A Crusade for Something Noble
Leading The Bulwark…
A Crusade for Something Noble
James Carville: Americans are coming together to save our Republic, right now. And it means something.
For Bulwark+ Members, tonight…
We’re getting the band together and discussing tonight’s dueling town halls. Tune in at 9:30. Members will get a link to join via Zoom. We’ll also be taking your questions.
If you haven’t joined yet, what are you waiting for?!
On the Pods…
Kim Wehle on the Voting Tsunami
On today’s Bulwark podcast, Kim Wehle joins host Charlie Sykes to discuss the coming election-law issues we might face unless the results are a tsunami, the end of the Durham investigation, and the confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett.
Mark Graham on How to Decide What to Watch
This week, Sonny is joined by Mark Graham, the Editor-in-Chief of Decider, a website dedicated to helping solve one of society's most pressing and important issues: What movies and shows should I watch? In this episode we talk about how Mark and his team decide what to cover for Decider and why, looking at how non-traditional audience metrics help determine what’s worth writing about. Plus! Mark offers up some tips for would-be freelancers on getting your work published.
Monster of Our Own Creation
Tune into the latest episode of Tim Miller’s Not My Party, which appears on Snapchat.
From The Bulwark Aggregator…
Bidenworld fires warning shot against Cabinet jockeying – Alex Thompson, Politico
America’s Oldest Voters Have Turned on Trump – Eli Yokely, Morning Consult
‘He’s getting a bit desperate’: Trump tramples government boundaries as election nears – Natasha Korecki and Anita Kumar, Politico
Republicans Battle Each Other, Democrats in Tossup Georgia Races – Billy House, Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Mitt Romney’s Lament Highlights Trump’s Swing-State Mormon Problem – Matt Welch, Reason
Virus-Plagued Megachurch Bedevils Town—and Locals Are Mad as Hell – Olivia Messer, The Daily Beast
Trump’s Foreign-Policy Adventures Haven’t All Flopped – Robbie Gramer, Foreign Policy
From today’s Bulwark…
Mike Lee and the Illiberal Chic
Nathaniel A.G. Zelinsky: With his criticism of ‘rank democracy,’ the Utah senator signals his friendliness to the opponents of classical liberalism.
How Trump Sealed the GOP’s Suicide
Richard North Patterson: It didn’t have to go this way—with the GOP becoming a cult of personality suffused with authoritarianism.
Brazil’s Public Spending Problem Is a Warning for Us All
Desmond Lachman: The country was already in trouble before COVID-19. Now a currency crisis seems unavoidable.
Scaredy Trump Ducks Debate: MAGA Media Hardest Hit
Tim Miller: I was promised a killer.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Baseball is pretty much over for me… But the LA Dodgers made insane history last night with an 11 run first inning to show some signs of life.
Alaska outdoes itself… I thought I had the Most Alaska Story Ever in an earlier newsletter but this one quickly outdoes it. It involves a cookie maker, a Q-Anon-adjacent local journalist, and a mayor. Never doubt Alaska. North to the future.
If you had told me… This tweet from reader Thom Burkhalter about today’s Carville item had me thinking of a response I sent to a longtime reader yesterday about my Lech Walesa story. If I could go in a time machine to 2002 and talk to myself and explain where I would be 18 years from then, having had a career in GOP politics, the state of 2020? I don’t think 18 year old me would have believed a word of it. Such is 2020.
Who is Levi Sap Nei Thang? And why is somebody with “no known history” in the energy industry… “an artist, a poet, and an author” who “writes non-fiction themes such as romance, spirituality, travel, cookbooks, and food recipes” buying up oil and gas leases from the government to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars? The Salt Lake Tribune has you covered. Seems a little weird.
Putting the thumb on the scale… The Houston Chronicle has this report about Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX), a member of the Ways & Means committee (a top assignment) alleging that he tried to use his position “to help a top donor in his dealings with a publicly traded bank, court records show.” This is not normal behavior.
Virginia will never privatize its liquor business… The last GOP Governor, Bob McDonnell—AKA Bob4Jobs—promised to get the state out of the liquor business. But as Washingtonian’s Andrew Beaujon reports, the pandemic has been great to state coffers. At least when it comes to selling booze.
Privatizing a state business is tough to do, even if it makes sense on the merits. Governments should regulate the sale of liquor, but not exclusively do it themselves.
Ohio was one of the last major states to adopt EZ-Pass and I remember having to make sure I stopped at the ATM on the Penna. Turnpike to get money, since they didn’t take cards or EZ-Pass. You’re basically eliminating jobs there and politicians are understandably reluctant to do it. But a turnpike doesn’t employ the same number of people as a state-run liquor agency, and can you imagine what that does to the actuarial reality for a pension fund? Not good! It’s like a game of musical chairs and quickly removing a large portion of them as opposed to one at a time. It will probably never happen.
11 years ago today…
The boy in the weather balloon hoax captivated a then much less news-obsessed nation. Do you remember where you were? I do. I was arguing with my colleagues in Sen. Kyl’s office whether it was a hoax. (I was #TeamHoax.)
The IT guy in the Hunter Biden NY Post story has some credibility issues. Check this out. And then check out how Rudy’s narrative is changing. All very weird. Just remember, The New York Post and its staffers are the real victims here, you guys. Expect the Senate to waste time on this in the next week or two, and not, you know, looking into the President’s suggestion the U.S. Marshals were instructed to kill, and not apprehend, an Antifa operative.
Related:
OK, that’s it for me for today. I have to prepare for our Bulwark+ members-only post town hall livestream. This means I need to stock up on some protein, which is why I am going to grill my first ever Tomahawk steak with chimichurri sauce (both from Lidl!). Tune into my Twitter to get live updates.
Remember, there’s still time to join Bulwark+ and get the invite to tonight’s exclusive livestream!
We’d love to have you join us. Thanks for reading, and if you’d like to share this with friends, I’d love that, too.
Questions, comments, concerns, story tips? Email me: swift@thebulwark.com.
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