Happy Saturday! Overtime is for everyone. If you’re a Bulwark+ member: 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.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
It’s time… For the annual Overtime World Series Prediction Contest. While I’m sad the Guardians and Reds didn’t advance, it’s gonna be a great fall playoff. Get your picks in before the end of Game 1!
Russ Vought Is Trump’s Shutdown Hero… His Neighbors Think His Work Is “Abhorrent.” (Isabela Dias, Mother Jones).
Trump’s shutdown strategy is far more radical than you know…. White House budget director Russell Vought is waging war on the government, secularism, and modernity itself. Don Moynihan joins Matthew Sheffield at Flux to discuss.
The cult of Buc-ee’s… Join Phil Edwards for a deep dive into the gas station sensation thrilling the nation.
Natalie, Attired… Matt Labash with a note on the government shutdown, dwindling tribes, and on life and death and staying human.
The simple reason Americans have the right to call their president a ‘fascist’… Top Trump officials say heated political rhetoric is illegal “incitement.” They’re wrong — it’s free speech. (Anthony L. Fisher, MSNBC)
Is Trump Taking Chinese Bribes? And acting as the frontman for a massive Chinese intelligence operation? Kristofer Harrison dives in at deKleptocracy.
‘A risky situation’ — The critical state of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, explained by Yuliia Taradiuk of The Kyiv Independent.
The Eloquent Vindicator in the Electric Room… No one remembers the assassination of Congressman James M. Hinds. What do we risk by making it just another part of American history? (Drew Johnson, Longreads)
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
The Bulwark's own Eliot A. Cohen summed Hegseth's speech up elegantly in his Atlantic piece:
"There is a certain kind of Army officer who, after the excitement of company command, finds his career stalled, and who perhaps leaves the service as a major in the National Guard filled with bitterness and resentment. He may then dream of one day being in a position to make all the superior officers who failed to appreciate his leadership qualities, his insight, his sheer fitness stand to attention and hear him lay down the law about what it is to be an officer, and threaten to fire those who do not meet his standards. In this respect, and this respect only, on that stage Pete Hegseth was living the dream.
In all other respects, however, he was ridiculous."
This is all because Trump’s big fat Army parade on his birthday was about as impressive as a wet paper bag.