It’s a sound position to focus criticism of Trumpism on Trump, His Inner Circle, Principal Surrogates, and Media Defenders. This sometimes includes Trumpism Down to the Local Level. (Those local officials across America who have this past decade spread sugary lies of boosterism during the Great Recession, during its aftermath, and during the opioid crisis are contemptibly…
Unfit
Authoritarianism, Elections, Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Foreign Affairs, Herrenvolk, Never Trump, Politics, Russia, Trump, Unfit
The Fifth Columnist at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
While a fellow traveler – however detestable – is merely someone who sympathizes with an adversarial foreign power, a fifth columnist is someone who actively cooperates – colludes, one might say – with a hostile foreign state. For all the talk of no collusion (styled as NO COLLUSION in a bigoted authoritarian’s tweets), Trump at…
Fashion, Trump, Unfit
Vulgar Outside, Disordered Inside
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Embed from Getty Images Robin Givhan wisely observes that Trump’s catastrophic fashion choices in England were not just a sign of bad taste: For any man to bungle white-tie dress — something so regimented, so steeped in tradition, so well-documented — he must be a man who doesn’t bother with the details, who doesn’t avail…
Authoritarianism, Bigotry, Mendacity, Misconduct, Never Trump, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
‘A cancer on the presidency’
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Attorney George Conway III writes Trump is a cancer on the presidency. Congress should remove him. Although I would describe Trump more broadly as a blight on the country, Conway’s assessment is spot on: So it turns out that, indeed, President Trump was not exonerated at all, and certainly not “totally” or “completely,” as he…
Health, Trump, Unfit
Trump’s Apparent Cognitive Deficits
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The fundamental – and dispositive – objections to Trump are political, legal, ethical, and moral. Collectively, those objections are overwhelming. There are, however, practical concerns, also: he’s apparently, evidently deficient, as psychologist John Gartner writes: In Alzheimer’s, as language skills deteriorate, we see two types of tell-tale speech disorders, or paraphasias: Semantic paraphasia involves choosing the…
Bad Ideas, Bigotry, Race, Trump, Unfit
Trump & Race
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Kakistocracy, Never Trump, Presidential race 2016, Resistance, Trump, Unfit
Yet Go He Will…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Ted Koppel cautions Don’t expect Trump to go quietly: There is a disarming innocence to the assumption that whether by impeachment, indictment or a cleansing electoral redo in 2020, President Trump will be exorcised from the White House and that thereby he and his base will largely revert to irrelevance. Truthfully, there are few among the…
America, City, Federal Government, Fellow Traveler, Fifth Columnist, Local Government, Never Trump, Russia, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
Trump-Russia Roundup
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
While the proper focus against Trumpism involves a zealous lawful effort against Trump and his leading operatives, there is also a problem of Trumpism down to the local level. In both cases, officials advancing Trumpism ignore the overwhelming evidence of his betrayal of our own people to the benefit of a hostile foreign power. As…
America, Cartoons & Comics, History, Trump, Trump-Russia, Unfit
We’re Going to Need a Bigger Cartoon
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
Education, Kakistocracy, Law, Trump, Unfit
Trump Nominee Non-Committal on School Integration
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Alternative title: Why We Resist and Oppose. WATCH: During her confirmation hearing this morning (yes, this morning – in 2018), judicial nominee Wendy Vitter refused to say whether she agreed with the result in Brown v. Board of Education. #UnfitToJudge pic.twitter.com/RWroh0XUIC — The Leadership Conference (@civilrightsorg) April 11, 2018 Consider the remarks of Wendy Vitter,…