John Adams

@libertariandiary

Lawyer • Blogger • Bleeding-Heart Libertarian • Cat Guy • Web: & • Alum: Penn, William & Mary, Cornell Law • Never Trump Before Never Trump • Liberty's Future Beats with a Bleeding Heart

384 Folgt673 Follower1.209 Posts

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politics

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John Adams@libertariandiary· Jul 10

#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched She Said, Nope, Superman, Disclosure Day

John Adams@libertariandiary· May 19

US justice department ‘forever’ bars IRS from auditing Trump’s past tax returns #Trump #IRS #ForeverCorruption www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The addendum, signed by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, says the government is “forever barred” and “precluded” from examining the tax returns of Trump, his family, company and “related companies”. The agreement applies to anything filed before the agreement was reached. It was posted on the justice department website on Tuesday morning, a day after the department announced creation of the fund.

John Adams@libertariandiary· May 6

Washington Post: Iran has hit far more US military assets than reported, satellite images show. www.msn.com/en-us/news/w... #IranWar

Experts who reviewed The Post’s analysis said the damage at the sites suggested that the U.S. military had underestimated Iran’s targeting abilities, not adapted sufficiently to modern drone warfare and left some bases under-protected.

“The Iranian attacks were precise. There are no random craters indicating misses,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired Marine Corps colonel, who reviewed the Iranian images at The Post’s request. The Post previously revealed how Russia provided Iran with intelligence to target U.S. forces.

John Adams@libertariandiary· May 2

Last four watched, including one nutty Italian B-movie from 1977 about a giant yeti… 🫈 #LetterboxdFriday

Last four watched: Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century, The Hunter, Bugonia, and Tetris

John Adams@libertariandiary· Apr 27

Wisconsin’s leading conspiracist-loon finds another issue on which to demagogue. #Wisconsin #RonJohnson open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) tried to use Saturday night’s incident as an excuse not just to get new funding for the Department of Homeland Security but to increase the power of the Senate Republican majority: “At a moment of national danger, if Democrats refuse to fund DHS, I would say this would be the time to nuke the filibuster for good.”

John Adams@libertariandiary· Apr 11

#Caturday #SiameseCat

Black & white photo of a Siamese cat on a bed.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Mar 27

#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched

John Adams@libertariandiary· Mar 22

Analysis goes stale fast (if ever it were truly fresh...): 3:29 PM ET to 6:44 PM ET. #IranWar #Trump #NYT

John Adams@libertariandiary· Mar 12

Keystone Kash outsources FBI training to UFC fighters www.msn.com/en-us/sports... #FBI #UFC #Buffoonication

The plan is for top UFC fighters such as current interim UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethje, former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman, and mixed martial arts legend Renzo Gracie to provide tips and advice to student FBI agents before they enter the field. They are also expected to share unspecified “techniques and tactics” that could help train federal agents.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Mar 12

Oil shock ‘worse than the 1970s’ www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202... #Oil #Economy #IranWar

The Iran war has triggered an even bigger oil shock than the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

The Paris-based agency said the conflict in the Middle East had caused the “largest disruption to crude supplies in the history of the global oil market”.

The amount of oil carried by tankers through the Strait of Hormuz has plunged from around 20 million barrels per day (mb/d) to “a trickle”, it said.

By contrast, around four mb/d were removed from global markets by the Arab oil embargo during the Yom Kippur war of 1973.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Mar 8

Time for a GOP remake: www.imdb.com/title/tt0050...

The Incredible Shrinking Man movie poster

John Adams@libertariandiary· Mar 7

Intel report warns large-scale war 'unlikely' to oust Iran’s regime #Iran #ForeverWar www.msn.com/en-us/news/w...

The report, completed about a week before the United States and Israel initiated the war on Feb. 28, outlined succession scenarios stemming from either a narrowly tailored campaign against Iran’s leaders or a broader assault against its leadership and government institutions, the people familiar with its findings said. In both cases, the intelligence concluded that Iran’s clerical and military establishment would respond to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by following protocols designed to preserve continuity of power, these people said.

The prospect of Iran’s fragmented opposition taking control of the country was described as “unlikely,” said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a classified report.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Mar 6

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03... #Warflation #Economy

Stocks fell sharply as trading opened in New York. The S&P 500 sank 1.3 percent as investors grappled with weak labor market data, which would typically lead to interest rates being lowered by the Federal Reserve, while a sharp rise in oil prices intensified concerns about rising inflation, which would typically result in the Fed keeping interest rates elevated.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Feb 18

The Bulwark: We’re All Minnesotans Now www.thebulwark.com/p/were-all-m...

The Trumpists, like the Southern segregationists and the Soviet-bloc communists before them, have been pretty effective in mobilizing the executive branch and associated organizations behind their deplorable actions, their crude propaganda, and their efforts at intimidation. And so we need an all-of-society resistance to defeat the all-of-government conspiracy against our liberties and democracy.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Feb 4

The Washington Post Dies in Daylight open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa... #WaPo #Bezos

John Adams@libertariandiary· Feb 2

Bulwark: This Isn’t What De-escalation Looks Like open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Even if those orders do change, these systems now have a logic of their own. The Department of Homeland Security spent the last year building ICE into something that looks less like a disciplined law enforcement agency than a small paramilitary force—trawling the nation for the meatheads most susceptible to “WHICH WAY, AMERICAN MAN”–style propaganda, training them quickly and poorly, and dispatching them armed into America’s streets. Even if the White House’s sudden stated desire to “de-escalate” is sincere, what do they think is going to happen as this force keeps getting in tense, weapons-out encounters with civilians?

