The reactionary plutocrats who actually run the GOP -- those for low taxes, low wages, few business regulations and few public services -- believe this election could be their last stand. They are protectors of wealth and property, hierarchy and privilege against those who have fought for some semblance of social, economic and political equality for the past 150 years. They would turn the clock back to 1900 (or maybe even to the MIddle Ages). Even though they think Trump is a clown and a fool and regard his MAGA voters as so much riff-raff, he is their nominee. This is going to be a very nasty time. Those who value representative government need to be prepared to fight back, in ways they are probably not used to.
"The whole configuration of power in the international system will change. All powers, whether friendly or hostile to the United States, will adjust accordingly."
So to, will the international economic order, and not in a fashion that will benefit the majority of US consumers. Perhaps it will require the collective suffering of the 74MM+ MAGAverse to wash it out of the body politic.
Here's what drives me nuts about the Ukraine abdication. To a person the people opposing aid claim to be China Hawks.
Josh Hawley is a sniveling worm but he's no idiot, yet he constantly follows his Ukraine defeatism with China tough talk.
But you CANNOT be a Russia dove and China hawk. You don't get safer by letting your adversaries grow stronger.
Russia is China's closest ally. Russia is China's dagger, the one state that makes it necessary to keep a huge military commitment in Europe. We cannot effectively confront China if we allow it's closest ally to grow stronger.
China and Russia are a single issue. They need to be viewed holistically as a combined threat to a system that has made America the safest, wealthiest, strongest nation in the history of the world.
And you're not going to be able to peel Russia away from China no matter how much you appease them.
To say you want to confront China but deal with Russia is incoherent and absurd and nobody should be able to say that to a reporter without being laughed at.
Why is Steve Bannon still out of jail while pending appeal that Navarro is in jail? Why doesn't the prosecution ask the judge to revoke his bail? It's been OVER A YEAR!
There are at least 4 factions united to make Trump president. The first group are a cult of zombies. The base of the cult are gone mentally and no information or truth will bring them back to sanity. They reject any facts or information, including Trumps own lies and nonsense , that don’t coincide with what they want. They chant for freedom and wrap themselves in the flag but only for those that agree with them. They are the undereducated, self loathing, insecure that want to be led.
The second group is far more sinister. They are the billionaires that support Trump, not because has any leadership qualities or policies they like, it’s simple greed and power. They know that they can control Trump. They know Trump is for sale and they have the money to buy him. They know he’ll lower their taxes even more ( placing the burden on the lower class to pay even more), he will deregulate everything ( endangering the quality of our water , air , food and medicine). Longer work hours, lower wages, and child labor will be back.
The third group is the international community including , at the top, Russia and Saudi Arabia. They know they can buy Trump. They know he will never stand up to them as long as there is something in it for Trump personally. China will join that group. Putin will be free to over run Europe and China, Asia.
The fourth group are domestic dissidents. They love Trump for his cruelty and lack of scruples. These are the Clan/White Christian Nationalists, xenophobes, and people that hate anything or anyone that disagrees with them. They just want to tear everything down with no plan to rebuild.
These are the Stephen Millers, Steve Bannon , Fox “News” , Alex Jones and others. Some do it for pleasure and some just for the money. They are not subtle in their approach. They are simply people who would go to a museum and destroy the art just so no one can enjoy it.
It all comes down to accountability or the lack there of. Merrick Garland is the main culprit. He was the wrong man at the wrong time. He sat on his hands for 3 years and had to be shamed by the Jan 6 committee to do anything. Too little too late has allowed Federal crimes like the fake electors to go unpunished and fester. The documents case is a simple case to prosecute yet it took 3 years to bring it? So many crimes by so many going unpunished. Why isn’t Ted Cruz not indicted for plotting to overthrow the government?
Democrats are too “politically correct “ to adequately fight back. They will surrender democracy so as not to dirty their skirts. Liz Chaney , Adam Kinzinger, Chris Christie are needed to bail out democrats or maybe they should find their voice NOW!
Per Trump/MAGA/AF/GOP, "America First" means winning the race to surrender to the Axis of Autocracy. Defund the Rule of Law! Make Putin Great Again!
Btw Trump said yesterday "We have to get back to law and order." I completely agree. Perhaps it would help if Trump and his MAGA allies would stop COMMITTING crimes and denigrating the justice system that's working to hold them accountable. You're not being prosecuted as "election interference", you're being prosecuted because you BROKE the LAW.
