John Murphy

Congratulations Dr. Turner!

YouTube video by MLB Cubs win World Series with Game 7 win

My best birthday present ever happened on a Wednesday in Cleveland m.youtube.com/watch?v=HOp8...

Donald Trump Insults the World Recognition, Rhetoric, and India

More critiques of Trump's rhetoric! I'm looking at his UN speech and, in particular, his public diplomacy toward India.

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Awwwww

Munich on the Charles and the Potomac, and the Eagle... A brief rhetorical history and appreciation of appeasement

"Appeasement" feels like it's in the air tonight, as it were, and so I thought a brief rhetorical history of appeasement, bullies, Hitler, Trump, and more might be useful.

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Nixon, Checkers, and Trump The Renewal of the Republican Party, 1952

In which I think about Trump, Nixon, and his little dog Checkers, or How did we get to Resentment Politics?

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The Mississippi Model Or the rhetorical trouble with "fascism."

Fascism is one way to explain Trump but he’s also embraced the Republican, authoritarian agenda that stretches back to Jim Crow. open.substack.com/pub/oratoric...

Who's to Blame for the Death Toll in Texas? The problems and powers of causal arguments

Some thoughts on the debate about the Texas flood open.substack.com/pub/oratoric...

DAAAAA Pope's Rhetorical Style Preliminary thoughts

Some thoughts on Daaaa new pope’s early public speeches. I’m encouraged: open.substack.com/pub/oratoric...

Joe Biden, Harvard University, and the Hasty Generalization First of all, my apologies to all of you for the time between posts.

This week, I critique the argument fallacies filling the Tapper and Thompson book attacking Joe Biden. Spoiler alert: Hasty generalization is bad. open.substack.com/pub/oratoric...

I had no idea that Joe's Biden's retirement package include a condo in Trump's head. Livin' large and rent-free forever, it appears.

Surrendering on tariffs is a nice way to celebrate the 160th anniversary of Appomattox. Trump's side lost there, too.

Cory Booker's a little tired now because he spent 25 hours speaking on the Senate floor and the 25 hours after that sending me emails.

Quick Thoughts on Cory Booker's record It’s seldom that professional rhetorical critics can enjoy extensive media coverage of a speaking record.

I wrote a bit about Cory Booker. With some historical 1957 trivia as well. oratoricalanimal.substack.com/p/quick-thou...

On each, Ds are on defense and their approval has dropped to 29% after last week's fiasco. It's difficult to prove a negative, but it's hard to imagine that a fighting Democratic Party standing against cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and unconstitutional firings would have fared worse than this.

If you want to measure Chuck Schumer's failure, it's in the disappearance of the budget. Rather than banner headlines about Trump/Musk's attacks on beloved programs, the headlines concern Russian progress in Ukraine, Trump's economic rhetoric, and the deportation of alleged terrorists.

A rhetorical analysis of #Illini AD Josh Whitman’s congressional testimony substack.com/inbox/post/1...

No need for any more cloture. They’ll stuff every possible horrible thing into a reconciliation and that’s it. The Democratic leader cleared the way. This was the only place to stop them.

Schumer and his sniveling colleagues have made it possible for Musk and Trump to claim the firings, the unconstitutional destruction of agencies, etc. is bipartisan. That is the rhetoric they will use. And Schumer, Durbin, etc have undercut any response. Idiots.

Vichy is a good word for them. If Durbin isn’t quitting, I hope Pritzker is lining up a primary opponent as we speak

Nobody at Durbin’s offices are answering the phone. I emailed. Pritzker has issued a statement and I very much hope our Gov puts the screws to Durbin. If he’s a yes, he can’t be considering running again. It’ll destroy him.

Time for @amyklobuchar.com to challenge Schumer for Minority Leader

William Barr used almost exactly the same words to talk about voter fraud in mail ballots before the 2020 election.

That's a Paul Wellstone line. And, yes, I miss Paul Wellstone all of the time. It was a terrible thing to lose him.

Some thoughts on Trump, the state of the union, presidential genres, and democracy. They are not happy thoughts. #teamrhetoric substack.com/home/post/p-...

Tracking the performance of the S&P 500 through 100 days of an administration because I don't want to grade.

They issued a statement. Dictators everywhere tremble in their bunkers. Because. A statement.

Governor JB Pritzker (D-IL) gave a great State of the State address that received wide applause and boosted his presidential prospects. Here, I try to explain why, beyond his provocative denunciation of home-grown Nazis. substack.com/home/post/p-...

So, Musk, who's srsly not in charge of anything, so don't ask him for financial records, has demanded federal employees report to him. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation. I hope some CIA operative responds with the classic movie line, "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."

A better Patrick Wisdom. Much as I loved Wisdom as a Cub and person.