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…
Trumpism
America, Congress, Crime, Disinformation, Insurrection, Medicine, Republicans, Trump, Trumpism
Eyes Averted
by JOHN ADAMS •
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 •
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…
Mendacity, Trump, Trumpism
The Liar’s Guide to Mendacious Hypocrisy
by JOHN ADAMS •
Alt-Right, Crime, Horde, Insurrection, Trump, Trumpism, Video, Violence
A Reporter’s Footage from Inside the Capitol Siege
by JOHN ADAMS •
Luke Mogelson [of The New Yorker] followed Trump supporters as they forced their way into the U.S. Capitol, using his phone’s camera as a reporter’s notebook. Read Luke Mogelson’s original report, Among the Insurrectionists. See also Transcript of Rioters’ Remarks.
Congress, Crime, Documentary, Radical Populism, Trump, Trumpism, Violence
Inside the U.S. Capitol at the Height of the Siege
by JOHN ADAMS •
At 2:12 p.m. on Jan. 6, supporters of President Trump began climbing through a window they had smashed on the northwest side of the U.S. Capitol. “Go! Go! Go!” someone shouted as the rioters, some in military gear, streamed in. It was the start of the most serious attack on the Capitol since the War…
Authoritarianism, Mendacity, Trump, Trumpism
Trump’s Big Lie
by JOHN ADAMS •
Timothy Snyder, on Twitter, writes of Trump’s Big Lie: See also Snyder’s On Tyranny.
Babbittry, Boosterism, Conflicts of Interest, Culture, Disinformation, Local Government, Mendacity, Negligence, Politics, Public Relations, Reasoning, School District, Self-Dealing, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, Trumpism, University
Consequences, Accountability, Repentance, Redemption
by JOHN ADAMS •
David Frum, writing of Trump & Trumpism in The Conservative Cult of Victimhood, observes that There is no redemption without repentance. There is no repentance without accountability. There is no accountability without consequences. He rightly concludes that for the Trumpists, the absence of a moral order of accountability and repentance has meant that Even as Trump commits…
Alt-Right, America, Authoritarianism, Congress, Herrenvolk, History, Law, Mendacity, Trump, Trumpism
Confederates, Copperheads, and Conservatives
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s an understatement to say that a democratic society that endures a violent mob seizing its capitol building is a society in distress. We find ourselves in the twenty-first century facing movements as malevolent and mendacious as the nineteenth century’s Confederates and Copperheads. Karen L. Cox writes What Trump Shares With the ‘Lost Cause’ of the…
City, Elections, Failure, Local Government, Presidential race 2020, Scott Fitzgerald, Sen. Ron Johnson, Trump, Trumpism, Unfit
Johnson & Fitzgerald: Betrayers of Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Journal Sentinel’s editorial board correctly contends that Ron Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald and Tom Tiffany should resign or be expelled for siding with Trump against our republic: It was one of Scott Fitzgerald’s first votes in Congress — and he voted to give aid and comfort to an insurrection. This is what putting Donald Trump…
Kakistocracy, Trump, Trumpism
‘Only with the Best and Most Serious People’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images 2015, Trump: “I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people.” 2021: Man who posed at Pelosi desk said in Facebook post that he is prepared for violent death, QAnon supporter from Arizona dressed in fur and horns joins storming of US Capitol, and Apologists For Trump’s Mob…
Conspiracy Theories, Elections, Fellow Traveler, Presidential race 2020, Sen. Ron Johnson, Trump, Trumpism, Wisconsin
Whether Ambitious, Compromised, or Crackpot, Sen. Ron Johnson Doesn’t Disappoint
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embedded below, Sen. Ron Johnson’s nine minutes, thirty-three seconds of lunacy on Sunday’s Meet the Press. A full transcript is available at NBC News. Previously: U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson: Ambitious, Compromised, or Crackpot?, National Reporting on Sen. Ron Johnson, and Ron Johnson’s 12.16.20 Senate Hearing on Election Security.
Never Trump, Republicans, Trumpism
Trumpism Is the Contemporary GOP
by JOHN ADAMS •
See also Man and Movement and Trumpism Down to the Local Level.
Aside
Having descended nationally into a dead-end assemblage of ‘pardoned felon, adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a White House trade adviser and a Russian agent’s former lover,’ versions of the same yet scheme for local office. As there is nationally, there is also a need to oppose Trumpism down to the local level as it moves – walking, crawling, or slithering – to the detriment of small and beautiful cities.