Regarding Kagan's article about illiberal America Firsters, past and present:
Assuming that natcons like Josh Hawley aren’t stupid, they are certainly being cynical when they allege that the U.S. is trying to impose a “liberal empire” on the world by helping Ukraine resist Russian subjugation, while they’re uncritical of Russia’s violent campaign to impose its brutally illiberal empire on Ukraine and anywhere else it can.
People aligned with Hawley complain about “tyrannical liberalism” at the same time as they take offense at the fact that other American are free not to subscribe to their own religion. There are echoes of “Freedom means perfect slavery to Allah” in the tradcon way of thinking about liberty and tyranny.
Biden totally needs to recruit Christie as a surrogate. It isn't as if Christie doesn't know how to work across the aisle: Bridgegate happened because Christie didn't get the endorsement of the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee. (allegedly)
I apologize as this comment isn't directly related to the Bulwark newsletter, but rather the Bulwark podcast. Wasn't sure how to write Tim MIller directly so I do so here in case he sees it.
Tim, I want to offer congratulations for agreeing to take over Charlie's role with the daily Bulwark podcast. While I liked Charlie's podcast quite a bit, I think you've brought a fresh approach to the role that makes the podcast even more interesting. I think it helps that you have more recent "boots on the ground" experience in the political arena. That seems to allow you to ask more probing questions and book more diverse guests.
Now the criticism. In one of your first shows you asked a guest (I think it was Katie Couric) what you could do differently to be a better podcast host. The person didn't really offer any constructive criticism at the time. I didn't have any either. But after listening to Wednesday's show, I now have a suggestion I'd like to offer.
You had a gentleman on the show named Justin Kanew who runs a progressive leaning media outfit in Tennessee, the TNHoller. During the program you discussed the three Tennessee legislators who protested the TN legislature's inaction on guns following a mass shooting event. Two of the legislators, both black, were expelled (but later re-elected to their seats), while the white female legislator was not. Let me say from the outset, I think it was an incredibly stupid move by the TN Republicans. The punishment did not fit the alleged offense.
My complaint Tim is that during the program you let Mr. Kanew present, without challenge, that what happened was Republicans were angry about the legislators speaking out on guns and that the reason for the disparity in treatment among the three legislators, was racism.
The fact is the legislators were interfering with the operations of the House so the body could not conduct business. One even took a bullhorn to the floor and was interrupting legislators who were trying to conduct business. They were repeatedly requested to cease their disruptive actions but only one of the three - the white legislator - complied. That's why she was not expelled, and the others were.
Tim, I have worked in a state legislature. You just can't have legislators continually interrupting the business of a legislative body because they have a message they want to present...regardless of how worthy and/or correct that message may be. I don't begrudge them for wanting to protest the legislature's failure to act on guns. But they did not have a right to interfere with the work other legislators were trying to do on behalf of the citizens of the state.
Tim, throughout the interview it seemed like you didn't know what the Republican legislators would argue if presented with Mr. Kanew's assertions. My two cents is that part of the job of the podcast host is to learn those arguments and play the Devil's Advocate. Ask the guests challenging questions from other perspectives, even if it is a perspective you personally don't agree with.
I don't agree with the TN's legislature's failure to act on gun legislation. And I definitely don't agree on the decision to expel the two members. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. A gross overreaction. But these legislators were not innocent people who were sanctioned solely for speaking out on a cause that the majority in the legislature didn't agree with. They were sanctioned because they refused to allow business in the Tennessee House to continue, despite repeated pleas to follow the rules of the legislature.
Back to the 1930s - I read "Alistair Cooke's America" in 1975 and I specifically remember his dismay of the America First Committee and its out-shoots, particularly among students in leading U.S. universities in the 1930s. (Cooke was a Briton who worked as a journalist with the BBC; he became a U.S. citizen on December 1, 1941.) In 1975, I served aboard various submarines and surface skimmers. My academic "career" was in journalism, history, and political science and Cooke's writing was especially interesting to me.
Edward Murrow's reporting of Nazi warfare against Western Europe and Great Britain was pilloried by America Firsters and their sycophants in Congress; witness:
Personally, I doubt that Speaker Johnson will willingly bring a supplemental appropriations bill to the House floor of his own volition; Marjorie Taylor Brownshirt has already set a motion to vacate the Speakership "as a warning". We need the avowed or rumored discharge petition to be pushed by Republican and Democrat House members to get funding for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pac, and Baltimore passed as soon as possible for action by the Senate and delivery to the President.
