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Illegal Actions, Missing Consequences
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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.
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Overtime

Illegal Actions, Missing Consequences

Plus: Does Bubba Has the Answers for Dems in Despair?

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Jim Swift
Feb 04, 2025
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Illegal Actions, Missing Consequences
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Recently in The Bulwark:

  • BILL KRISTOL, SAM STEIN, BEN PARKER, and MARTYN WENDELL JONES: More Dangerous than Watergate

  • JVL: Follow the Money

Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a subscriber: thank you. If you’re not, there’s no better time to subscribe to Bulwark+ than today. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it.


PATRICK EDDINGTON: Illegal Actions, Missing Consequences

TWO WEEKS INTO HIS SECOND TERM as president, Donald Trump has done one salutary service for the nation: He’s obliterated the myth that there is anything politically or morally redeeming about concentrated presidential power.

Trump isn’t acting entirely without precedent, however: In some respects, he’s exploiting—quickly and fairly systematically—successful presidential overreaches or power giveaways from Congress and federal courts to push his radical agenda.

READ THE REST.


šŸŽ„ PODCASTS AND VIDEOS šŸŽ§

  • Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Will Saletan and Scott Lincicome: A Crime Boss Has Taken Over [YouTube: Saletan, Lincicome]

  • How to Fix It (With John Avlon): Make Congress Work (with Yuval Levin) [YouTube]

  • The Mona Charen Show: Christianity’s Crossroads: Faith, Democracy, and America’s Future [YouTube]

  • Bulwark+ Live:

    • Canada Strikes Back! Trudeau Fires Return Shot In Trump Trade War

    • Ranking The Worst Shit That Happened In This Very Shitty Week

    • Trump's Immigration Scare Tactics are a Huge Waste of Money! (With Mark Hertling)

    • The Government is Coming Undone, Scared Federal Employees Reach Out to The Bulwark

  • Bulwark Goes to Hollywood: How Tariffs Will Make Movies More Expensive

  • The Focus Group: At Least He's Doing Something (with Sam Stein) [YouTube]

  • Shield of the Republic: Charles Lindbergh and the Ghosts of America First [YouTube]

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.
šŸ“£Bulwark+ members can now listen to ad-free podcasts on Spotify! Learn more here.
Our šŸŽ„YouTube offerings are the free-versions of shows, and they do have ads.
āœļøAlso: Did you know that every podcast has a transcript for B+ members? Yes! If you’re more a reader than a listener/viewer, open any podcast and the transcript button is beneath the player.

JOHN AVLON: Bubba Has the Answers for Dems in Despair

ā€œToo many of the people that used to vote for us, the very burdened middle class we’re talking about, have not trusted us in national elections to defend our national interests abroad, to put their values into our social policy at home, or to take their tax money and spend it with discipline. We’ve got to turn these perceptions around or we can’t continue as a national party.ā€

THESE WORDS SOUND LIKE THEY could be ripped from a Democratic forensic after the 2024 election. But they are three decades old, spoken by then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton at a 1991 meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council, which had been founded six years earlier to recenter the Democrats after three successive presidential losses of more than forty states.

The challenges the Democratic party faces today are not as dire. The 2024 loss was far from a landslide, with Donald Trump winning with less than 50 percent of the vote. It was just the second time since 1991 that Democrats have lost the popular vote.

READ THE REST.

JOSHUA TAIT: Edward C. Banfield and What Conservatism Used to Mean

IN 1937, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EMBARKED on what one of its chief chroniclers would later call ā€œone of mankind’s countless recent efforts to take command of its destiny.ā€ It wasn’t meant to be so. Casa Grande—a farm project in Arizona that was administered by the Farm Security Administration (FSA), a New Deal ā€œalphabet agencyā€ā€”was basically intended to ameliorate the extreme poverty of farmhands in the Dust Bowl and Southwest. In very small circles of conservative policy thinking, Casa Grande would become something of a fable, a cautionary tale about human beings and government intervention. But there might also be a cautionary tale about that cautionary tale—about the ways lessons can be overlearned, and the fact that ideas can have unintended consequences, too.

READ THE REST.


🚨OVERTIME🚨

The Cincinnati Cyclones may have lost… But area kids sure donated a lot of stuffies to kids who will get them on one of the worst days of their life.

ā€œThat group has been deleted.ā€ Elon Musk is, without any legal authority, ā€œdeletingā€ programs and ā€œwoodchippingā€ entire U.S. agencies created by and funded by Congress. When will the courts catch up?

As Adam Bonin observes: ā€œ[I]t's still unclear *what* has been "deleted"; as many of you have noted DirectFile remains active. Part of the danger of Government-By-Unelected-Nutball is that what's actually *true* is a moving target.ā€ It’s going to get dumber before it gets better. It’s Monday!

Meanwhile, at the Hall of Injustice… U.S. Attorney for D.C. ā€œEagleā€ Ed Martin is making referrals to the FBI and preparing his (unfired) prosecutors to go after those ā€œtargeting DOGE employeesā€ because individuals on the internet dared type their names and lack of qualifications to be rewiring the federal government for an ā€œagencyā€ that does not formally exist. No wonder they don’t want any attention drawn to these, uh, wunderkinds.

Holds… Democratic Senator from Hawaii Brian Schatz has pledged to hold STATE nominees in response to the attempted ā€œwoodchippingā€ of US AID. Good, as a start. Democrats should do that to every nominee until the courts catch up with this Musk mayhem.

Curtains… For hopes that Republicans would tank Gabbard. Decline is a choice, Senators Lankford and Collins. History will not likely remember your advising and consent of this nominee well.

Heads Trump wins… Tails, Mexico loses. That’s how the MAGA right is framing the stupid trade war. Life is more than a coin flip, you simpletons. If Obama caused billions in economic damage over a weekend, we’d still be talking about it.

A 50 States Protest… Takes place on Wednesday. Here’s what to know about the one in yours.

Are ā€œthe phonesā€ dooming Democrats? That’s the take of newly-minted DNC Vice Chair David Hogg. (Wakeuptopolitics)

Why the water Trump ordered released in California… won't help Los Angeles firefighting (CBS)

Delta Smelt: Why Conservatives Have Blamed California Drought On A Tiny Fish For Almost 20 Years (Kat Abu)

Lawmakers Face Record ā€˜Wide Range’… of Violent Threats. (Daily Beast)

The leopards are eating my constituents' potash… Isn’t this what you voted for, Senator Grassley?

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

—30—

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

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