The Dark Power of Vengeance in War
Plus: Republicans Get Angry When You Do the Right Thing.
Recently in The Bulwark:
CHARLIE SYKES: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
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WILL SELBER: Hamas, Israel, and the Dark Power of Vengeance.
I WAS ONE MONTH into my first deployment when I saw my first dead little girl.
It was 2006 in Baghdad, and the Shia–Sunni civil war had erupted in full force. Carnage greeted us daily.
Hers wasn’t the first dead body I’d seen. Hardly. I had already responded to multiple mass-casualty car bombs that ripped through Baghdad’s markets. My boots were often covered with blood as I stepped over and through scores of dying Iraqis crying out for help.
But her murder was different.
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DANIEL MCGRAW: Ohio Abortion Vote a Test Case for 2024.
A RECENT POLL on Ohio’s Issue 1—a ballot question in this Tuesday election that asks whether voters would approve of an amendment to the state constitution guaranteeing a right to abortion—showed the issue winning by 58 to 34 percent, with just 8 percent undecided.
But the poll, a survey of registered Ohio voters conducted last month by Baldwin Wallace University, also included a curious question that explains the “why” better than most polls do. The question was this: “Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? ‘Restricting access to abortion is a form of discrimination against women.’”
CHRIS DEATON: Republicans Get Angry When You Do the Right Thing.
IN THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS, Republican congressmen Ken Buck and Chip Roy, among a smattering of their House GOP colleagues, have done “the right thing” when tested.
And, as is now normal in the Republican party, they were attacked for it.
When I say “doing the right thing,” I’m not referring to a standard as demanding as that of Kant, the ultimate snitch, who would point an unarmed bank robber toward the vault strictly because lying is bad. We’re talking about politics here, not philosophy; real life, not the best life.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Monday! As things get darker due to DST (boo!), don’t forget to change your timepieces. I know some people love “fall back” but I am not one of them.
A year from now, the world… Reed Galen on the 365 days to save democracy.
Republicans have chosen nihilism… Peter Wehner in the NYT: “What Mr. Bloom could not have imagined is that it would be the right that would be the author of this catastrophe.”
In Indiana, a terrorist tried to terrorize a Jewish school… Except she drove her car into a building used by an anti-Semitic hate group.
Re-Lock them up? Senate Republicans propose re-jailing COVID-released prisoners.
Trad Caths at First Things pine… for a Protestant Franco.
Globalization… Isn’t going anywhere, argues Scott Lincome.
The Cleveland Guardians have a new manager… Former All Star Athletics catcher Stephen Vogt. I am now at the age where I am older than my favorite team’s manager. #Thisis40.
How Canadian rock star Geddy Lee of Rush… became an unlikely archivist of America’s pastime.
“It Was Always Going to End Badly”… The Untold Story of Tucker Carlson’s Ugly Exit From Fox News, by Brian Stelter, who will be joining us next week at our event in D.C. Tickets are going fast, I am told!
The NATO Trademark Troll… Strikes Again.
Timeless Heroes… The Harrison Ford story, coming to Disney+ on 12/1. Between this and The Shepherd, there’s a lot of new great December content.
Fargo 5… Is gonna be amazing. Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted a Fargo poster on my home GOP mausoleum wall. Jon Hamm, Juneau Temple? Sign me up.
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