The erstwhile Democrats who demonstrate their rage against Israeli prosecution of the war against Hamas by raging against Biden should be reminded that Israel is a sovereign nation not subject to the U.S. Congress or the U.S. President. Israel has never let its alliance with the U.S. or dependence on U.S. materiel support deter its determination to pursue its own policy goals. They made this manifestly clear at 2:00 P.M. on December 8, 1967 under a clear bright sky in the eastern Mediterranean Sea north of the Sinai Peninsula (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident).
Unfortunately the "America First" mentality plays substantially to part of the long held national perspective of USA being "the greatest nation on Earth", without which the rest of the world would crumble. In more recent years the declaration of USA being "superior" to all others, was automatically received, even as publicly stated by former President Barack Obama when he occupied the White House, and by many other national leaders and luminaries.
This phenomenon can be and probably is destructive to most American citizens in their not fully understanding and accepting the reality of life of this country, especially as most have little familiarity, wisdom or experience of life about most other advanced, developed nations by comparison.
One discerning sign that codifies such dysfunctional thinking is the decades old practice and saying of "God Bless America", included on tens of millions of bumper stickers. Any supposed Christian with Bible knowledge would know that only Jews were God's Chosen people, and that God does not blanket countries with love, only good people that accept Jesus teachings, although the hateful and tyrannical can be saved.
If these strange philosophies were accurate, God would have blessed Germany in 1930s, South Africa in 1980 and Uganda under Idi Amin during his tyrannical reign.
That is the broken foundation of concept in "America first" - and therefore all other are behind, in every respect
Looking for a fellow Bulwarker with a WaPo subscription who would be willing to post here a gift link to Robert Kagan's article referenced in today's Shots. Thanking that generous person in advance!
If Trump is elected, in the 1930's world,we will be on the wrong side.
The reactionary plutocrats who actually run the GOP -- those for low taxes, low wages, few business regulations and few public services -- believe this election could be their last stand. They are protectors of wealth and property, hierarchy and privilege against those who have fought for some semblance of social, economic and political equality for the past 150 years. They would turn the clock back to 1900 (or maybe even to the MIddle Ages). Even though they think Trump is a clown and a fool and regard his MAGA voters as so much riff-raff, he is their nominee. This is going to be a very nasty time. Those who value representative government need to be prepared to fight back, in ways they are probably not used to.
"The whole configuration of power in the international system will change. All powers, whether friendly or hostile to the United States, will adjust accordingly."
So to, will the international economic order, and not in a fashion that will benefit the majority of US consumers. Perhaps it will require the collective suffering of the 74MM+ MAGAverse to wash it out of the body politic.
Chaos seems to advantage tyrants which may explain why The Loser contributes to it.
Here's what drives me nuts about the Ukraine abdication. To a person the people opposing aid claim to be China Hawks.
Josh Hawley is a sniveling worm but he's no idiot, yet he constantly follows his Ukraine defeatism with China tough talk.
But you CANNOT be a Russia dove and China hawk. You don't get safer by letting your adversaries grow stronger.
Russia is China's closest ally. Russia is China's dagger, the one state that makes it necessary to keep a huge military commitment in Europe. We cannot effectively confront China if we allow it's closest ally to grow stronger.
China and Russia are a single issue. They need to be viewed holistically as a combined threat to a system that has made America the safest, wealthiest, strongest nation in the history of the world.
And you're not going to be able to peel Russia away from China no matter how much you appease them.
To say you want to confront China but deal with Russia is incoherent and absurd and nobody should be able to say that to a reporter without being laughed at.
Why is Steve Bannon still out of jail while pending appeal that Navarro is in jail? Why doesn't the prosecution ask the judge to revoke his bail? It's been OVER A YEAR!
There are at least 4 factions united to make Trump president. The first group are a cult of zombies. The base of the cult are gone mentally and no information or truth will bring them back to sanity. They reject any facts or information, including Trumps own lies and nonsense , that don’t coincide with what they want. They chant for freedom and wrap themselves in the flag but only for those that agree with them. They are the undereducated, self loathing, insecure that want to be led.