John Adams@libertariandiary· Jan 19

The only King worthy of celebration in America. #MLKJrDay

John Adams@libertariandiary· Jan 17

New governor brings better government: Abigail Spanberger sworn in as Virginia’s first woman governor apnews.com/article/abig... #Virginia #StatePolitics

One order that Spanberger signed Saturday rescinds a Youngkin directive from last year instructing state law enforcement and corrections officers to assist with immigration enforcement. “Local law enforcement should not be required to divert their limited resources to enforce federal civil immigration laws,” she said.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Jan 17

Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate raises 10 times more than conservative apnews.com/article/wisc... #Wisconsin #WISupremeCourt

The reports filed this week offer the first glimpse at one key measurement of how the race to be decided on April 7 is stacking up. Liberals, who captured the majority in 2023, are optimistic they can win their fourth Supreme Court race in a row dating back to 2020 and solidify their hold on the court for years.

The winner is elected to a 10-year term on the state’s highest court, with several hot-button issues pending including challenges to congressional district maps and the future of a state law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers. The next justice will be on the court in the lead-up to the November midterm election where Wisconsin voters will elect a new governor and decide who controls the state Legislature.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Jan 15

Trump’s promised manufacturing boom is a bust so far. (Spoiler: Trump won't be generating a manufacturing boom no matter how long America waits.) #Economy #Manufacturing www.msn.com/en-us/money/...

Manufacturing employment has declined every month since what Trump dubbed “Liberation Day” in April, saying his widespread tariffs would begin to rebalance global trade in favor of American workers. U.S. factories employ 12.7 million people today, 72,000 fewer than when Trump made his Rose Garden announcement.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Jan 5

Josh Marshall @ TPM on Venezuela Regime Change and the Theater of the Absurd talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/venez... #Venezuela #Trump

The stock story about the U.S. invasion of Iraq was that the U.S. managed a successful invasion and decapitation of the Iraqi state but had made few plans for how to govern or stabilize Iraq as an occupying power once it had overthrown the existing regime. We have a vaguely parallel situation in Venezuela, only the U.S. hasn’t even overthrown the current regime. It’s difficult to overstate how absurd this state of affairs is. And it’s a bit of a mystery why this disconnect still has yet to figure more prominently in U.S. news coverage. Obviously, it’s not entirely absent. I’m going on those news accounts. I mean that there is a thundering emperor-has-no-clothes situation here that somehow isn’t quite being identified clearly enough.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Nov 22

Mostly on the ottoman. #Caturday

Siamese cat sleeps on an ottoman — one leg and tail dangling along the side

John Adams@libertariandiary· Nov 1

ICE and Border Patrol’s use of tear gas injures, sickens and tests the law www.msn.com/en-us/news/u... #ICE #CBP #WarAgainstAmerica

John Adams@libertariandiary· Nov 1

#Caturday refuge from these unsettling times.

Siamese cat relaxes in his cat cave on Caturday.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Oct 16

Jen Rubin: Mike Johnson Calls No Kings Protestors ‘Terrorists’ open.substack.com/pub/contrari... #MAGA #Mendacity #MikeJohnson

Aside from their baseless legal maneuvering, the MAGA cult’s freakout evidences how difficult they are finding it to maintain the big lies of 2025: blue cities are awash in violence, the government is benignly attempting to keep order, and their white Christian nationalist base is under siege. Right-wing media propagandists have so little material that they have to recycle old video to keep Trump’s pretext alive.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Oct 15

Jen Rubin: A Nobel Prize for Trolling? open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

In all likelihood, Nobel folks did not set out to troll Trump. But if you are going to celebrate peace—real peace, and the democracy it depends upon—alongside the keys to economic growth (free trade, scientific discovery, dynamic and free societies), then you are going to find yourself sounding like the retort to MAGA authoritarian, know-nothingism.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Oct 14

Jen Rubin: Words & Phrases We Could Do Without Removing Trump is the only way to get rid of real ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

First and foremost, no president has ever used his office to rack up anything close to the estimated $5B Trump has hauled in for himself, selling everything from tacky gold sneakers to crypto. He has mastered the art of trading on access and enticing foreigners to pony up big bucks (and even an airplane). The most pro-corruption president in history also has stopped enforcement of foreign corruption, crypto fraud and other white collar crimes.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Oct 13

Austin Sarat: The danger of letting a delusional president send troops to American cities open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

Portland, Ore., is not on fire. It is not in the throes of an out-of-control, anarchist mob. And it does not need federal troops patrolling its streets to keep citizens safe.

John Adams@libertariandiary· Sep 16

Jen Rubin: Cancel ‘Cancel Culture’ |The Contrarian open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

John Adams@libertariandiary· Sep 9

Mark Jacob: Why won’t the media say Trump is becoming a dictator? www.stopthepresses.news/p/why-wont-t... #Press #Trump