The FBI Did It? LOL

Tim Miller on MAGA's newest insurrection conspiracy theory.

Leading The Bulwark…

The FBI Did It? LOL

TIM MILLER: Understanding MAGA's newest insurrection conspiracy theory.

🎧 On the Pods… 🎧

Joanne Lipman on the Great Reopening

On today's Bulwark Podcast, Joanne Lipman joins Charlie Sykes to discuss her recent item: "The Pandemic Revealed How Much We Hate Our Jobs. Now We Have a Chance to Reinvent Work."

For Bulwark+ Members… 🔐

MORNING SHOTS: Two More Reasons We Need a 1/6 Commission Now, More Than Ever 🔓

CHARLIE SYKES: How bad was Helsinki? Worse than you remember.

THE TRIAD: How Conservatives Pick Democracy's Pocket 🔓

JVL: The insanity is strategy.

From The Bulwark Aggregator…

• I Taught Online School This Year. It Was a Disgrace. – Lelac Almagor, The New York Times

• First He Was a Capitol Rioter. Now He Wants to Be Governor of Nevada. – Roger Sollenberger, The Daily Beast

• Joe Biden’s Only Path to Beating Putin – Anna Nemtsova, The Atlantic

• Why The Two-Party System Is Wrecking American Democracy – Lee Drutman, FiveThightyEight

• ‘Anyone’s race’: The debate that could decide New York’s next mayor – Erin Durkin, Danielle Muoio and Madina Touré, Politico

• California’s Last Fire Season Was a Historic Disaster. This One Might Be Worse. – David Wallace-Wells, Intelligencer

• Capitol Police teams were lacking in weapons certifications – Chris Marquette and Michael Macagnone, Roll Call

In Today’s Bulwark...

The War on Critical Race Theory: A Quagmire

JIM SWIFT: Partisans have been itching for a new culture war. CRT might be just what they’re looking for.

Biden’s Military Proposal Isn’t Up to the China Challenge

SHAY KHATIRI: Seven things to know about the Biden administration’s Department of Defense budget request.

🚨OVERTIME 🚨

Is Infrastructure Week finally here?

Manu Raju @mkraju

Twenty senators from both parties announce support for $1.2T, eight-year bipartisan infrastructure outline

We’ll see, but statements like these are not common in the Senate. A lot can go wrong, but it seems clear that there is at least some agreement on a total.

I lack the faith… That Arkansas is going to flip blue, but this is a compelling ad.

Christopher Jones @JonesForAR

My family has been in this state for 7 generations. If there's one thing that's clear: Arkansas deserves better than division and discord. I'm running for governor to build opportunity for all of us. #weARone #FaithInAR

Questioning Industrial Policy… Scott Lincicome and Huan Zhu at CATO have this worthwhile (and very long!) working paper explaining why government manufacturing plans are “inefficient and unnecessary.”

Here’s a taste of the conclusion:

Surely, not every U.S. industrial policy effort has ended in disaster, but facts here and abroad argue strongly against new government efforts to boost “critical” industries and workers and thereby fix alleged market failures. Such efforts warrant intense skepticism – skepticism that today is unfortunately in short supply.

Yikes… If you didn’t think Tucker Carlson was crazy enough about the insurrection, can I present the latest from Paul Gosar?

Newsweek @Newsweek

"Do you know who executed Ashli Babbit?" Republican Rep. Paul Gosar grills FBI Director Christopher Wray about the identity of the Capitol police officer who killed Ashli Babbit outside the House chamber on Jan. 6 during the riot. newsweek.com/paul-gosar-say…

Getting anti-trust decidedly wrong… A must read from friend and former neighbor Patrick Hedger:

Patrick Hedger @PatHedger18

Washington likes to talk a big game about the "digital divide" but the bipartisan antitrust package in the House will undoubtedly widen it. Making devices useless out of the box isn't going to help with broadband adoption. My latest blog:

medium.comKen Buck and House Dems Set to Widen Digital Divide Through AntitrustLast week, I wrote about how the bipartisan package of antitrust reforms released by members of the House Judiciary Committee are decidedly anti-consumer. The leading Republican on these bills Rep…

That’s it for me for today. We’ll see you back here tomorrow. Tech support questions? Email support@substack.com. Questions for me? Drop me a line: swift@thebulwark.com

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