Arnold Isn't a Hero

Plus: Why We Still Pay to Hear Classical Music Live

Jun 23, 2023

CHARLIE SYKES: Deplorables of the Week (Again) 🔐
JVL: Karens for National Socialism 🔐
ATMA 🎧: Cormac McCarthy, 1933-2023 🔐
SECRET POD 🎧: They're All Running 🔐
SONNY BUNCH: Fall of the House of Warner.

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A.L. BARDACH: Arnold Schwarzenegger Is No Hero.

A SERIAL OFFENDER WITH ALLEGATIONS spanning decades—from sexual harassment to assault, extramarital affairs, and even out-of-wedlock children.
A screen star who became a powerful Republican politician.
And a network all too eager to run an airbrushed infomercial on his behalf.
All this could describe Donald Trump, of course, with last month’s CNN town hall morphing into an hourlong campaign ad, notwithstanding anchor Kaitlan Collins’s attempts to fact-check him.

READ THE REST.

JILL D. LAWRENCE: Gavin Newsom Is Ready to Fight

Call it a gimmick, a ploy, a fantasy, a grift, or a bald-faced grab for the spotlight—and lots of people have—but I come to celebrate California Governor Gavin Newsom for proposing a constitutional amendment to regulate guns.
The proposed 28th Amendment wouldn’t repeal the Second Amendment, but would add four safeguards supported by majorities of registered voters, in some cases massive majorities: mandatory universal background checks, a minimum purchase age of 21, a reasonable waiting period, and a ban on civilian purchases of assault weapons.

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🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧

Bulwark+ members can listen to an ad-free version of these podcasts on the player of their choice. Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.

Benjamin Dueholm: Why We Still Pay to Hear Classical Music Live.

WHO IS LIVE CLASSICAL MUSIC FOR TODAY? From a scan of the upper balcony of Dallas’s Meyerson Symphony Center during a recent Sunday matinée, I can start a list: some guys in sweatpants and baseball hats; tech-savvy older patrons catching up on the world during the Chopin concerto; a passel of what appear to be high school students, seated in the middle of the first movement and all dressed up for a formal dance. One has brought opera glasses, which he shares with his companions. The venerable season subscribers and intense young music students who usually make up much of the crowd must be on the lower levels today. I am here, too, of course—an unaccompanied middle-aged suburban dad in a suit jacket that very nearly still fits.

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SONNY BUNCH: ‘Asteroid City’ Review.

I HAVE A FEELING that Wes Anderson’s new film, Asteroid City, would make a great deal more sense if I had a working knowledge of midcentury American theater. I am hoping that its mysteries will reveal themselves to me after I obtain, and consume, the companion essay collection, Do Not Detonate Without Presidential Approval: A Portfolio on the Subjects of Mid-Century Cinema, the Broadway Stage and the American West. I am willing to put in the effort because I believe that Anderson is a singularly talented film artist and that the failure to comprehend what he has put together in Asteroid City is a me, rather than him, problem.

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🚨OVERTIME🚨

Farewell, Amanda!

Regular viewers of The Next Level know that Amanda announced that she’s departing The Bulwark for a position at Protect Democracy. Like JVL said on the show, I’m both sad and happy. Happy in that Amanda’s not leaving the fight, but sad that she’s leaving us, because she’s been such a pleasure to work with, and such an important voice. Three years sure went by fast. Her first column for the site, “The Quiet Significance of NeverTrump” published in February of 2020 is worth revisiting.

You, dear reader, are part of what Amanda called “silent majority-makers.” In the early days of Trumpism, you probably looked around and thought: “how many of me are there?” And as time went by, we’ve found there are more of us than we thought.

It was the same sort of feeling when we set up The Bulwark! A bunch of former TWS folks wondering how many out in the land of punditry and analysis were our people. And as we grew, people like Amanda fit right in: Like we’d all known each other personally for years! And now, years later, we have known each other for years. (And in many cases of readers, you as well.)

It’s not the end, of course. You never really leave the Bulwark secret society once you’ve been initiated and know the secret handshake. Don’t be surprised if you see Amanda around these parts!

Do me a favor and go say something nice in the Amanda thread on the unofficial subreddit. I’ll forward all emails to her if you’re not on Reddit.

Is it Just Me? I joined the great Jennifer Horn on her new podcast to talk about my recent stories about ERIC. Tune in and subscribe!

Nullifying the impeachment? An interesting strategy for the people I’m reliably told are trying to move past Trump.

A Principles First poll… of the 2024 GOP candidates.

Will accountability come for John Eastman? Let’s hope so!

A look at the DCV1… An interesting thread.

Here’s how Pennsylvania rebuilt I-95… In 12 days. And there are mascots.

“You can boo all you want…” Chris Christie goes to the Faith & Freedom conference and provides a lecture on leadership.

Joan Walsh’s mea culpa… On JFK, vaccines, and autism.

Is this the end… Of Turner Classic Movies?

A Friday coup? Russia’s having some problems! Pour one out for the CIA folks who were *this close* to the weekend. The Russkies took to RT to tell viewers not to believe Prigozhin, whom they allegedly tried to kill.

He couldn’t get a bond? Things aren’t looking up for Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case part deux.