The second group is far more sinister. They are the billionaires that support Trump, not because has any leadership qualities or policies they like, it’s simple greed and power. They know that they can control Trump. They know Trump is for sale and they have the money to buy him. They know he’ll lower their taxes even more ( placing the burden on the lower class to pay even more), he will deregulate everything ( endangering the quality of our water , air , food and medicine). Longer work hours, lower wages, and child labor will be back.
The third group is the international community including , at the top, Russia and Saudi Arabia. They know they can buy Trump. They know he will never stand up to them as long as there is something in it for Trump personally. China will join that group. Putin will be free to over run Europe and China, Asia.
The fourth group are domestic dissidents. They love Trump for his cruelty and lack of scruples. These are the Clan/White Christian Nationalists, xenophobes, and people that hate anything or anyone that disagrees with them. They just want to tear everything down with no plan to rebuild.
These are the Stephen Millers, Steve Bannon , Fox “News” , Alex Jones and others. Some do it for pleasure and some just for the money. They are not subtle in their approach. They are simply people who would go to a museum and destroy the art just so no one can enjoy it.
It all comes down to accountability or the lack there of. Merrick Garland is the main culprit. He was the wrong man at the wrong time. He sat on his hands for 3 years and had to be shamed by the Jan 6 committee to do anything. Too little too late has allowed Federal crimes like the fake electors to go unpunished and fester. The documents case is a simple case to prosecute yet it took 3 years to bring it? So many crimes by so many going unpunished. Why isn’t Ted Cruz not indicted for plotting to overthrow the government?
Democrats are too “politically correct “ to adequately fight back. They will surrender democracy so as not to dirty their skirts. Liz Chaney , Adam Kinzinger, Chris Christie are needed to bail out democrats or maybe they should find their voice NOW!
Per Trump/MAGA/AF/GOP, "America First" means winning the race to surrender to the Axis of Autocracy. Defund the Rule of Law! Make Putin Great Again!
Btw Trump said yesterday "We have to get back to law and order." I completely agree. Perhaps it would help if Trump and his MAGA allies would stop COMMITTING crimes and denigrating the justice system that's working to hold them accountable. You're not being prosecuted as "election interference", you're being prosecuted because you BROKE the LAW.
#SaveAmerica #NeverMAGA #NeverFraudsters #LibertyAndJusticeForAll
Regarding Kagan's article about illiberal America Firsters, past and present:
Assuming that natcons like Josh Hawley aren’t stupid, they are certainly being cynical when they allege that the U.S. is trying to impose a “liberal empire” on the world by helping Ukraine resist Russian subjugation, while they’re uncritical of Russia’s violent campaign to impose its brutally illiberal empire on Ukraine and anywhere else it can.
People aligned with Hawley complain about “tyrannical liberalism” at the same time as they take offense at the fact that other American are free not to subscribe to their own religion. There are echoes of “Freedom means perfect slavery to Allah” in the tradcon way of thinking about liberty and tyranny.
Biden totally needs to recruit Christie as a surrogate. It isn't as if Christie doesn't know how to work across the aisle: Bridgegate happened because Christie didn't get the endorsement of the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee. (allegedly)
I apologize as this comment isn't directly related to the Bulwark newsletter, but rather the Bulwark podcast. Wasn't sure how to write Tim MIller directly so I do so here in case he sees it.
Tim, I want to offer congratulations for agreeing to take over Charlie's role with the daily Bulwark podcast. While I liked Charlie's podcast quite a bit, I think you've brought a fresh approach to the role that makes the podcast even more interesting. I think it helps that you have more recent "boots on the ground" experience in the political arena. That seems to allow you to ask more probing questions and book more diverse guests.
Now the criticism. In one of your first shows you asked a guest (I think it was Katie Couric) what you could do differently to be a better podcast host. The person didn't really offer any constructive criticism at the time. I didn't have any either. But after listening to Wednesday's show, I now have a suggestion I'd like to offer.
You had a gentleman on the show named Justin Kanew who runs a progressive leaning media outfit in Tennessee, the TNHoller. During the program you discussed the three Tennessee legislators who protested the TN legislature's inaction on guns following a mass shooting event. Two of the legislators, both black, were expelled (but later re-elected to their seats), while the white female legislator was not. Let me say from the outset, I think it was an incredibly stupid move by the TN Republicans. The punishment did not fit the alleged offense.
