The Bulwark

The Bulwark

Home
Shows
Newsletters
Chat
Special Projects
Events
Founders
Store
Archive
About

Share this post

The Bulwark
The Bulwark
Don’t Count Sherrod Brown Out
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
User's avatar
Discover more from The Bulwark
The Bulwark is home to Sarah Longwell, Tim Miller, Bill Kristol, JVL, Sam Stein, and more. We are the largest pro-democracy bundle on Substack for news and analysis on politics and culture—supported by a community built on good-faith.
Over 825,000 subscribers
Already have an account? Sign in
Overtime

Don’t Count Sherrod Brown Out

Plus: Get Ready for AI-Driven Skill Democratization

Jim Swift's avatar
Jim Swift
Jan 12, 2024
55

Share this post

The Bulwark
The Bulwark
Don’t Count Sherrod Brown Out
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
3
Share

Recently in The Bulwark:

  • CHARLIE SYKES: Rhinos All The Way Down

  • JVL: Welcome to the Loser's Ball 🔐

  • SONNY BUNCH: How Technology Built the (Ad-Free) Golden Age of TV

You can support The Bulwark by subscribing to Bulwark+ or just by sharing this newsletter with someone you think would value it.


DANIEL MCGRAW: Don’t Count Sherrod Brown Out.

IN MID-DECEMBER, WITH STRAINED NEGOTIATIONS over foreign aid and sham impeachment debates souring the holiday mood in Congress, Senator Sherrod Brown took time out of his schedule to do something not urgent but important: help honor Larry Doby, the legendary baseballer who broke the color barrier in the American League three months after Jackie Robinson did in the National League, with a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal.

During the ceremony at the Capitol, the senior senator from Ohio focused his remarks on Doby’s perseverance: “For Robinson and Doby, and the many who followed, the hard part wasn’t just getting to the majors. It was proving every day that they deserved to wear the same jersey and be on the same field as did their white teammates and their opponents.” Even though Doby’s legacy is often overshadowed by Robinson’s, Brown said, “His presence on the field changed baseball.”

READ THE REST.

LINDA CHAVEZ: Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Canard

FACING QUESTIONS ABOUT WHETHER the 14th Amendment disqualifies him from running for president, Donald Trump suggested earlier this week that the one who should be worried about disqualification is Nikki Haley. Dredging up one of his favorite canards, Trump promoted the theory that Haley is not a “natural born citizen” and, thus, is ineligible under the Constitution from becoming either president or vice president. For years, Trump falsely accused Barack Obama of failing the natural born citizen test as well, alleging he was born in Kenya. But Obama’s birth certificate, released in 2011, confirmed that he was born in Hawaii. Trump’s accusation this time isn’t about where Haley was born (in Bamberg, South Carolina) but about whether children born to non-citizen immigrants can be considered natural born citizens. The issue has far-reaching implications and affects far more than who is eligible to be president.

READ THE REST.


🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧

  • Bulwark Podcast with Charlie Sykes: Karen Tumulty: The World’s Biggest Victim [Ad-Free🔐]

  • Secret Podcast: No Labels is Big Mad 🔐

  • Beg to Differ: The Evangelical Crack-Up [Ad-Free🔐 and now on video! 🎥]

  • Thursday Night Bulwark: Last TNB Before Iowa 🔐

  • ATMA 🎧: Dazzling Debuts 🔐

Did you know? Bulwark+ members can listen to an ad-free version of these podcasts on the player of their choice.

Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.

Editor’s Note: Tim does not like the ad, watch and tell me what you think, because I like it.


BRENT ORRELL: Get Ready for AI-Driven Skill Democratization.

FOR DECADES, AUTOMATION HAS BEEN a rough road for middle-skill workers. These jobs used to provide plentiful, family-supporting employment opportunities for those with only a high school education or even less. Robotics and, to a lesser extent, trade dramatically reduced the number of middle-skill jobs leading to what economists called a “polarized” labor market: many high-skilled and low-skilled jobs but relatively few that require a middle level of skill. The big question for economists now is how the job market will react to the approaching wave of AI-driven automation. Will AI continue to raise the premium on education and skills while moving those with middling skills down the wage scale?

READ THE REST.

CATHY YOUNG: ‘Nineteen Eighty-four’ With a Female Face.

FICTION THAT REIMAGINES CLASSICS from a different point of view—fan fiction, essentially, albeit somewhat more respectable than what that term usually denotes—has a long pedigree. You could make the case for Paradise Lost being the great-great-granddaddy of the genre. Notable modern examples include Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which focuses on Hamlet’s hapless school chums; Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, which rehabilitates the attic-dwelling mad wife from Jane Eyre; and Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, in which the witch from The Wizard of Oz gets a name and a story. Now, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four, that greatest of twentieth-century political dystopias, joins the ranks of classics retold with Julia by Sandra Newman, published late last year. It’s an imaginative and well-written, if not always satisfying, complement to its source.

READ THE REST.


🚨OVERTIME🚨

The Lake Jackson Dam in Manassas, VA (Photo by author)

Happy Friday! Are you prepared for the holiday weekend? Maybe snow? Maybe? My most trusted weatherman in recent years has been my old TWS editor, Richard Starr. If my wife wants snow: I get the goods from him, and the update from him is: the models are trending bad if you were hoping for snow.

In local news… My county accidentally gave Donald Trump 2,000 votes he didn’t earn in 2020.

Trump is losing cases… Even you aren’t paying attention to (or me!)

How Charlie Kirk Plans to Discredit Martin Luther King Jr… and the Civil Rights Act.

Did Cleveland deserve to become a laughingstock… Because of Balloon Fest? (Yes.) Interestingly, it gave Treb Heining his start. But seriously, watch this and tell me Cleveland wasn’t trying to overcompensate for a bad rap. (Making it worse!)

Imagine finding this… When renovating. Would you open it? Or sell it?

Texas: Don’t mess with our border! While our governor asks why you’re not enforcing the laws we’re interfering with. What a racket.

The Biden Admin… Goes for its first death sentence.

Rudy’s lawyer discovers… Federalism. In court. In front of a judge.

Go directly to South Carolina? Ron DeSantis doesn’t even want to pretend to campaign in New Hampshire, let alone actually continue to do it.

Tech support questions? Email members@thebulwark.com. Questions for me? Respond to this message

Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.

chip alyanakian's avatar
Pete Schenkkan's avatar
Gisela Erler's avatar
Linda's avatar
Jim Swift's avatar
55 Likes∙
3 Restacks
55

Share this post

The Bulwark
The Bulwark
Don’t Count Sherrod Brown Out
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
3
Share
The American Age Is Over
Emergency Triad: The United States commits imperial suicide.
Apr 3 • 
Jonathan V. Last
5,331

Share this post

The Bulwark
The Bulwark
The American Age Is Over
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
1,468
How to Think (and Act) Like a Dissident Movement
AOC, solidarity, and people power.
Mar 24 • 
Jonathan V. Last
4,093

Share this post

The Bulwark
The Bulwark
How to Think (and Act) Like a Dissident Movement
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
1,170
“How Can You Look at Yourself in the Mirror?”
George is furious.
Apr 3 • 
Sarah Longwell
2,102

Share this post

The Bulwark
The Bulwark
“How Can You Look at Yourself in the Mirror?”
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More
348
49:37

Ready for more?

© 2025 Bulwark Media
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More