Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:59 AM and sunset 6:26 PM for 11h 27m 05s of daytime. The moon is a new with none of its visible disk illuminated. There will be a meeting to discuss the use of herbicides in Cravath and Trippe Lakes…
Trumpism
City, Constitution, Daily Bread, Education, Ethics, History, Insurrection, Politics, Right-wing Populism, School District, Trumpism
Daily Bread for 10.4.21: The Basis of a Civics Syllabus for Whitewater’s Schools
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will see scattered showers with a high of 68. Sunrise is 6:56 AM and sunset 6:29 PM for 11h 32m 49s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 5.1% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1957, Sputnik 1 becomes the first artificial satellite to orbit the…
City, Culture, Daily Bread, Education, Ethics, Religion, Right-wing Populism, Trumpism, Vaccines
Daily Bread for 10.3.21: Trumpism as a ‘God and Country Lifestyle Brand’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will see scattered thundershowers with a high of 74. Sunrise is 6:55 AM and sunset 6:31 PM for 11h 35m 40s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 10.5% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1990, the German Democratic Republic is abolished and becomes part of the…
City, Daily Bread, Right-wing Populism, School District, Trumpism
Daily Bread for 8.29.21: Trumpism’s Final Form
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 87. Sunrise is 6:17 AM and sunset 7:33 PM, for 13h 15m 37s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 57.5% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1997, Netflix is launched as an internet DVD rental service. Peter Wehner…
Daily Bread, Employment, Free Markets, Populists, Trumpism, Vaccines
Daily Bread for 8.15.21: The ‘Personal Responsibility’ Crowd Wants a Handout
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:02 AM and sunset 7:55 PM, for 13h 53m 13s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 48.4% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1944, Allied forces land in southern France in Operation Dragoon. Molly Beck reports…
Politics, Public Health, Rhetoric, Trumpism, UW System, Vaccines, WISGOP
Steve Nass: Troll-King in Autumn
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
For many years, Steve Nass, as a state representative (now a state senator) was a notable farthest-to-the-right Wisconsin politician. The bête noire of liberals and universities, he was the state’s unmatched troll, criticizing the center-left time and again. Nass was a right-wing populist long before Trump. He was the great troll-king of Wisconsin, firing florid press releases…
Conservative Populism, Culture, Education, Horde, Local Government, Never Trump, Politics, Right-wing Populism, School District, Trumpism
(Local) Fear of a Red Hat
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
There are any number of fears that occasionally grip people, however unfounded those fears, of snakes, of spiders, of black cats, etc. (Snakes play an important ecological role, some cultures think spiders are good luck, and black cats are beautiful with notably soft coats.) And yet, and yet… no fear strikes deeper and holds tighter…
Culture, Politics, Social Media, Trumpism
Miller’s Gutter on Gettr
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Jason Miller, former Trump spokesman, deadbeat dad, and accused harasser is behind a Twitter alternative called Gettr. Having explored it briefly, one can say the site is a poorly designed social-media gutter. See also The Latest Pro-Trump Twitter Clone Leaks User Data on Day 1 and The Pro-Trump Social Network Has an Anime Porn Problem. Gettr has low-quality…
City, Local Government, Never Trump, Politics, School District, Trumpism, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whither the Conservative Populists?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In places big and small, including Whitewater, there are three main types of conservatives: traditional, transactional, and populist. (Right-wing populist in our time is mostly a euphemism for Trumpist.) Of these types, only the right-wing populists are a dynamic movement. Traditional conservatives each day look more like large reptiles after a cataclysmic meteor strike, and…
Local Government, Never Trump, Politics, Right-wing Populism, School District, State Government, Trump, Trumpism
Conservative Populism Moves in One Direction Only
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
While there’s more than one kind of conservative Republican (traditionalist, transactionalist, or populist), it’s the populists who are the most numerous and most demanding. Over time, they’ve pushed other kinds of conservatives – even transactionalists who are behind-the-scenes manipulators – into subordinate positions. (See generally Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021.) These rightwing populists have outlasted Trump,…
Bigotry, Conspiracy Theories, Covidiocy, Crackpots, Disinformation, Sen. Ron Johnson, Trumpism, U.S. Senate, Unfit
Sen. Ron Johnson: ‘An all-access purveyor of misinformation’
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Ron Johnson, one of the two United States senators representing Wisconsin, has earned a new epithet: BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Senator Ron Johnson incited widespread outrage when he said recently that he would have been more afraid of the rioters who rampaged the Capitol on Jan. 6 had they been members of Black Lives Matter and…
America, Congress, Crime, Disinformation, Insurrection, Medicine, Republicans, Trump, Trumpism
Eyes Averted
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
As video of Capitol riot played, some GOP senators turned away: Almost every senatorial eye in the chamber was glued to the screens as lead House manager Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) played a 13-minute video depicting the events of Jan. 6 to introduce the impeachment case against Trump — with a few notable exceptions. While the…
America, Authoritarianism, Congress, Documentary, Never Trump, Politics, Trump, Trumpism
Frontline: Trump’s American Carnage
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, FRONTLINE investigates how Donald Trump’s presidency laid the groundwork for bitter divisions, violence and ultimately insurrection. “Trump’s American Carnage” investigates Trump’s siege on his enemies, the media and even the leaders of his own party, who for years ignored the warning signs of what…