From Intellectual Dark Web to Crank Central
From Intellectual Dark Web to Crank Central
Plus: A Guide to the Trump Hush-Money Trial
Recently in The Bulwark:
BILL KRISTOL & BENJAMIN PARKER: Bigotry and Flattery Fuel Trump's Campaign
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CATHY YOUNG: From Intellectual Dark Web to Crank Central
AMID THE RECENT CONTROVERSY about Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire website finally dropping conspiracy theorist and antisemitic ranter Candace Owens, one minor but fascinating detail went unnoticed: Six years ago, both Shapiro and Owens had cameos in a much-ballyhooed New York Times Magazine article that introduced the world to the “Intellectual Dark Web”—mathematician Eric Weinstein’s semi-facetious label for an informal network of authors, journalists, and academics who saw themselves as “heretics” and “renegades” in rebellion against the establishment. Shapiro, then an anti-Trump conservative, was briefly discussed as an IDW figure; Owens, then a rising “black conservative” activist/provocateur whom some in the IDW saw as a potential ally, was held up as a warning against embracing “cranks, grifters and bigots.” (In those days, Owens was not yet talking about “Jewish gangs” in Hollywood, but she was already claiming that immigrants are stealing jobs from black Americans and comparing celebrities who support the Democratic party to plantation slaves.)
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Bill Kristol: Pure Oligarchic Greed [Ad-Free🔐]
The Focus Group: RFK Jr.: The Most Insider Outsider (with Astead Herndon) [Ad-Free🔐]
Bulwark Goes to Hollywood 🎧: The Best and the Worst of Streaming 2023
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Learn more at Bulwark+ Podcast FAQ.
PHILIP ROTNER: A Guide to the Trump Hush-Money Trial
DONALD TRUMP APPEARS to be in full panic mode over the rapidly approaching trial of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against him. Bragg has charged Trump with 34 counts of “falsifying business records.” The trial is scheduled to begin next Monday, April 15.
Trump’s manic outburst over Easter weekend, seemingly triggered by the approach of the trial, dialed up the crazy to a level unusual even for him.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Monday! It’s not only the Great American Eclipse here in the Center of the World (according to WSJ), it’s also opening day. We’re about to switch from WMJI’s golden oldies to the dulcet tones of Tom Hamilton. More about the eclipse in tomorrow’s Morning Shots.
Not a cult… Here’s what the House GOP Judiciary posted during the eclipse. I’m not going to share the campaign video that it’s from, but it is definitely an instance of Jim Jordan’s Committee staff breaking House rules. The Ethics manual reads: “Official resources of the House must, as a general rule, be used for the performance of official business of the House, and hence those resources may not be used for campaign or political purposes.” These people are supposedly experts on law. At least they were when I worked there.
🎵On the Jukebox🎵… Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Moonshadow (Live, 1971)
The Madness Ends Tonight… Who do you have: UCONN or Purdue? Here’s the update on where we are in the Overtime Madness bracket: In first place we have Joe Hlavka, and in second, we have Max Motherway, a longtime friend and OG Bulwarker. In third, Brad Tenney, fourth, Vytas Radze, and in fifth, we have W.P. Bowmann and Braeden Jackson. Good luck to all in contention!
Winners and prizes announced tomorrow, so if you’re in the hunt, please email me so I can reach out.
“I was a right-wing nut,” in the eyes of some, he said, recalling his earlier years in politics. “The problem is, they moved the wing on me.”
—Sen. Lee Schoenbeck
Read more about Schoenbeck in… From fringe to foreground: ‘Loose cannon’ lawmaker departs as leading legislative voice (South Dakota Searchlight).
No Showers, No Sleep… Van Life Isn’t as Cool as Instagram Makes It Seem (WSJ).
Another watch substack? Yes, from our friend and Bulwark contributor Alec Dent.
Trumpism Is Emptying Churches… Argues Francis Wilkinson in Bloomberg.
Christ and cancel culture… As I was driving around Geauga County, I spotted a church that looked like… A rustic lodge. Turns out, its founder, a Scot, was recently cancelled by the far right for saying it’s OK to attend a non-straight wedding of a family member. (Christianity Today)
Keep it Juicy… Johnsonville with a good message for the beginnings of summer.
Will Saletan needs your vote! To win a Webby for The Corruption of Lindsey Graham. We’re up against competitors with big audiences, so please take a minute to vote, even if we’re up.
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