My complaint Tim is that during the program you let Mr. Kanew present, without challenge, that what happened was Republicans were angry about the legislators speaking out on guns and that the reason for the disparity in treatment among the three legislators, was racism.
The fact is the legislators were interfering with the operations of the House so the body could not conduct business. One even took a bullhorn to the floor and was interrupting legislators who were trying to conduct business. They were repeatedly requested to cease their disruptive actions but only one of the three - the white legislator - complied. That's why she was not expelled, and the others were.
Tim, I have worked in a state legislature. You just can't have legislators continually interrupting the business of a legislative body because they have a message they want to present...regardless of how worthy and/or correct that message may be. I don't begrudge them for wanting to protest the legislature's failure to act on guns. But they did not have a right to interfere with the work other legislators were trying to do on behalf of the citizens of the state.
Tim, throughout the interview it seemed like you didn't know what the Republican legislators would argue if presented with Mr. Kanew's assertions. My two cents is that part of the job of the podcast host is to learn those arguments and play the Devil's Advocate. Ask the guests challenging questions from other perspectives, even if it is a perspective you personally don't agree with.
I don't agree with the TN's legislature's failure to act on gun legislation. And I definitely don't agree on the decision to expel the two members. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. A gross overreaction. But these legislators were not innocent people who were sanctioned solely for speaking out on a cause that the majority in the legislature didn't agree with. They were sanctioned because they refused to allow business in the Tennessee House to continue, despite repeated pleas to follow the rules of the legislature.
No, pick up the phone, Chris. Most of us remember Bridgegate and Beach takeover.
Back to the 1930s - I read "Alistair Cooke's America" in 1975 and I specifically remember his dismay of the America First Committee and its out-shoots, particularly among students in leading U.S. universities in the 1930s. (Cooke was a Briton who worked as a journalist with the BBC; he became a U.S. citizen on December 1, 1941.) In 1975, I served aboard various submarines and surface skimmers. My academic "career" was in journalism, history, and political science and Cooke's writing was especially interesting to me.
Edward Murrow's reporting of Nazi warfare against Western Europe and Great Britain was pilloried by America Firsters and their sycophants in Congress; witness:
https://youtu.be/qpoD4LW771s?si=C0NsS5IMbXPBdNV3
Personally, I doubt that Speaker Johnson will willingly bring a supplemental appropriations bill to the House floor of his own volition; Marjorie Taylor Brownshirt has already set a motion to vacate the Speakership "as a warning". We need the avowed or rumored discharge petition to be pushed by Republican and Democrat House members to get funding for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pac, and Baltimore passed as soon as possible for action by the Senate and delivery to the President.
The erstwhile Democrats who demonstrate their rage against Israeli prosecution of the war against Hamas by raging against Biden should be reminded that Israel is a sovereign nation not subject to the U.S. Congress or the U.S. President. Israel has never let its alliance with the U.S. or dependence on U.S. materiel support deter its determination to pursue its own policy goals. They made this manifestly clear at 2:00 P.M. on December 8, 1967 under a clear bright sky in the eastern Mediterranean Sea north of the Sinai Peninsula (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident).
Unfortunately the "America First" mentality plays substantially to part of the long held national perspective of USA being "the greatest nation on Earth", without which the rest of the world would crumble. In more recent years the declaration of USA being "superior" to all others, was automatically received, even as publicly stated by former President Barack Obama when he occupied the White House, and by many other national leaders and luminaries.
This phenomenon can be and probably is destructive to most American citizens in their not fully understanding and accepting the reality of life of this country, especially as most have little familiarity, wisdom or experience of life about most other advanced, developed nations by comparison.
One discerning sign that codifies such dysfunctional thinking is the decades old practice and saying of "God Bless America", included on tens of millions of bumper stickers. Any supposed Christian with Bible knowledge would know that only Jews were God's Chosen people, and that God does not blanket countries with love, only good people that accept Jesus teachings, although the hateful and tyrannical can be saved.
If these strange philosophies were accurate, God would have blessed Germany in 1930s, South Africa in 1980 and Uganda under Idi Amin during his tyrannical reign.
That is the broken foundation of concept in "America first" - and therefore all other are behind, in every respect
"
https://wapo.st/3xgEdNW
Looking for a fellow Bulwarker with a WaPo subscription who would be willing to post here a gift link to Robert Kagan's article referenced in today's Shots. Thanking that generous person in advance!