The Flaw in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment
The Constitution is not self-executing.
Leading The Bulwark…
The Flaw in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment
Kim Wehle writes:
The Constitution is not self-executing. It is a piece of paper. It is only so good as it is enforced and respected. In the last few days, the American people have heard that Trump’s blood oxygen levels have dropped at least twice, that he was airlifted to the hospital from the White House, and that he has been given a range of drugs reserved for at-risk patients, including “an experimental antibody cocktail”; the drug remdesivir, which was granted authorization by the Food and Drug Administration on an emergency basis; a range of supplements; and dexamethasone, a steroid that decreases the body’s inflammatory reaction to the virus. (It is the inflammation that causes the horrific lung disease associated with COVID-19.) In rare cases, dexamethasone has been linked to “grandiose delusions, psychosis, delirium, and hallucinations.” There’s much more we don’t know.
On the podcast…
Andrew Weissmann on Where Law Ends
On today's Bulwark Podcast, Tim Miller joins host Charlie Sykes to discuss the most bizarre photo op ever, and Andrew Weissmann joins to chat about his new book: "Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation."
On the Bulwark…
The Weirdest 90 Seconds in Presidential History
Tim Miller: Don’t cry for Donnie, America. The truth is, he never left you.
Stop Telling Joe Biden What to Do
Sarah Longwell: Biden's decision to pull negative ads while Trump is in the hospital was both good form and smart politics.
The Truth About Trump’s COVID Test Timeline
Tim Miller: Why the president is hiding his previous COVID tests and lying about what he knew and when.
🚨Overtime🚨
I know what you’re thinking: where did the aggregator links go? Well, you guys nearly broke the site with the amount of traffic you’ve given to the articles above.
In Internet parlance, the site is what we call “cached.” In that updating the site is delayed to handle lots and lots of traffic.
Some of the links I would have normally put on the homepage will appear here in Overtime.
Remember, if you haven’t joined as a member of Bulwark+ you can do so right now!
On the Jukebox: Eddie Van Halen, RIP, playing Panama. Brings me back to the days of being a college dive bar bouncer at Humphrey’s and hearing hair tribute band Ivory Tiger do their best rendition.
Stools and political memorabilia… I did something I don’t often do, and went on television in Florida to talk about politics. Here’s my home set up:
There was a time when I would go on TV because our corporate suits at the TWS parent company expected it, but to be honest, it is largely a waste of time. Or at least it used to be. (Especially if it’s One America News.)
You’d spend hours commuting to and from a studio, doing make up, only for a few minutes to make your point and then get deluges of hate mail or hate tweets. And they don’t pay you. Almost nobody subscribes, either. Only the “contributors” get paid. I might be distinct from a lot of my late-thirties GOP cohorts in my view of Trump, but there is no shortage of portly white guys with Fisher Price hair to mansplain the news.
I stopped going on TV regularly when my twins were born, three years ago. But if a friend asks, I’ll do it. So, when Christopher Heath from WFTV asked, I did.
Do you see that stool in the left corner of the screen? Seems weird and out of place, right? I shared the story with friends and family on Facebook and somebody asked about it since it doesn’t really belong in the room design. (And hate on my hasty office set up all you want but at least I got a 6/10 from the “Room Raters.”)
Here’s the story:
This is the stool (lower right). President Bush sat on it. In the photo, it’s holding a copy of the U.S. tax code.
Labor Day, 2004, President Bush addressed a large crowd in Poplar Bluff, Missouri (Go Mules!) because a local resident named Hardy Billington got like 16,000 signatures inviting him there. President Bush had one of his trademark Bushisms at this speech.
I was 20 years old and taking a semester off of college to work for the Bush campaign. I was working the perimeter with local law enforcement and my IFB earpiece crackled to life, it was one of my bosses, Kirk Pepper. “Swifty, go get me a bar stool, now.”
I thought this was a joke as I was a young kid and maybe they were razzing me because I wasn’t yet 21. The President hadn’t even landed. It was not a joke. I had 20 minutes to get to Walmart and get a bar stool before the Secret Service shut down security, after which I could not get in.
Obviously, I made it back in time, and it helped to have a local police escort, and this $20 bar stool has been with me ever since.
Speaking of my home office… We’re going to do another post-debate livestream for Bulwark+ subscribers. This go around, you’ll get Sarah Longwell, JVL, and Amanda Carpenter. I’ll be around to share your questions with the panel.
Sign up now and we’ll let you know how to join our Zoom call.
Are the Cleveland Indians getting a new name? People are already parking trademarks in case that happens, the Cleveland Scene reports.
Did they really need to do this?
What is the Patriot Act? This U.S. Senate candidate has no idea.
Trump’s Illness and Ours… Do read this LRB item from Eli Zaretsky, sent in by reader Tom Hughes.
Donald Trump is not pro-life. David French in Time:
Yet there are Americans who will go to the polls convinced that Trump is the only pro-life candidate – exclusively based on his professed opposition to abortion. But how committed is Donald Trump to restricting abortion, really? If you look at his record across his time in office it is revealing.
“He literally saved Christianity…” Noted Christian, Eric Trump, on his dad. Yes, this is real.
The McCloskeys are indicted by a grand jury, their lawyer says. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. We were early on this, since I used to be a neighbor of the McCloskeys and know a little bit about guns and firearm laws. They deserved to be charged and that the RNC is turning them into heroes is a shame. Then again, the RNC is going down the same road as the NRA and while sowing might feel great, reaping really, really, fucking sucks.
On a related note… Here’s Pete Wehner on why the Democrats, not the Republicans, are posturing as the party of law and order.
Then again, how could Republicans plausibly claim to care about law and order given the reality of 2020 and their actions?
That’s it for me. It’s my birthday, so I’m off for some French Silk Pie and dinner with my wife and twin kiddos. Questions, comments, or concerns? You know how to reach me: swift@thebulwark.com.
—30—