one man behind the entire project? Matthew DeFour reports on the real force…
Law, Trump
‘There’s no such thing as a perjury trap’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Elections, Gov. Walker, Trump, Wisconsin
Trump and Walker
by JOHN ADAMS •
In 2014, Gov. Walker ran for re-election, and two years later Trump ran for president. The two-party results for the GOP candidates in the City of Whitewater were much different. In 2014, Gov. Walker narrowly lost the City of Whitewater to Mary Burke: Walker 2,616 49.8% Burke 2,634 50.2% In 2016, Trump decisively lost…
Trump
‘Executive Time’ for the Laziest Person in North America
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s a big planet, with billions of people, so one cannot account for every last lazybones on every last continent. And yet, and yet, is there anyone on this continent as lazy as Donald J. Trump? Jonathan Swan explains in Scoop: Trump’s secret, shrinking schedule: President Trump is starting his official day much later than he…
Trump, Unfit
How to Undermine One’s Own Case in Three Words or Less…
by JOHN ADAMS •
Politics, Trump
Conservatism & Trump
by JOHN ADAMS •
So will Trump fundamentally alter American conservatism, or is he a mere phase in a longer, unchanging tradition? Three American conservatives, and Britain’s George Orwell, have something to interesting say on the matter. 1. Charles C.W. Cooke: Whatever its shortcomings—and they are many—the American Right is too complicated and too interesting a force to be…
America, City, Politics, Trump
Whitewater’s Outlook for 2018
by JOHN ADAMS •
America, City, Culture, Local Government, Politics, Religion, School District, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, University
Rabbi Sharon Brous’s Advice for Small Towns (and Everywhere, Really)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at The Atlantic, there’s an interview with Rabbi Sharon Brous, the senior rabbi at IKAR, a non-denominational synagogue in California. See ‘I’ve Spent My Life Studying These Books That Say Decency Actually Matters.’ Rabbi Brous describes religious belief among progressives in contemporary America, and two of her observations are particularly suited even to Whitewater…
Federal Government, Paul Ryan, Trump
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride Winds Down
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over these eighteen months, Paul Ryan’s gone from opposition, to appeasement, to support of Trump’s key aims. Perhaps Ryan would have done better with Clinton as president, where he might have been a counterweight to a fundamentally rational chief executive. As it is, Ryan is a lightweight in the face of a fundamentally autocratic, ignorant,…
Authoritarianism, Bigotry, Putin, Trump, Trump-Russia
America, Russia…
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s true that a well-ordered society would not be governed by (an unrepentent) former KGB agent. It’s just as true that a well-ordered society would not be governed by a bigoted, autocratic, dissolute liar. Yet here we are, and there they are. .@tolokno was imprisoned for speaking out against Vladimir Putin's presidency in Russia. She…
America, History, Trump
‘America the great’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Shikha Dalmia writes, truly, of America the great: Ever since President Trump sauntered into the White House, America’s image — or “brand,” in marketing parlance — has taken a beating. This month, a Nation Brand Index poll of public opinion in 50 countries found that the “Trump effect” had caused America’s reputation to drop from…